“Howl’s Moving Castle,” a film animated by the famous Studio Ghibli and directed by Hayao Miyazaki himself, is an astonishing movie that I grew up watching. Just like other movies produced by Studio Ghibli and Miyazaki, “Howl’s Moving Castle,” captures beautiful and aesthetically pleasing animation, through the dedication to the detail within its hand-drawn art. The scenes in the film depict brilliant colors and ethereal quality which complement the beauty of the storyline. In the movie, the main character Sophie gets cursed by a witch who is well known for her greed and wickedness. In the meantime to find a way to break her curse, Sophie resides in Wizard Howl’s castle, where she learns about Howl and other cursed victims of the Witch. Along her journey, she discovers the outside world as well as herself and extends her kind and selfless actions to others. This magical film dissects aspects of the Gender Studies Theory through the emphasized contrast of masculine versus feminine elements. 

Growing up I loved anime movies, my favorite animators being Studio Ghibli, I knew I needed to choose one of their films to focus on writing about. Out of all of their breathtaking productions, “Howl’s Moving Castle,” stood out to me because of its unique characters in the story who each have a physical appearance to complement their inner-self. Not only does this film have unique characters, but a one-of-a-kind story that no other film I have watched can compare. The movie explores Gender Studies Theory, the field showing issues related to gender that are expressed through gender roles, gender expectations, gender relationships, and more. (Purdue). For example, Beyonce’s song from 2008, “If I Were a Boy” explores the same study. Beyonce, who identifies as a woman, writes the song to decode for us that women have higher expectations than men. Within her lyrics, “I kick it with who I wanted and I’d never get confronted for it,” (Beyonce). She explains how men get up when they want, drink what they want, act, and treat others how they want, all without being judged for it. However, women could try their best to be accepted to society, yet nothing would be enough to compare to a man. Beyonce conveys that females do not hold as much power as male figures do, which is why being a boy for a day in the song would be a life-changing experience, for better or worse. Clearly, society has set out different expectations based on one’s gender identity. 

As the film begins, Sophie, the main character, is on her way to visit her sister who works at the pastry shop. As she walks through a narrow walkway, two guards bother her. They refer to her as a small mouse and keep trying to speak to her after she continuously dismisses them and tells them no. Once they start getting too close and asking personal questions, Wizard Howl sweeps in and walks away with her as he holds her under his arm. As Howl leads Sophie’s way he tells her, “Dont hold it against them, they’re actually not all that bad. I’ll be your escort.” (Howl’s Moving Castle 1:54:30- 1:54). As kind as Howl was to help Sophie go away, he dismissed the actions of the invasive guards and tried to make Sophie think it was okay what they were doing. The guards represent a form of power as they are supposed to protect and keep civilians safe. However, instead of protecting Sophie from harm, they made her feel as if she was in danger. Furthermore, Howl sweeps in and “rescues” Sophie as if she were a damsel in distress who needs saving. He tells her he’ll escort her to her next destination. By doing so, Howl is demonstrating how Sophie needs a masculine figure to keep her out of harm’s way. He expresses this through his words as well as physically as he tightly holds her under his arm and orders her to hold onto him. This scene in the film relates to Beyonce’s song “If I Were a Boy,” in the sense that men have low expectations and things they do can fly over anyone’s head. This makes them feel entitled as well as thinking it’s okay to commit to making poor actions. Additionally, the guards referred to Sophie as “this one,” showing how she is not the only girl they had previously bothered. If they can get away one after the other, they eventually create this learning behavior that there are no consequences for them to face, causing them to abuse their power as guards. Howl saying “They’re actually not all that bad,” shows how men’s poor actions are easily overlooked. 

Howl, a mighty and secretive wizard, is well-known for his looks and elegance. The charming aspects of him make many women in the town fall in love with him, such as The Witch of the Waste. The Witch of the Waste was deeply in love with him and became very jealous of Sophie when she saw them against each other. To express her feelings and thoughts on what she saw as she was watching over Howl, she put a spell on Sophie that turned her into an elderly woman. Sophie’s spell puts themes of societal expectations into perspective as she lives her life through an older woman’s body. Living in this older woman’s body, people in town doubted Sophie on her journey. They called her crazy and gave her funny looks as she climbed towards the witch’s land, and were worried for the hopeless old lady they saw. Instead of Sophie being portrayed as a strong male character, she was an old woman and was easily judged by others. Markl, a young boy training to be a wizard, lived in Howl’s moving castle. He was not impressed with Sophie’s presence and disrespectfully nicknamed her “grandma.” Howl asks this “grandma” who she says, she says she’s the new cleaning lady and starts cooking up breakfast. “I can’t remember the last time we’ve had a real breakfast around here. This is great, thanks Grandma Sophie!” (Howl’s Moving Castle 1:32-31). Markl finally starts showing Sophie appreciation after she starts cooking for those at the castle. In addition to showing appreciation to Sophie, Markl builds a close bond forming this attachment between them. When Sophie’s mother comes to visit her, Markl starts crying and begging for Sophie not to leave. He refers to Sophie, him, and those living in Howl’s castle as a family. Sophie being depicted as a helpless old woman made those at home brush her off as they thought she served no purpose. However, once she started exhibiting actions of stereotypical female roles, such as cooking, she was finally able to feel welcomed. Perhaps if Sophie was younger, Markl would have treated her with less harshness, however, her seniority frustrated him as he would always order her to stay out of his way. Again, this film demonstrates how women have expectations to fulfill in order to gain respect from society. It wasn’t until Sophie became its cleaning lady and cooked for them at the castle, which happened to be all men, that they finally started acknowledging and including her. 

Ever since Howl and Sophie met, there were lingering feelings the two didn’t have time to recollect and express. Nevertheless, they found their way back together back at Howl’s Castle. In the movie, each time the two met the atmosphere of the whole movie would change. From Sophie being harassed by guards and the creepy and tense demeanor, the mood of the scene changes as soon as Howl sets foot on screen. The music became softer with longer and dragged notes, rather than the awkward silence to complement the awkward moment before howl entered. To add on, this type of music was played whenever Sophie was the focus of the scene as well as a calm Cinematography, making everything in the scene clear to see. Yet, whenever there was a focus on a male figure such as Howl, the music was more suspenseful since he was involved with the war going on. In addition, most of the time to go along with the edgy moments, the camera moved fast to the next angle, through first person point of view perspective, making it unexpected to what you would see next. To branch off of this, while Howl (a male) was out fighting at war, Sophie (a female) was home protecting everyone at the castle. This demonstrates a contrast between the two gender expectations since men and women in the movie follow the stereotypes of gender roles that society sets out.  

In agreement with A. O. Scott, from the New York Times article, “A Cursed Teenager Turns 90. Let the Adventures Begin,” there is a present theory of gender studies within the film. Building upon the insights that author Scott presents, both analyses dig deep into how Sophie falls into female stereotypes and is expressed as a very feminine character. “Her feelings for Howl combine maternal solicitude, sisterly affection, and adolescent infatuation, all of them making “Howl’s Moving Castle,” among other things, a curious and touching love story.” (Scott 1). In comparing Scott’s analysis to my own, it is evident that when speaking about the major female role, Sophie, she exhibits behavior that is set as an expectation from society. While expressing her love for Howl, she does it in a feminine way, as well as the entire focus of the movie is based on the relationship between them. This puts an emphasis on how the themes of love come up when female characters are present and sometimes surround their whole personality with it. Considering everything, “Howl’s Moving Castle,” is an extraordinary film that stays with you after watching it. The film moves its audience through its beautiful animation and story, just like A. O. Scott agrees with in his article. 

“Ponyo,” a movie also produced and directed by Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli, happens to be my favorite movie. In this production, a fish named Ponyo strives to become human, but undergoes many obstacles as well as life changing experiences such as falling in love and seeing how it is to live in a completely different world. Correspondingly, Ponyo, the female main character, falls in love with a human boy, Sosuke, who finds her on the shore. The movie is based on a storyline that has to do with the two characters fighting to keep their lives together. They fall in love with each other and want to take care of each other for the rest of their lives. In the story Ponyo has magical powers, however, she cannot become a human while having them. So, in order for her to fulfill her dream and fully turn human she must sacrifice them. The idea of the female having to sacrifice something incredibly important in order to fully devote herself to the male figure once again shows the different sets of expectations of different genders. Similar to “Howl’s Moving Castle,” the characters continue their journey to find love and create themes along the way. Both films are mesmerizing and alluring, furthermore, generate a focus on gender studies within the characters’ expectations. The majestic film “Howl’s Moving Castle,” offers a unique presentation of each character, all connecting to the storyline and the themes produced within. Through Sophie’s journey of reversing her curse, the theory of Gender Studies is called attention to, as it puts a spotlight on the themes regarding gender expectations. By navigating relationships between the characters whether they were romantic, friendly, like family, or a one-time interaction, each bond extended the range of thinking from a lens focusing on gender studies. Taking everything into account, Studio Ghibli’s “Howl’s Moving Castle,” provides us with a mystical and entertaining production that clearly captures the Gender Study Theory to generate realizations within its audience. 

Works Cited:

Beyonce.“If I Were a Boy.” I AM…SASHA FIERCE, Columbia Records, October 8, 2008.
Howl’s Moving Castle. Directed by Hayao Miyazaki, Studio Ghibli, Toho Co., Ltd., Walt Disney
Pictures, 2005.
Purdue Writing Lab. “Introduction to Literary Theory//Purdue Writing Lab.” The OWL at
Purdue, Purdue University, 2018. https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/subject_specific_writing/writing_in_literature/literary_theory_and_schools_of_criticism/index.html
Scott, A. O. “A Cursed Teenager Turns 90. Let the Adventures Begin.” The New York Times,
The New York Times, 10 June 2005, www.nytimes.com/2005/06/10/movies/a-cursed-teenager-turns-90-let-the-adventures-begin.html.