Female Character In Miyazaki’s Howl’s Moving Castle 95540333 Katie

Fragile but strong, kind, brave, and junior are the basic characteristics of Miyazaki’s female characters; moreover, they’re always given the mission to save the world or to solve the problems.

From Nausicaä in the Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Sheeta, The Castle in the Sky, the Sister, My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki, Kiki’s Delivery Service, to Ponyo, Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, these characters although have different hair styles and dressing, they share almost the same face. Despite the fact that respectively the main characters Chihiro in Spirited Away, and Ashitake, in Princess Mononoke are different than others in terms of appearance, Miyazaki’s “woman admiration” still project on the two work. Despite the fact that the Witches in Spirited Away and Sosuke’s mother in Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea appear as the supporting characters in the two stories, they, however, play a role in the stories.

In this paper, I will try to examine the female character called Sophie in one of Miyazaki’s popular animations “Howl’s Moving Castle”.

In Miyazaki’s “Howl’s Moving Castle”, Sophie started her adventure after the Witch used the magic. Surprised as it is, Sophie didn’t feel shocked , agitated or even fainted, the reaction of which would be presented in most American cartoons, right after she saw her face in the reflected in the mirror. Instead, she stayed rather calm and peaceful. When Sophie looked down at her wrinkling hands, she instinctively touched her face, astonished, and then rushed to the mirror, saying “Is this me? No! I have to calm down. I have to calm down!” Then she started to walked here and there in her room without complaining and struggling, instead, she decided to leave home the next morning.

Imagined how would a 90-year-old old woman walk? It might be like an old body walking with a humpback, and at slow speed. However, what if an old lady who was a bashful girl few days ago? We might infer that this old lady shares the characteristics and mind of a young girl, but she might not be able to represent her young-inner-parts due to her old and feeble body. This can be seen from the scene where Sophie raised up the scarecrow, her will is firm and strong, but her body is week that she had to make a lot effort to be able to raise it. Sophie’s affection toward Howl was from her young heart, but her old face failed to correspond to her inner heart. When the scene where the Witch and Sophie made their efforts to go up stairs, the way old Sophie hugged the dog, struggling to go up contradicts with her aggressive posture to the Witch after she reached to the top.

However, those contradictions weakened when Sophie made up her mind to face things and challenges in front of her. She became younger and younger. But, on the other hand, when she started to escape from something, she turned back to an old lady.

I think Sophie is the projection of girls at their 20s. There are many women, although are still at the age of 20s, they perform like they’ve gone through all the vicissitudes of their lives.