Howl’s Moving Castle is one of the most famous Japanese animated films of all time. Winning multiple awards such as the Tokyo Best Script Award and the Nebula Award, it’s no exaggeration to say it’s one of the most popular Japanese animation films in history. It is a film that captured many people’s hearts at first sight, making children, teens, adults, and elders fall in love with the beauty of Studio Ghibli films.

Since Howl’s Moving Castle has recently been released in theaters again, I’m going to do a review to help you decide whether or not to watch it.

Summary

Howl’s Moving Castle, which was released in 2004, follows the story of Sophie, a young woman living a quiet life working in a hat shop. Her normal life is turned upside down when a witch curses her, transforming her into an elderly woman. In search of a way to break the curse, she goes on a journey to find Howl, a famous wizard, who lives in a moving castle. While on her way she makes a bunch of friends and eventually encounters Howl who is fighting in a war.

Why I love this movie:

The art style – 5/5

Anyone who watches films directed by Hayao Miyazaki knows that he has a special art style, and Howl’s Moving Castle demonstrates his style better than his other films. Unlike most anime or movies, he spends a lot of effort on details, which enhances the watching experience by a whole notch.

Also unlike other anime, Howl’s Moving Castle doesn’t have any fan service, where the animators enlarge specific body parts to appease a certain demographic of anime watchers. This makes the entire experience better.

The music–5/5

I can without a doubt say that Howl’s Moving Castle has the best soundtrack of all Studio Ghibli movies. I remember hearing the theme song, Merry Go Round of Life when I was in elementary school before I even watched the movie, and it mesmerized me. Every single part of that song is magical and magnetic, and every time I hear this song I feel like my ears are blessed and my heart is floating in the sky among the clouds.

I have been listening to Merry Go Round of Life on a loop since I knew the existence of this song. The melody and tunes are so calming and serene that it greatly helped me to concentrate while studying and reading.

The characters – 4/5

Another thing I really like about Studio Ghibli movies is that they put effort and great writing into the characters. Even some characters who only appear on screen for a minute have symbolic meaning which makes the movie more interesting and in-depth.

Although I appreciate the writers putting effort into the characters, they also have some completely unnecessary characters that have no meaning or significance in them. For example, there was a dog that appeared mid-way through the movie and had tons of screen time and to this day I have no idea what the dog was doing.

Experience – 5/5

When you first watch this movie, I guarantee you, you will not understand everything. You will 100 percent miss many details, and even ask yourself, “What the hell did I just watch?”

But fear not, this is the type of movie that requires you to rewatch it. Every time you rewatch, you discover more details and more easter eggs that make your heart beat faster when you find you have grasped this movie even further.

If you have only watched it once, you might not have fallen in love yet. But if you have watched it twice or more, you will give it a perfect score for sure.

The best way to describe how I felt after watching this movie is that I had been in a fever dream. So many things happened in a small amount of time. Don’t judge the movie after your first watch. Watch it again

Recommendation

Howl’s Moving Castle is a film for people who are into calm, serene art styles, interesting storylines, magical realism, and in-depth characters. If you like Hollywood movies with hot muscular men with big explosions and machine guns then you will despise this movie.

Overall Howl’s Moving Castle is a delightful watch, and I give the final score of 4.7/5. I wish I could watch the film again for the first time.