studio ghibli – Page 4

umbylievable:

heatherwitch:

I think the reason I enjoy Ghibli so much is it romanticizes the little things. It makes me want to bake, study, clean the house, garden, and more while listening to happy music and occasionally picking wildflowers and lying in the grass. It helps me find joy in day-to-day life and that’s honestly sooo important for my mental health.

Hayao Miyazaki has said on numerous occasions that he wants children to know that even when the world seems harsh and life is hard, it is always still worth living, and there is always something beautiful in it.

That mental health boost is intentional and Miyazaki wants you to believe that you should continue to live, even if just for those little things.

gabriel-movies:

Howl’s Moving Castle (2005): self acceptance, love and transformation (Spoilers)

I remember when I first watched Howl’s Moving Castle when I was about 14 years old. I remember feeling such a sense of relief and joy after watching it, with it’s whimsical style, wonderful animation and joyful yet sombre music that I couldn’t get out of my head for days. As I watch is again and again years later though I begin to pull apart the pieces a little more, and as I was watching it for the 8th time recently I began to connect the dots in my head about this films message and personally I find it quite amazing so I thought I’d share it with all of the 9 or 10 people who will probably end up reading this.

There’s no question that at the beginning of the film Sophie is dealing with some major insecurities and self doubts. When warned by her sister that Howl would steal her heart, Sophie simply responds with “That would never happen, Howl only goes after beautiful girls” in a depressed and quiet tone. Sophie’s self doubt with her own beauty, both internal and external, manifests itself in the curse placed on her by the witch of the waste, transforming her into an old woman. As the film goes on however, the curse slowly seems to be lifting, her wrinkles fade, her voice becomes soft and youthful, and her posture becomes straighter. This comes to a point in the scene where Sophie is in the field of flowers with Howl.

The scene begins with Howl bringing Sophie into the field of flowers, presenting it as a gift for her. Right from the start of the scene Sophie is looking young again, acting excited and full of joy, but as the scene goes on Sophie begins to realise that Howl is giving her this because he’s going away, and as she starts to beg for him to stay, her self deprecation comes back. I know I’m paraphrasing here but she says something along the lines of “Please stay, I know I can be useful to you, even if I’m not very pretty and all I’m good for is cleaning” and mere moments after she says this, she transforms back into an old woman. This was the moment when I realised what truly triggers Sophie’s curse. Sophie only turns young again in the film at moments when she feels like she deserves to be loved. She’s gone through her whole life believing that she doesn‘t deserve the affection of others, that she’s not beautiful enough, and only when she accepts her own inner and outer beauty and the affection of others, then she turns back to her normal youthful self. This first happens when Sophie confronts Madame Suliman, and as she talks about Howl’s true kind nature, her youth begins to return letting her love run free, but when Suliman points out Sophie’s affection she rejects it, returning to her old woman form.

Howl on the other hand seems to have the opposite problem to Sophie. While Sophie is consumed by her insecurities, Howl simply runs from them. When we first meet Howl it is implied that he uses magic to improve his appearance, hiding his true hair colour and his inner bird form from Sophie, and even when we go into his bedroom we see it is decorated from head to toe with golden embellishments and jewellery. Howl uses this magic and exterior beauty to hide his inner flaws and demons, as shown by his bird form. It’s only through Sophie that he learns to face his inner flaws, as shown in the climax of the film when the house is being attacked by Suliman’s henchmen and Howl says something along the lines of “I’m through running away, It’s because of you Sophie I’m doing this, I have something to fight for now. It’s you”. This can be interpreted a number of ways but the way I see it Howl has finally learned to love something other than himself, He is no longer concerned with his own personal beauty and wellbeing (as displayed in his slime scene where he states that he sees no point in living if he can’t be beautiful) and now has learned to love another, allowing him to become better as a person. Another nice little detail here is that, at the end of the film when Howl’s heart is returned to him, his design is the most simple it’s been throughout the whole movie, with only a simple shirt and trousers defining his appearance unlike at the beginning of the film when he was adorned with a luxurious cape and jewellery. This represents the end of his character arch, he is no longer hiding behind magic and physical beauty, allowing him to become better as a person through others.

I suppose when you look at it like this the main theme of the film is transformation, specifically transformation through love. It is only through love of ones self and others that we can become better people, stronger and kinder. This is the reason why Howl and Sophie work so well as a couple in the film, one has no love for themselves, the other has no love for others. It’s only through each other that they can see both the good and the bad in themselves, allowing them to become the best they can be, and in essence that is the purest kind of love. The love that allows you to grow and transform into who you’ve always wanted to be.

(note: Thank you so much for making it this far and I hope you enjoyed it! I feel like I’ve already improved a lot from my last Logan essay, so I hope to only improve from here on out)