Cannot Stress Enough how important it is to read Howl’s Moving Castle written by Diana Wynn Jones immediately after watching Howl’s Moving Castle directed by Hayao Miyazaki. When he made the movie he was of course upset with war and thus included it in the film, but you gotta understand. You really Gotta Understand. Every time in the movie where Howl turns the door dial black to travel to an absolutely hellish warscape? You know where that same dial takes him in the book? The Real World Country Of Wales
Howl Jenkins Pendragon is literally just a Welsh Rugby Player who up and left to another world because he happened to be a good wizard there. All those stories about nerds being transported to the fantasy worlds of their hyperfixations? That’s the REAL Howl’s Moving Castle, except instead of reading the story from the nerd’s perspective, you get it from the chick who just Doesn’t put up with him and ultimately challenges him to be a far better person than any of those other stories could dream of creating. 90% of writers wouldn’t have the guts to do this and in this essay I will-
