Social Commentary of Howl's Moving Castle 

Howl's Moving Castle was the only animated movie I ever watched with my grandfather that he sat through and actually paid attention to and enjoyed. I made a great memory that evening.

I do think the essence of Sophie's curse in the film is self-pity. She is old when she is thinking only of herself, becomes younger at times when she is concerned for others...

I love how this podcast breaks away from the ugliness of politics from time to time and just discusses something they enjoy. Thats the main reason I became a paying member on the lotus eaters website.

Speaking about Japan losing its heritage there was a gentleman greatly concerned about it called Yukio Mishima. His tetralogy is incredibly interesting to read and is on that subject.

As a German (and second to that a european) Kikis Delivery Service is a must watch for all of us. It perfectly encompasses what Europe is: A place of beauty. The little bakery she works at reminds me our old local bakery (seemed very german to me). Anyway, this is how a japanese artist thinks of Europe (and I dont mean the friggin EU, but Europe as in every single nation on its own). We should start living up to that expectations again.

A great example of how to have a message or underlying lesson to give in a piece of media without turning it into blatant soapbox with zero quality. The people who screech "everything is political" have no idea what they're doing, and simply use good works as their shield to justify their own nonsense.

Howl's was amazing, probably my favorite animated movie of all time, with spirited away a close second.

My favorite is and probably always will be Princess Mononoke. I'm drawn to the tragic hero story, as well as the environmental message. It also has a theme of duality that a lot of people miss, and as a result, have heard some misinterpretations of some scenes. *Spoilers here on in. It's not just man vs nature, but man vs man. After the initial demon, the first conflict Ashitaka encounters is a village being massacred by the army of a warlord (who comes into play later). They're fighting for land and power. His next encounter is with the mercenary, another antagonist who's motivation is money, and also working for a third party, the Emperor, who wanted the head of the forest spirit. THEN he gets to Iron Town. These are the only "good" humans (other than Ashitakas tribe) because the only reason they're cutting the forest down is for resources to defend from the constant attacks by that same warlord samurai from the start. The contrast between the two groups is stark. The warlord massacres innocent villagers etc, while the leader of Iron Town essentially rescues and employs the people otherwise neglected or abused by society, and there is a very clearly sympathetic society (abused women, lepers, etc.) They all care about each other deeply, and are united by sentiment rather than greed. One scene after Iron Town which is misinterpreted is when Ashitaka is nursed back to health, and the first thing he says to San is "You're beautiful..." and she's so shocked she leaps back and then threatens to kill him she's so confused by it, seeing herself as an animal. People have mistaken this as a forced love story, but there's a lot more to it than that. Duality comes back into play, as he says "You're beautiful" he doesn't just mean her, but what she represents thematically, which is a link between humans and nature. It also reminds her of her dual identity, and begins questioning her place. In a way, they're kindred spirits but from two completely different worlds. Even the final conflict doesn't end up being man vs nature, because as the forest events with the Forest Spirit are going on, a combination of man vs nature vs nature (3 way battle), Iron Town is under siege by the samurai army. In the end, though there is some love between our main characters, it's not pointless and they don't stay together, but close. Ashitaka stays to help Iron Town be more environmentally friendly, and San stays in the forest as what I interpret as a sort of ambassador for humans. Together they keep a balance between man and nature. I watched a behind the scenes mini doc about it, and if I remember right, Miyazaki personally reviewed every single frame and redrew anything he thought needed improvement. I'm not sure he did this with any other film. I think he did many more fps than any traditional animated production, because it's usually lower than the standard 24fps because it's so much extra work for hand drawn animation. This may be all Ghibli films, I'm not certain.

Overshadowed because it came out after Spirited Away.

Most people didn't notice it was a critique on the Bush administration. It was probably a little TOO subtle but I commend Miyazaki for prioritizing a good story over espousing his politics.

Love this film. My wife and I discovered Howls Moving Castle completely by accident and couldn't be happier. It's one of the rare films I have physical copy of.

Spirited Away is my favorite. It’s so steeped in japanese folklore and fantastical à la Alice in Wonderland, with a great heroine that has to learn to grow up and wins due to hard work and smarts. And the music is superb. Love it.

I was so lucky to have seen this in the cinema with family years ago when the English dub first released. Such an amazing watch from start to finish.

Y’all go out and read THE BOOK. It’s a trilogy (not sequels though). Miyazaki did a beautiful job of it, but all movies miss important things due to time constraints. The book is phenomenal.

I didn't know how much I needed you to analyse Ghibli movies! This is phenomenal. Please do more!!

My favorite Miyazaki film is actually "Porco Rosso", but for the life of me I currently don't have the words to explain why.

Love these indepth looks at Miyazaki's works!

Miyazaki’s works have such an amazing sense of humanity to them

I'm glad that Carl has finally accepted anime beyond air bender.

My second favourite Miyazaki movie. First is Nausicca of the Valley of the Wind.

It's that artwork that shows dedication and hard work. It's hard to find people today that are willing to go to those lengths. Even in retirement, Miyazaki is still working. Also, I believe he just loves flying machines, especially in Kiki's delivery service.

Fantastic movie, really hits all the nostalgic notes no matter your background

Howl’s*

It's a fantastic movie. Beautiful, terrifying, sweet, heart-wrenching, funny, and generally wholesome. The characters show actual growth over the course of the movie. They help each other to grow. There is forgiveness and mercy. There is a man who hates the war, and hates the politics, but fights to protect the things he loves at the cost of his soul (which in itself is a message to take away). Overall, it shows the transformative power of love- whether it's romantic love, familial love, patriotic love, or love for your fellow man. As far as fairy tales are concerned, I'm impressed by the way so many familiar fairy tale elements were used and combined in such a way as to make an original story. Such a well-crafted piece of work. It might be one of my favorite movies. I love it so much that I don't watch it very often, so that I don't get too used to it or bored of it. I want it to always be special.

There's just such an energizing, infectious joy in the way John talks about something he loves or is positively invested in, I've really missed seeing him on this show.

To your comments about Miyazaki's love for western architecture. Miyazaki absolutely fell in love with Mediterranean cities and their warm aesthetic. I believe he named his studio "Ghibli" after the warm northern winds from Africa that touch the southern coasts of Italy. You get to see his love for Italy in Porco Rosso as well.

This is a nice change of pace, I got tired of politics and just decided to live my life, I mean news is important but outside of politics people get along more than it would seem when you're hyper focus on it

Do like Howl's moving castle, it was a long while ago now but I did also enjoy Princess Mononoke and Spirited away they came before this release but just as emotionally touching if not more so in certain ways. Ghibli has a way with conveying the heartbreak of tragedy in story telling that other studios have never replicated.

Princess Mononoke or Spirited away are the most beautiful visually with porco Rosso a close second

My personal favorite is Kiki's Delivery Service. It is simpler, yes, but I think it does extremely well at settling in with the viewer. You feel like you're actually in the seaside town, following Kiki through her days. And it leaves you with an thoroughly pleasant feeling at the end.

I almost bought this movie last night. I’ll get it tonight.

13:01 It could be showing that when you're elderly, and you love someone, you don't view their exterior, rather, their younger selves/their internal beauty.

Just watched this with my students yesterday. I thought only the girls would like it but the boys enjoyed it even more and watched so intently.

John! Good to see you again.

Merry Go Round of Life is one of the greatest pieces of orchestral music ever written. Hisashi Joe is a legendary composer.

loved this commentary, Howl's Moving Castle was and still is, one of my favorite movies.

I love ALL of Miyazaki s films.

Howl’s Moving Castle is my favorite after My Neighbor Totoro. We’ve gotten rid of Disney plus, so these films are my kids’ favorites. Makes me happy to think of the nostalgia it will bring them some day.

Thanks for talking about one of my favourite films, Miyazaki’s work with Studio Ghibli is undoubtedly some of the best storytelling in film history.

Love love love Howl's Moving Castle!

It's my most favorite too!! I love it so much I've probably watched more than 100 times!

I knew there was a reason i loved this channel and these lads ! Beautiful movie .. my first favourite is Arrietty but Howls is right next to it easily :D

I recently just finished reading the book actually, which I think I prefer.

im amazed how many things here are attibuted to miyazaki when its literaly in the novel they even mentioned in the beginning

I love how passionately he talks about Howl's Moving Castle, my man really loves this work and it shows

This one was always my favorite

Loved the book when I was a kid, loved the movie When I was a teenager.. love them both as an adult.

It's so enjoyable to hear at least one other individual gush over these movies that I also enjoy so much. It really brings a smile to my face. Thanks for doing these analyses! They're great and bring some really interesting new perspective.

it`s impossible for me to pick a favorite Miyazaki film. I am just too spoiled for choice but Howl would be pretty close to the top.

Ayooo, this is basically the female hero's journey.

I have always loved Howl’s Moving Castle.

I’ve just watch it last week ! Its so good!

As someone who came across the movie quite by accident and then went and sought the book out, I will say that the movie did a good job of capturing the feelings of the book while making the themes more sweeping. The book however has a clearer individual message about Sophie's journey to self-love. I find this very interesting because both artists behind the work shared trauma from growing up during WW2 that they used to inspire their work. Miyazaki uses his works to remind people of the horror so that it does not happen again. Dianna used her works to give people a place to escape from the horrors of the real world (book Howl being an escapee from our world is a good example of this). However, above all else, they both believed in the magic of the mundane and this is how two such vastly different approaches could achieve the same feelings. Personally, I enjoy both but I will admit that the book holds an appeal all its own if only because it managed to pull off the equivalent of the optical illusion books where you can only see a picture if you squint just right.

this is such a good movie

Waltz is absolutely beautiful in it

This is my favorite animated film. Its the one I show people who say they don't like cartoons, and that they are for kids. I've yet to meet someone who didn't love this movie. I recently saw Up on Poppy Hill for the first time. It's really good. Studio Ghibli puts every other animation house to shame. Its not even close. Edit: oh yeah you know the Yule log videos that pop up during the holidays? There is a Howls moving castle one that I used for months to help me sleep

To be frank: the war scenes kind of confused me, and seemed a lot like a tangent struggling to add background gravity (Howl risks his life and very soul to fight them even though he's vain and selfish; that never made sense to me). It certainly is made to work in HMC, but knowing that Miyazaki put it in as a protest statement really lends more sense as to why it's there.

This series is great. It's amazing to hear from real fans discussing this brilliant film. Keep 'em coming. :)

My favorite of Miyazaki work too.

I've never watched this movie...had no idea it was any good. Well I thank you gentlemen for enlightening me. I shall indulge when I get the chance to watch it

The themes of the book was quite different than the anime; however, I do recommend both (best to treat them as separate stories on different timelines; Sophie had two sisters in the novel-- there are two sequel novels as well, I enjoyed House of Many Ways as well). Concerning Sophie's reverting in her sleep, I have noticed that while she was not being self-conscious and was relaxed, she had partially reverted in age several times. This would imply something reflected in the books, she holds on to her curse herself (in the book while having what seemed to be a heartattack, Howl and Calcifer were rather "intense" for a moment and then pain stopped; it is implied the curse was broken then, but her own magic was maintaining the appearance given how she viewed herself).

More of this on Lotuseaters please. Less of the lazily recycling Twitter comments into whole segments.

A beautiful movie, but I was too young to understand any of those themes last time I saw it. Time for a rewatch I guess.

I really wouldn't mind these once in a blue moon. Changes it up a bit from the stuff usually on the channel.

Beautiful

The war was in the books and it was sparked because the prince of the kingdom went missing and another kingdom was blamed. both sides used wizards magic to fight which is Ironic because it was magic that caused the prince to go missing.

One of the early scenes where Sophie turns young again was so beautiful that I literally started tearing up.

My only complaint about Howls moving Castle is Sophie was old looking a little to often for my taste, but its still a pretty fun, and visually stunning studio Ghibli film, and thanx for doing this light hearted video, politics gets so bleh after a while.

Yes , yes yes Great movie , thanks for reminding me about it, need to vatch it again.

I love Miyazaki's works. His films are full of wonderment and powerful stories. While the film is not his best, the manga for Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind is of my all-time favorite stories. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in Miyazaki, manga, or just plain good story writing.

The war is in the original work, but it is portrayed differently, more distant.

You should do a comparison of Nausicaa of the valley of the wind and princess mononoke. Both have an environmentalist message, but also take it in different ways. I've seen a lot of videos analyzing both, but not comparing them.

Nice to see John 😊

Beautiful movie, stunning animation, enchanting theme, great characters. One of my top ten favourite animated films of all time, and sitting in my top 20 films of all time too.

Great to have John back even if it's only for 1 episode.

Im assuming Carl is on vacation with all the weebry?

12:50 Does the husband of a long married couple see his life long wife as she is or as she was? Seems to me when the wife maintains her beauty in character it seems the husband always sees her as beautiful.

It's a wonderful movie. Watched it after drinking a disgusting psychedelic cactus brew prob about 15 years ago. Such a lovely piece of art. Makes modern Hollywood seem so lowest common denominator.

2:27 this happens within every country with communities, my own dad tells me of old Irish Traveller sayings, words and whatnot but then complains, “none of the young ones do it anymore”. Meanwhile I’m 22 and he is only just mentioning this to me now. It’s their own fault for these old traditions for dying out. You instil these traditions into people as children because of you try to do it with them as adults it’s far too late.

I am loving this retrospectives/reviews

The title is clearly wrong. Miyazaki's best work is Spirited Away. Objectively.

I would recommend the book

I prefer Porco Rosso myself but I have a love of seaplains and the anti-fashist tones it produces is both appropriate for the time and location as well as entertaining

This is fascinating. I have a friend who is really into Ghibli, and one time she texted me and told me she wanted to watch her favorite movies next time I visited. I remembered Howl's Moving Castle being one of the names she mentioned, and I stumbled upon the book in the library one day and decided to read it before so I'd get the original story first (yes, I'm that annoying friend who insists the book is better and you should read it first in almost all cases.) I fell in love with the book, and devoured everything else I could find by the author. When I watched the anime with my friend, I loved it too (now that I've seen more Ghibli movies, it's still my favorite) - but I was confused for most of it. I've never really watched anime, and I'm not familiar with a lot of the culture or storytelling devices, so maybe that's why? The parts that WERE in the book were gorgeously done, and I really liked the movie all things considered, but I felt like everything new that they added I couldn't understand. This was really neat to listen to, since it explained a lot of the war inspiration and the more subtle themes I totally missed. Now that I have a much better idea of the story, it's interesting thinking back and realizing that the movie and book are almost telling completely different stories and teaching completely different morals. The movie isn't lessening the impact of themes in the book due to time constraints (like I originally thought) but is actually creating its own themes entirely. They're both superficially similar but thematically different. I'll have to rewatch it again now that I appreciate the story a little more.

More like this please! Do "The wind rises" too, its an underappreciated masterpiece.

I just watched "HMC" for the first time a few months ago. I have to say, it makes me feel like a Philistine that I missed a lot of the commentary in it. (Criminy, I think my first takeaway was related to the scene where she dreams he's become a monster, specifically "Oh, God, Bale thought that doofy voice he'd use for Batman was cool even back then.")

I liked the movie, but it didn't feel as strong as the others to me, I watched it a couple of times but it never grew on me like a lot of the others did. The castle is pretty dope tho

I love how they randomly made a film set in Wales.

I love the romace in the film and the book. Sophie wins over and reforms Howl not by being beautiful but by being sincere and hardworking, and learning to be assertive. Her reward is thatshe gets to be beautiful, and to be truly loved by Howl. Howl starts off as assertive and competent, but irresponsible, and has to learn to be responsible from Sophie. The plot is a bit weak, but I love all the weird vignettes in this film. Howl frying bacon and eggs on Calcifer. Sophie dragging an impossibly heavy dog up loads of stairs, only to turn around and cheer on the Witch who is struggling to follow. Sophie and Turniphead putting out the washing to dry and sitting by the lake. Howl gathering everyone together to add the extra rooms onto the castle. I've seen it so many times these moments are etched into my memory.

Thanks

I read the book and I have to say...the film was actually better. I listen to the soundtrack pretty regularly, it's one of my favourites.

Gotta watch this later. I love howl’s moving castle.

You guys are nailing it.

I literally remember nothing past the first 5 minutes of the movie. Man was I bored of it, and completely unimpressed by the animation. But I'll give it a try. You guys made a good argument.

love these analyses of studio ghibli movies. celebration of art seems to be seen as a soft 'lefty' thing but I have no idea why, and it's good to see some unironic positivity on this channel. the ghibli movies are the perfect "anime for conservatives" - no degeneracy, great stories, every frame pristinely rendered. the product of a proud yet self-critical japan.

I lobe Howl's Moving Castle. If you know someone who doesn't particularly care for anime this is the gateway movie. Most beautiful of Miyazaki's works? I disagree. If my opinion counts its Pom Poko. I think it's because my father and I were hunters who used to really bond over hunting and fishing. Then they put a Cabellas and a Wal-Mart where we used to hunt grouse and our favorite fishing spot got sludged up. I mean it's great that the town got a good shot in the arm and their main street got saved, but the grouse are gone forever and we lost something beautiful.

Good video chaps. I watched this years ago, I enjoyed it but didn't have a bloody clue what was happening. 👍🏻

Such a great movie.

That's how I feel about watching every Studio Ghibli movies. There is so much great anime that has a lot of moving storyline. Catching up with One Piece, and always never disappointed when it comes to how big the world is built from Eiichiro Oda. Note that, this series started back in the 90s and still going strong.

My top 3 Ghibli movies: 1. Princess Mononoke 2. Spirited Away 3. Howl's Moving Castle