Metrics
Genre:
Anime, Family, Fantasy
Rating:
7.0 /10
Audience:
Studio Ghibli fans, anime fans, animation fans. Adults who like mystery.
Rewatch Time:
I think rewatches are necessary to understand. 2h, super confusing.
Winner:
Turnip Scarecrow
Review
Bruh why are these movies so hard to understand. Straight up, apart from marvelling at how good everything looks, I really don't see what's going on with this movie. The antiwar message was pretty overt, but it was conveyed more through the setting and visuals than the actual plot progression. I guess the characters and the art style were super abstract, which is cool, and very typical Miyazaki, but the plot itself was so hard to make concrete sense of. The castle design was cool, for sure, too. I know it's based on a book, and from what I can tell, the original narrative made way more sense. Still, it's interesting to watch and think about, so give it a try.
Spoiler Territory
Let's see if we can understand this, shall we? So someone cursed a prince and turned him into a turnip scarecrow (best character), which started a war. Suliman used the war as an excuse to fight all other wizards, including Howl, who rejected her teachings and became a half-demon with the help of Calcifer (also a legend). They fight a lot, and Suliman tricks the Witch of the Waste and steals her power. More fighting, more drama, until eventually Sophie kisses the turnip and his curse is lifted, ending the war. Pretty random way to go about it. Howl I guess has a character arc, which is nice. Markl, the kid, is pretty much just there, though his dynamic with Sophie is pretty cute to watch. The witch gets annoying near the end. The whole aging business is super motif-like, which I guess is cool. Still hella confusing.