Instead of following Wynne Jones’ small, personal story, Miyazaki expands on some allusions to war found in the novel, making them central to his narrative. From here, however, novel and adaption diverge. Once inside the castle she meets an assortment of odd characters including the fire demon Calcifer and his owner, the narcissistic mage, Howl. Here she encounters the eponymous moving castle, a steampunk construction of irregularly assembled sheet metal and bolts perched on spindly but able legs. Thrown into despair by her elderly state, she flees from her home and explores the nearby wilderness in search of a cure.
It follows Sophie, a young girl who is the victim of a curse that renders her old and decrepit. Howl’s Moving Castle, adapted from the 1986 novel by Diana Wynne Jones, is ostensibly a fantasy story. This protest was to be expressed artistically in his next project, a film that focused on the victims of war. Notably, Miyazaki boycotted the event, citing his objection to the Iraq War. Having written and directed a number of animated films in the 1980s and 1990s, Miyazaki’s work eluded wider Western recognition until Spirited Away won Best Animated Feature at the 2003 Academy Awards.
Studio Ghibli’s auteur-in-chief, Hayao Miyazaki, had dealt with the subject of war before, in features such as 1984’s Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, yet he was a name that was only just coming to prominence for a western audience. It is perhaps emblematic of this changing and unpredictable climate, then, that one of its most effective anti-war polemics came from the seemingly unconnected world of Japanese anime. Bush’s rhetoric of freedom and liberation, to the most infamous signifier of this period, the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the response to 9/11 forged a climate of militarism and authoritarianism that had little concern for its victims. From the Patriots Act, which allowed the government to spy on citizens, to President George W. On September 10th 2001 no one could have predicted the catastrophic events of the following day or how they would shape the political climate of the 21st Century. In the third edition of Studio Ghibli Sundays, Nick Griffin looks at how Studio Ghibli tackled the War on Terror with Howl’s Moving Castle.