Howl's Moving Castle Anime Movie Review

Howl's Moving Castle
Hauru no Ugoku Shiro
Buena Vista Home Entertainment (Disney)
Movie - 119 mins. - 2 discs
$29.99 (2006)
ISBN 786936296662
Japanese/English Audio - English Subtitles
Director - Hayao Miyazaki
Studio - Studio Ghibli

Synopsis: Sophie works in her mother's hat shop and is a responsible, level-headed young lady.  A war is brewing between her country and a neighboring state with soldiers being stationed in her town where several protests have been happening.  She is stopped on her way home by a pair of rude soldiers and deftly rescued from the situation by a dashing young man who appears to have magical powers.  He is being pursued by strange, globular phantoms, but manages to elude them and deliver Sophie to safety. 

Sophie encounters Howl and they fly above the rooftops
to evade his pursuers

He is the renowned sorcerer Howl who is wanted by the wicked Witch of the Waste.  Howl's home is an enchanted castle which walks about on two legs and is magically obscured from detection.  Back at the hat shop Sophie is visited by a rude old woman who inquires on Howl's whereabouts.  Sophie gives the old woman's attitude right back to her, but is shocked to discover the old woman is the fearsome Witch of the Waste.  The Witch curses Sophie by transforming her into an old woman! 

Sophie gets a rude visit from the nasty Witch of the Waste

Now Sophie is trapped in an aging body, unrecognizable to any of her loved ones, and unable to tell anyone of her condition.  She sets off on a journey to find a cure and manages to gain entrance to Howl's moving castle. The inhabitants of the castle are Markl, a young boy who is apprentice to Howl, and Calcifer, a fire demon under a spell to obey Howl and the power source for the moving castle.

Sophie discovers the result of the horrible curse the
Witch puts on her!

The door to Howl's castle is magic and opens upon several different physical locations - typically wizards' storefronts where Howl poses as other wizards plying their trade.  Howl is out while Sophie gains entrance to the castle and when he returns she quickly explains she is the new cleaning lady.  Howl accepts her and she starts cleaning the castle - which is a daunting mess as no one has cleaned it ever before!

Sophie sets out to find a cure for her curse and happens upon Howl's
 Moving Castle (doesn't look like any castle I've ever seen)

Each of Howl's wizard alter-egos is summoned by the king to participate in the war, but Howl is not interested.  He tries to avoid participating yet cannot when he learns other wizards are transforming into giant creatures and destroying towns.  Now he is being hunted by the Madam Suliman, the king's royal mage, along with the Witch of the Waste.  In order to protect himself and those he cares about he repeatedly transforms into a powerful, bird-like creature, but each transformation brings him closer to losing his humanity.  Can Sophie help protect Howl, break her own curse, and keep her wondrously strange new family together? 

We meet Calcifer, a fire demon who is cursed to
serve Howl as the power source for the castle

Pros: Beautiful animation - hand drawn figures in front of lush/complex backgrounds with unobtrusive computer-aided elements, typical Miyazaki themes - anti-war and discovering inner strength through external struggles, great voice-acting for young/old Sophie, ending neatly wraps up the plot threads, very nice musical score, nominated for Best Animated Feature at 2006 Academy Awards 

Sophie sets to work cleaning the filthy castle

Cons: Film plot and character portrayals are drastically different than the original novel by Diana Wynne Jones, dub actor choices were questionable for Calcifer (Billy Crystal - too silly) and Howl (Christian Bale - too gruff), plot jumps around quite a bit and the reason for the war wasn't readily apparent (maybe I'm just dense, but after like ten viewings I still don't know why the war is happening)

Howl transforms into a giant bird-like creature to try and
oppose the other wizards involved in the war

Mike Tells It Straight: Hayao Miyazaki followed up his critically-acclaimed film Spirited Away with this film based on the novel Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones.  His films are usually original creations written and directed by him (with the exception of Kiki's Delivery Service which was based on a short novel), but he was a great fan of the book and wanted to create a film from it. 

Sophie helps Howl to rest after a traumatizing experience

For those fans of the original novel this film is a big departure as it is not a direct representation of the book.  The Witch of the Waste was a beautiful ex-lover of Howl's and is instead an overweight aging madame.  Michael the teenage apprentice who was in love with Sophie's sister is instead Markl the young boy.  Howl was an irresponsible lothario and is instead a gruff anti-war hero. 

The castle and its inhabitants take a break from walking

Obviously Miyazaki used the book as a loose basis for the story he wanted to tell with the characters in order to reiterate recurring themes from past works - anti-war, a perpetual battle between technology and the natural (magical) world, and discovering inner strength through difficult trials.  Despite the change to the characters I think Miyazaki really made them stand for something. 

Heen, Markl and Turnip Head

Instead of a vapid womanizer we get a socially-conscious Howl willing to sacrifice his humanity in order to stop senseless violence.  Sophie discovers adventure and a chance at love after a debilitating curse alters her life.  I like the underlying theme of personal freedom portrayed in this film, particularly Howl's lifestyle and desire to stay unfettered of responsibilities.  His house is always on the move, he assumes false identities, and spreads unsavory rumors to keep himself at a comfortable distance from others.

Sophie holds a flaming heart in her hands

The spectacular visuals alone are worth viewing and the story is interesting if not a bit scattered.  Fans of Miyazaki and animation in general will really enjoy this film.  It's not the best Miyazaki has done, but in the upper strata for sure.  I would recommend seeing the film and then reading the book to minimize any potential disappointment with the film.  Absolutely see this and it actually improves a bit on repeat viewings.

TO BUY and Recommendations:
    

Spirited Away Anime Movie Review

Spirited Away
Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi
Buena Vista Home Entertainment (Disney)
Movie - 125 mins. - 2 discs
$29.99 (2003)
ISBN 786936213843
Japanese/English Audio - English Subtitles
Director - Hayao Miyazaki
Studio - Studio Ghibli

Synopsis: Chihiro is moving to a new town with her family because of her father's work.  She had to leave all of her friends behind and feels sad.  Her father gets lost on the way to the new house and ends up on a deserted road.  Chihiro follows both her parents into a spooky passageway leading to a deserted train station. The station appears abandoned and they continue outside across a field of grass to what appears to be a deserted shopping district.  All of the shops look empty, but food is ready at the restaurants and her parents sit down to eat.  They stuff themselves greedily with no one around and her father makes an excuse to pay the shop owners later.

Chihiro drives with her parents to find their new home.  They don't
seem to care that she has just left all of her friends behind.

It becomes dusk and lanterns begin to glow all along the streets.  Strange shadowy figures coalesce in the streets and Chihiro's apprehension advances to growing dread.  She knows something is wrong, but her parents are oblivious.  Pleading with them to leave she is horrified to find they are transforming into hogs even as they shovel more food into their lengthening snouts.  Panicking she rushes to cross the grassy field and escape, but it has filled with water to become a river with the deserted train station now lit up on the other shore.

Chihiro frantically runs through the previously deserted streets
as the disturbing shadow blobs proliferate and solidify

Chihiro is frightened and alone with the shadowy figures solidifying into bizarre creatures all around her until an authoritative boy tells her to leave before nightfall.  Unable to leave and losing cohesion as surely as the shadows come into form she wanders hopelessly toward the entrance of a grand bathhouse.  The boy, Haku, pulls her aside and bids her eat something lest she evaporate from being.  He saves her and she is led into the bathhouse in order to obtain a job, which is the only way to remain there rightfully.

Haku helps Sen by bringing her to visit her transformed parents,
giving her food, and telling her to always remember her name

Yubaba is the owner of the bathhouse and a powerful witch (with a giant head).  Chihiro signs a contract for a job, but the condition is her name is changed to Sen.  If Chihiro forgets her real name she will be a trapped as a servant forever.  Her parents remain hogs in the bathhouse's pens among the other swine.  Sen vows to rescue them and return to the real world.

Yubaba is very scary and has a really big head!

Sen begins her menial work at the bathhouse by scrubbing floors and cleaning tubs.  She is befriended by another worker named Lin who is gruff, but kindhearted.  The two are given an incredibly odious job to clean out an especially dirty tub and help a disgustingly smelly stink spirit.  The bathhouse patrons are largely from the spirit world and not always what they seem.

Lin and Sen work to clean a particularly dirty bath before
getting assigned an especially smelly customer

Remaining true to herself and drawing on her own inner strength in order to deal with the impossible situation, Sen manages to hang in there and keep a level head.  She is very kind and her good intentions cause a terrible situation which endangers the bathhouse (involving a creature named No Face).  Haku is a powerful spirit himself and trapped in a contract with Yubaba.  Can Sen possibly return to the real world and save her parents from being eaten?

No Face offers Sen some bath tokens.  Initially gentle and
unassuming, the creature later becomes a serious problem

Pros: Wonderful story - just like a fairy tale, beautiful animation with hand drawn scenes meshed flawlessly to computer-aided effects, imaginative character designs - particularly the spirits, highest grossing film in Japanese history (at the time), won an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, immerses viewers into a bizarrely magical world, good dub especially Suzanne Pleshette as Yubaba/Zeniba, nice soundtrack, decent subtitles

Chihiro works alongside the soot sprites in the
boiler room to feed the boiler for the bathhouse

Cons: Might be a little scary for some younger kids (particularly sensitive viewers) at some points (especially No Face), I didn't like the one cartoony part where Sen crashes into a wall and goes flat like a pancake (this isn't Looney Tunes), not a Western cartoon and some folks just may not get it (or they'll consider it really weird), plot can jump around too quickly with all of the strange happenings at the bathhouse, things wrap up too neatly and characters can be too nice

Chihiro rides the elevator with a big yet kind radish spirit

Mike Tells It Straight: Spirited Away is easily one of my all-time favorite films and especially among those from Hayao Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli (together with Laputa: Castle in the Sky, My Neighbor Totoro, and Princess Mononoke).  It's a wonderfully imaginative coming-of-age story which continues to delight me to this day.  This film is another masterpiece by Miyazaki and garnered international acclaim while breaking serious new ground in America after winning an Oscar for Best Animated Feature in 2002.

Some Yokai patrons of the bathhouse

The film is not perfect and although I'm highly biased toward giving it an unabashedly favorable review it may not be equally received by other viewers.  My two-year-old loves it, but she hasn't developed a strong sense of fear yet.  Slightly older children may get scared in a few parts (like when No Face eats one of the bathhouse workers).  The plot can be called too whimsical (mostly near the end with the visit to Zeniba's house) and lacking in structure.  Things happen without explanations - some people will dislike when this happens.

Chihiro/Sen on the train with No Face to see Zeniba

On the whole Spirited Away is a creative triumph in animated storytelling.  Chihiro's tale is a great metaphor for being an outsider in a new place and drawing on inner strength/conviction/belief to overcome those feelings of isolation.  She makes mistakes and learns from them.  The characters are not all black and white, good and bad.  Each one has their positive and negative sides, much like real people.

The soot sprites at feeding time - party! party! party!

Spirited Away is long overdue for a Blu-Ray release (or just another release period).  This one I would say is safe to buy before watching - it's that good.  How does Chihiro find her parents among all the other swine?

TO BUY and Recommendations:

Strike Witches Season One Anime Review

Strike Witches Season One
Funimation
Complete Collection - 2 discs
300 min. - 12 episodes
$59.98 (2010)
$49.98 (2011)
ISBN 704400011900
Japanese/English Audio - English Subtitles
Director - Kazuhiro Takamura
Studio - Gonzo

Synopsis: It is 1944 and the world is threatened by an extraterrestrial threat called the Neuroi - unidentified flying objects which have destroyed and occupied much of Europe.  The national armed forces of the world have united to fight the alien threat, but conventional warfare has proven useless.  Instead the magical abilities of young women have been put to military application and give the world a fighting chance. 

The Witches' powers include enhanced strength, tracking, telekinesis, a deflector shield, healing, and a myriad of others.  Each Witch manifests dog ears and a tail when using their powers.  Scientists have developed the Striker Unit for the Witches' use - a hybrid magical/mechanical propeller device worn as a pair on the Witches' legs.  The Striker Units allow Witches high-speed, maneuverable flight capabilities and may only be used by highly adept Witches in their prime (typically below age 20).  The units also enhance the magical abilities of the Witches.

Each Witch possesses a unique Striker Unit based on airplanes from their home country.  Because the units affix to the legs of the Witches, require a high amount of skin-to-machinery contact, and due to the unpredictable attacks of the Neuroi, the Witches have stopped wearing pants as part of their military uniforms.  The lack of pants allows them to quickly don their units and race into battle.

We first meet Yoshika Miyafuji, a witch with powerful healing abilities, as she is recruited into the 501st Joint Fighter Wing aka the Strike Witches.  Her father was a prominent scientist and largely responsible for creating the Striker Units, but died in the war.  She is anti-war, but wants to help protect those who fight the Neuroi.  Does she have what it takes to become a Witch and what secret is the military harboring which may affect the future of the Witches?

List of Strike Witches:

• Yoshika Miyafuji (Mitsubishi A6M Zero) - Japanese, healing abilities, father created Striker Units, peaceful and cares greatly for the welfare of others
• Mio Sakamoto (Mitsubishi A6M Zero) - Japanese, veteran fighter of the Neuroi, chief trainer of the Witches, wears an eyepatch over her magical eye (enhanced sight)
• Minna-Dietlinde Wilcke (Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-2) - German, enhanced spatial awareness, ranking officer of the 501st, lost her lover during the war and afraid of losing those close to her
• Lynette Bishop (Supermarine Spitfire Mk IX) - British, superpowered magical shots and sharpshooting, becomes best friends with Miyafuji, sometimes clumsy
• Perrine-H. Clostermann (Arsenal VG-39) - French, lightning spell, emotionally traumatized by the Neuroi destruction of her homeland, has a huge crush on Sakamoto, highly jealous of Miyafuji because of Sakamoto's time spent training her
• Erica Hartmann (Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-6) - German, wind-based spell to distrupt enemies, a flying ace, only serious when the situation calls for it, panty stealer
• Gertrude Barkhorn (Focke-Wulf Fw 190 D-6 Prototype) - German, enhanced physical strength, has a younger sister injured in a Neuroi attack who resembles Miyafuji
• Francesca Lucchini (Fiat G.55 Centauro) - Italian, pinpoint energy burst, childish and self-indulgent, enjoys naps, friends with Yeager
• Charlotte Yeager (North American P-51D Mustang) - American, superior speed abilities, tall and buxom, neat freak, obsessed with speed and broke land-speed record on a motorcycle
• Eila Ilmatar Juutilainen (Messerschmitt Bf 109 K-4) - Finnish, precognitive abilities, mischievous, possessive of Litvyak
• Sanya V. Litvyak (MiG-60) - Russian, enhanced spatial awareness and intercepts hard to detect signals (like radio waves), flies the night patrol

Pros: Excellent animation, tons of fan-service, some nudity during extended bath scenes, Striker units are pretty cool and modelled after actual WWII fighter planes, this show was obsessed with panty shots

Aerial group hug panty shot maneuver

Cons: Neuroi are a bland plot foil - generic alien enemy for the Witches to fight, excessive panty shots (I can't believe I just wrote that), girls appear very young - kinda pervy if you add in the panty shots (although perfect if you're a teenager), lolicon (see explanation below) - may be offensive to some viewers

Mike Tells It Straight: This show literally felt like one long fan-service panty shot.  Good animation, some character development, and a heaping dose of young, barely-clothed girls loosely wrapped in a paper-thin plot.  The Strike Witches evolved from a series of illustrations by Humikane Shimada depicting kawaii (super-cute) teen girls combined with WWII era military airplanes.  The idea became popular and a series of novels/manga was created prior to this anime series along with some video games.   



The Witches celebrate another victory...over pants

The fan-service was very well done (pretty much the show's main focus) and the character interactions were entertaining, but the plot was an afterthought.  The girls themselves were prime examples of "Lolicon" the Japanese version of the "Lolita complex" where underage girls are portrayed in sexually suggestive poses, clothing or situations.  The loli's could be offensive to some viewers (i.e. your parents). 



Bathtime is fun time for Perrine



If you're looking for panty shots and nudity with a sparse plot then park your rear.  Want a good story with some depth?  Not happening here - pass on by.  Miyafuji's character development was a tiny diamond in the rough, but not enough to carry the show.  Seriously, there is only one reason to watch this show - hot young girls allergic to pants. 

TO BUY and Recommendations:

   

Witch Hunter Robin Anime Review

Witch Hunter Robin

Bandai Entertainment – Anime Legends

Complete Collection – 26 episodes

650 mins. – 6 discs

$149.98 Limited Edition w/pin set (2004) $49.98 (2006)

ISBN 1594097216
English/Japanese Audio – English Subtitles
Director – Shuko Murase
Studio - Sunrise
TO BUY: Witch Hunter Robin

Synopsis: Witches are real and have phenomenal psychic powers which explode into existence based on pre-determined genetic dispositions. They’ve been hiding within humanity for hundreds of years and are a part of modern history (Salem witch trials). A clandestine organization called Solomon operates throughout the world hunting witches. Backed by Solomon the STN-J is an investigative unit in Japan actively finding witches and incarcerating them at The Factory.

Robin is a fifteen-year-old girl who has incredible pyrokinetic powers and is just trying to belong somewhere. She’s been trained to hunt witches and is assigned to the STN-J by Solomon. She has a secret which could destroy her new life, but worse yet, her secret is just the tip of the iceberg. Another secret uncovered by a Solomon researcher many years ago threatens to change the face of humanity.

Pros: High production values, somewhat original story, good character/tech designs, awesome backgrounds, gothic techno punk, not your average monster-of-the-week show, mildly spooky beginning with a crime drama middle and action packed ending

Cons: Story progresses pretty slowly throughout the entire show, no nudity :), Robin herself is a rather drab character and spends a lot of time soul-searching

Mike Tells It Straight: A gothic mystery series for the Matrix generation and highly popular when it first aired. Good quality although it takes awhile to get going this show is worth viewing. It’s perfect to watch if you have kids since there’s no nudity and very subdued violence. Not a lot of replay value once all the secrets are revealed along with the slow story build-up.

TO BUY and Recommendations: Fullmetal Alchemist Season One Fullmetal Alchemist Season Two