T w e n t y S i d e d

Howl’s Moving Castle is yet another Miyazaki Hayao film. Strangely enough, it’s an adaptation of a novel by Dianna Wynne Jones. Despite the fact that someone else wrote the story, it has all the elements of a Miyazaki film. Just to illustrate this, let’s run through Steven’s list of Miyazaki themes and see if they show up in this movie…

Amazing that a story by another author fits the Miyazaki formula so perfectly. Either he greatly changed the original story to suit his purposes, or Miyazaki Hayao and Dianna Wynne Jones have very similar writing styles and ideas.

About halfway into the movie I was thinking, “This is great! This is my favorite Miyazaki movie so far.” The visuals are great, but not overdone as they were in Steamboy. The world is vibrant and full of detail. The characters are great (and not repulsive, as in the aforementioned Steamboy). The bad guys are bad, but nobody is pure cardboard-cutout evil. The main character is compelling.

It starts with Sophie:

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

My Neighbor Totoro is another Miyazaki masterpiece. Fledgling Otaku thought highly of it, and his daughter went nuts for it. Alex praised it as well.

My kids have watched this movie many, many times (although not as many as mini-otaku, I suspect) but I’ve only gotten around to watching it recently. I’ve seen little bits here and there as I passed through the room while they were watching, and I’d always tried to discern that it was about. Now I can see that this was a waste of time. Totoro is less about plot and more about many small, delicious moments.

The movie had quite an effect on me. The children in this story are unlike most anime kids. In fact, they are unlike most animated kids in general. They speak, move, think, and act like real children.

Here Tatsuo and her younger sister Mei are riding in the back of a truck. They are moving to a new home, and all of their belongings are stacked up around and over them, forming a little alcove for the two of them.

When I was a kid, there was no such thing as seatbelt laws. In the winter my brother and I used to huddle together in the passenger-side footspace, where we could be close to the warm air vent. I hadn’t thought about that in years, but this moment brought back that memory.

Children love to seek out little spaces to occupy. They seem drawn to crawlspaces. I’m not sure when we grow out of this, but at some point our “stay in the foxhole” instincts leave us and as adults most people find enclosed spaces irritating, not cozy.

Walking around on your knees! I remember doing this. As a kid it was amusing, but my knees hurt just thinking about trying it at my age. Ow. Ow. Ow.

And of course, when kids are in open spaces they must run. They can’t help it.

At one point Tatsuo notices a huge towering tree and asks her father about it. He informs the girls that it’s a camphor tree. Then the girls yell, “Camphor! Camphor!”, as they enjoy the new word. These little moments and details bring the children to life in a powerful way. I’ve never seen animated children this authentic.

From a clinical standpoint, this movie is nothing remarkable. The story is thin and the visuals – while charming – aren’t really anything groundbreaking. They certainly aren’t up to the standards of other Miyazaki films. But as a collection of slice-of-life moments and a study in the wonder of being a child, My Neighbor Totoro is in a class of its own. Highly recommended.

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.