Howl’s Moving Castle: Book vs. Movie

Spoiler Alert!! I will be talking some endings and other spoiler-ish elements so just beware.

It’s a rare time for me to notice that I actually enjoyed an adaption over the original novel. Considering how subpar most adaptations are. I don’t talk about this much but my favourite Studio Ghibli film and romance story in general is Howls Moving Castle by Hayao Miyazaki.

Sophie resonates with me as a character and I love the idea of the basic eldest daughter running away with a wizard who’s friends with a fire demon. So in order to prolong and thicken my excitement for this story, I decided to read the book as well.

The book was good, don’t get me wrong. It’s a beautifully written, casual fantasy that’s very similar to Miyazakis’ form of ‘soft’ worldbuilding. Or ‘frolicking fantasy’ as some reviewers put it. You don’t know everything going on in the created world but in the end, it doesn’t matter. Like how we never really know what happens in the Hufflepuff dormitories. At least not until the Rowling Unnecessary Head canon Era.

Even though I enjoyed the book, it left me feeling quite deprived compared to what I had in the movie.

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