The Art of Howl's Moving Castle

by Hayao Miyazaki, Yuji Oniki (Translator)

Shortly after reaping the rewards from his movie Spirited Away, a project that earned him an Academy Award in 2003, director Hayao Miyazaki set his sites on his next film, Howl's Moving Castle. Based on the novel by British author Diana Wynne Jones, Howl's Moving Castle gave the internationally renown director an opportunity to bring to life a fantastical time in 19th century Europe when science and magic defined the popular zeitgeist. Veering slightly from its source material, the new Miyazaki movie nonetheless retains all the novel's principal characters. There's a foppish wizard named Howl, a vain witch from the wastelands, an anthropomorphic chimney fire and a young girl who carries a most unusual curse. And, of course, there's the moving castle… a towering, omnipresent structure that dominates the landscape. Already a smash success in Japan, Howl's Moving Castle finally comes to U.S. theatres this spring. To coincide with its Stateside release, VIZ is proud to present The Art of Howl's Moving Castle, a hardbound, prestige format book which acts as an essential companion to the film. A generous collection of concept sketches, fully rendered character and background drawings, paintings and cell images, The Art of Howl's Moving Castle brings the movie into your library. Along with the stunning visuals, the book also presents interviews and comments with the production staff, including key points directly from the director. There's more than one way to book passage on the moving castle. See the movie, but don't forget to reserve a copy of the book, as well. The Art of Howl's Moving Castle is a great way to preserve the magic of the next great anime classic from Hayao Miyazaki.
Shortly after reaping the rewards from his movie Spirited Away , a project that earned him an Academy Award in 2003, director Hayao Miyazaki set his sites on his next film, Howl's Moving Castle.
Based on the novel by British author Diana Wynne Jones, Howl's Moving Castle gave the internationally renowned director an opportunity to bring to life a fantastical time in 19th century Europe when science and magic defined the popular zeitgeist.
Veering slightly from its source material, the new Miyazaki movie nonetheless retains all the novel's principal characters. There's a foppish wizard named Howl, a vain witch from the wastelands, an anthropomorphic chimney fire and a young girl who carries a most unusual curse. And, of course, there's the moving castle, a towering, omnipresent structure that dominates the landscape.
Already a smash success in Japan, Howl's Moving Castle finally comes to U.S. theatres this spring. To coincide with its Stateside release, VIZ is proud to present The Art of Howl's Moving Castle , a hardbound, prestige format book which acts as an essential companion to the film.
A generous collection of concept sketches, fully rendered character and background drawings, paintings and cell images, The Art of Howl's Moving Castle brings the movie into your library. Along with the stunning visuals, the book also presents interviews and comments with the production staff, including key points directly from the director.
There's more than one way to book passage on the moving castle. See the movie, but don't forget to reserve a copy of the book, as well. The Art of Howl's Moving Castle is a great way to preserve the magic of the next great anime classic from Hayao Miyazaki.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Manga, Reference, Film, Japan, Graphic Novels

256 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2004

About the author

Hayao Miyazaki (Japanese: 宮崎 駿) is a celebrated Japanese animator, filmmaker, screenwriter, and manga artist, widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of animation. He is the co-founder of Studio Ghibli, the animation studio responsible for producing many of Japan’s most beloved and internationally acclaimed animated films. Over the course of a career spanning decades, Miyazaki has developed a reputation for creating visually rich, emotionally resonant stories that often explore themes such as nature, pacifism, flight, childhood, and the human condition.
Miyazaki was born in Tokyo and developed an early interest in drawing and animation. His father’s work in the aviation industry had a significant influence on him, particularly in fostering his fascination with aircraft and flight, motifs that would become prominent throughout his later works. After studying political science and economics at university, Miyazaki began his professional career in animation when he joined Toei Animation. There, he worked under the mentorship of directors like Isao Takahata, with whom he would later form a lifelong creative partnership.
In his early years at Toei and other studios, Miyazaki contributed to several television series and animated films. He worked as a key animator and storyboard artist, gradually gaining recognition for his storytelling abilities and attention to detail. Among his early projects were contributions to series such as Heidi, Girl of the Alps and Future Boy Conan. His directorial debut in feature films came with The Castle of Cagliostro, a film adaptation of the Lupin III manga series, which already showed signs of his distinctive style and sensibilities.
Miyazaki's breakthrough came with the film Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, based on his own manga. The success of that film prompted the establishment of Studio Ghibli, which he co-founded with Takahata and producer Toshio Suzuki. From that point forward, Miyazaki directed and wrote many of Ghibli’s most iconic works, including My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Porco Rosso, Princess Mononoke, and Howl’s Moving Castle. His films are known for their hand-drawn animation, strong character development, and philosophical underpinnings.
In 2001, Miyazaki directed Spirited Away, which became one of the most critically and commercially successful animated films of all time. The film received numerous awards and international recognition, including an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. It also became the highest-grossing film in Japanese history at the time of its release. The film’s success further solidified Miyazaki’s reputation as a master storyteller and a visionary in global cinema.
Despite announcing his retirement several times, Miyazaki repeatedly returned to filmmaking. His later works, such as Ponyo and The Wind Rises, continued to showcase his evolving themes and storytelling maturity. His most recent project, The Boy and the Heron, marked a highly anticipated return to the director’s chair and once again captivated audiences with its dreamlike visuals and emotional depth.
Miyazaki’s films are often distinguished by their complex female protagonists, environmental messages, and moral ambiguity. Rather than presenting clear-cut villains and heroes, his stories explore the nuances of human behavior and often focus on characters finding their place in the world. Throughout his career, he has received numerous accolades and honors for his contributions to the arts, including lifetime achievement awards recognizing his impact on both Japanese and international cinema.
His legacy continues to influence generations of animators and filmmakers worldwide, and Studio Ghibli remains one of the most respected names in animation.

Reviews

[Gretel Hernández · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amé esta película; entre las cosas que más me gustaron estaban el diseño de los personajes, los paisajes, los colores, y el aspecto del castillo ambulante; por lo que ver cómo se creó la estética de esta obra maestra es algo maravilloso.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

اول کتاب چاپ شده شو تو فروشگاه دیدم و بعدش اومدم ای‌بوکش رو گرفتم. کتاب چاپ شدهه گلاسه بود ولی سایزش خیلی کوچک بود، تو پی‌دی‌اف راحت تر میشد زوم کرد و خوند توضیحات رو.
اسکچ های رنگ نشده‌ش رو ، بخصوص مثلاً طرح سولیمان. و خیلی دوست داشتم تا رنگ شده نهاییش.

[Despina | inwhirlofinspiration · Rating 5 out of 5]

(for more reviews, visit my site's book section here )

Howl's moving castle is set in a world conceived by the late 19th century European neo-futuristic painters where magic and science co-exist. The main idea is that one day a witch of wasteland puts an 18-year-old girl named Sophie under a spell, turning her into a 90-year-old lady. The aged Sophie encounters the wizard Howl and she begins her strange life with Howl in his castle, the formidable walking fortress. The film is based on Howl's moving Castle children's book, by Diana Wynne Jones. All concept sketches are by Miyazaki. Concept art and backgrounds are by the art staff supervised by art directors Yoji Takeshige and Noboru Yoshida. Character designs are by supervising animators Akihiko Yamashita and Takeski Inamura. The background art and still images for this book were created from digital data. Scene images without captions are still images.

Miyazaki's storyboards with their rough sketches and notes on the storyline, are more informative than concept sketches and a total bliss looking at them even if you don't know Japanese. This book and hence the movie itself is a feast of colors giving emphasis on the "realness" of the characters and with soften incredibly beautiful backgrounds. It's not an exaggerations to say that this movie's art made me reevaluate my opinions about background art. These lush landscapes with their incredibly creative colour seem to be totally otherworldly beautiful.

The book is split into 3 parts. Part 1 is about Miyazaki's concept sketches. Part 2 contains concept art, background art, character designs, movie stills and plenty of concept sketches. Part 3 is the script, or final screenplay. Throughout the book, there are breaks with narration from the art directors and animators explaining the movie's production process. They would talk about animation, colour design, research and characters. There's a short section that explains how computer graphics was used to overcome the limitations of cell drawing, which I thought was really interesting.

[Parka · Rating 5 out of 5]

(Picture source: parkablogs.com)

The following summary is useful. It's from the "About this book" section.
This book is a collection of concept sketches, concept art, backgrounds, character designs (including painted versions), and still images for Hayao Miyazaki's animated film, Howl's Moving Castle, based on the book by Diana Wynne Jones. All concept sketches are by Miyazaki. Concept art and backgrounds are by the art staff supervised by art directors Yoji Takeshige and Noboru Yoshida. Character designs are by supervising animators Akihiko Yamashita and Takeski Inamura. The background art and still images for this book were created from digital data. Scene images without captions are still images.

The book is split into 3 parts. Part 1 is about Miyazaki's concept sketches. Part 2 contains concept art, background art, character designs and concept sketches. Part 3 is the script, or final screenplay.

If you've other Art of series book from Miyazaki's movies, you'll not be unfamiliar with the content of the book. There are lush paintings, incredibly creative colour pencil storyboards and plenty of movie stills.

The concept art pieces are presented linear to the movie's storyline. Captions that follow explains the scene for the movie, which is useful to relate back to the film.

Throughout the book, there are breaks with narration from the art directors and animators explaining the movie's production process. They would talk about animation, colour design, research and characters. There's a short section that explains how computer graphics was used to overcome the limitations of cell drawing, which I thought was rather interesting.

There are several versions of the book. The one sold on amazon.com is published by VIZ Media and contains the final screenplay. It's hard covered.

This review was first published on parkablogs.com. There are more pictures and videos on my blog.

[J · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actual rating: 4.25 stars

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the second of the Studio Ghibli art work book that i have and like the first it is truly beautiful. This book is based on the film of the same name - its, concept, its art and its script, giving intimate details of how the film came in to being and how it achieved the stunning visual story it is today.

The book is not that complicated to follow really - the title pretty much explains it all. Now for me the appeal of the book is the art, oh do I wish I could be so creative. But the art here is the star of the book, from rough concept art to the polish beauty of the finished scene, this book has it all and highlights why at its height Studio Ghibli was a world leader in animation.

[Ala'a · Rating 5 out of 5]

لما الحياة تفاجئك بمكافآت ثمينة لدرجة ماتعرف حقيقة مشاعرك؛ اغتباط أم خيلاء وتكبر...؟ كنت احس نفسي أفضل مخلوق على البسيطة وأكثرهم حظاً
بدأ كل شيء عندما فتحت الرواية بدافع الفضول، أول مرة انهي فوق ٣٠٠ صفحة بيوم واحد، عيوني ما نشفت/عورتني وراسي ماصدع! 'نص الكتاب' له قدرات سحرية مشابهه لصوفي لما تشفي/تبث الحياة في الأشياء. انهيته بدون ما اشعر وتذكرت اني محمله الآرت بوك بالمكتبة ومين يقدر يتأمل الصور بدون ألحان جو هيسايشي؟! وتعرفوا؟ دائم أفضل رائحة الشوكولا على تذوقها/تناولها. لا أعلم لماذا لكنها مرضية أكثر، جذابة ومشبعة على مستوى رُوحِي... بعكس الطعم الذي أجده قوياً/مركز بشكل يطغى على ذلك العبير الأخاذ. أو ربّما يعود السبب للإحساس بالذنب؛ ستتحول تلك القطعة إلى دهون إذا لم أقم بعمل مجهود جسدي مُضاعف خخخخ
ذكرت النقطة الأخيرة لإنها توصف شعوري عندما كنت أحدق بصور الكونسبت آرت/ستوريبوردز/وقفات الخ واوست الفلم يشتغل بالسماعات. كأنك تلتهم رائحة الكاكاو ذاتها لكن بعينيك وأذنيك وقلبك والنصف العلوي من رأسك، حاجه ethereal
ومع انه بالعادة مايحلى وقتي إلا مع الشاي لكن هذه المرة كنت سعيدة لأني ماحطيت الغلاية على النار. جزء من تركيزي كان راح يتحول على لذة طعم الشاي، كيف اني بقمة الروقان بعد هذه الرشفة، ويتشتت جوي العام مع الكتاب والموسيقى
وطبعاً نهاية هذه الرحلة كانت مع الفلم _اللي شاهدته أكثر من مرة زمان_ جودة بلوراي وعالشاشة مب اللابتوب الكتكوت.
ويالله حطوا بالحسبان المعرفة المسبقة والعميقة بالشخصيات من المصدر الأصل + الإطلاع على مراحل صنع الفلم، التقنيات المستخدمة، تعليقات/ملاحظات العاملين عليه بمختلف مناصبهم وطرحهم لتجاربهم خلال الإنتاج = الفلم حتشوفوه على هيئة إحتفال وألعاب نارية
****
ايييه، زي ما لاحظتم، مراجعاتي ليست بمراجعات، وإنما عملية صب_بشكل مرتب ما استطعت إلى ذلك سبيلاً_للمشاعر اللي مريت فيها مع العمل وغالباً هرج مع نفسي ...

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this book because I love Studio Ghibli films and I love Howl's Moving Castle, so it's natural that I like anything related to that. I think Hayao Miyazaki's work is fantastic, and the artwork is really beautiful, which is why I gave it four stars. Fair warning then, my review is biased. The reason why there is a star missing, is because the artwork is beautiful but it's mostly stills from the film. 60% to 70% of the book is mostly things you've seen in the film. While the film is beautiful, and the images are still fantastic, I would love to see more artwork behind the scenes, and I would love to see more of their process. I liked the script at the back of the book, which was interesting. It gives more depth and a lot more information about the film, which I think is great. If the editors or whoever put this book together would add more stuff about pre-production, rather than use screen grabs and add information to back up the images, it would be more interesting and in my eyes deserve 10 billion stars rather than four.

[Carolina Gervasi · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5⭐

[LW · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was so fascinating! It offered cool art and a look at the development of the movie. My only complaint is that it felt kind of...distant? Like, the short articles from the creators felt kind of choppy and sometimes hard to understand, but that may be because this book was probably translated. Anyway, this is a great book for anyone who loves Howl's Moving Castle to check out!

[Chloe · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘Sophie stayed calm in extreme circumstances that would have overwhelmed most people. I found this inspiring.’
I feel so fortunate to get a look into the makings of one of my favourite films. It’s so interesting seeing Miyazaki’s original concept sketches to seeing the full-colour frames they become. A gorgeous book about a gorgeous film.

[Shi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enthralling

[Michael Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Art of Howl's Moving Castle is a book about making full-feature animated movies from the Ghibli collection. This book covers, from Hayao Miyazaki's masterpiece, the initial sketches, the main storyboards, analysis of the key frames/sequences by the supervising animators and other key personnel, a description of the computer-generated effects (CG) by both their authors and their users, and the full script.

In few words sprinkled in-between well-selected images, we get to learn how many of the main elements were created and why, and how the glueing was guided by Hayao Miyazaki. From the technical elements:
- How'l Moving Castle won its first award at the Venice International Film, where it was also the first Japanese animation entry;
- The movie took two years to complete, from Sep 2002 to Sep 2004;
- The movie uses, for about 120 minutes of screening, almost 150,000 animation sheets (about 1,200 per minute, or 20 per second);
- The crew was inspired in their depiction of cities by their visit to Colmar, Alsace, although their visits to Heidelberg and Paris also helped (as a nice coincidence, I've visited all of them);
- The art of the city objects and buildings also draws from the work of illustrator Albert Robida (1848-1926);
- The coloring was continuously tuned towards brighter;
- The mood of the characters is also illustrated through hue, one of the first times emotion in animated movies is rendered through this approach;
- Although twice as many CG effects were used in Howl's, vs Spirited Away, the previous full-feature of the studio, very few scenes were predominantly CG; instead, CG animated peripheral elements, such as the flapping wings of the flying battleships;
- The set of used CG effects include: fitting, flag waving, path mapping, morphing, particle pathing, water undulating, and several single-object effects (jewelry, the worm hole, etc.).

On the negative side, the dense language--several of the things I was really interested in were explained too technically to make much sense; what is "harmony"?!--and the lack of a general description of the process. For the latter, I would have really appreciated more of the voice of Hayao Miyazaki.

Overall, an excellent book on the topic, with a few correctable issues. Thumbs up!

[Niño · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was given to me by my older brother as a graduation gift. I love Studio Ghibli, but not to the point that I plan or have massive interest in buying their art books that I would often see in Fully Booked. I am curious to read them, but they don't make me feel the need to rush in buying them. I'm glad and thankful to my older brother that I finally get to experience reading my first art book from Studio Ghibli.

Howl's Moving Castle isn't a book that first comes to mind if ever I want to buy my first book in this series mainly because I find the movie to be overrated, but I still like it. This book made me appreciate this movie even more because I was invested in the inspiration, hard work, and passion behind the mentioned members who worked in the animation department. It's also really cool to see the concept art and sketches of certain characters and setting before the finalized version in the film. It was therapeutic to see images from the movie because of its beautiful animation. I consider Howl's Moving Castle to be one of the most beautiful-looking movies in Studio Ghibli.

I was also surprised and happy to know that there's a third part where it features the screenplay of the film considering that I have experiences working on scripts and screenplays. What fascinates me is how simple the sequence treatment, overall structure, and dialogue of the screenplay because I'm used to reading and writing screenplays that have a bit long sequence treatments, but each screenplay has its own style and format that still manages to stand out. With a complex film like Howl's Moving Castle, I wouldn't really think that it would have just a simple screenplay, but Hayao Miyazaki made it work and made me realized that no matter what the style and format a screenplay is, it should properly be able to translate it well into a movie and be understood by the actors/actresses and the filmmakers. As someone who has the skills in writing and (proof)reading scripts, this was my favorite part of the book, which is ironic because the main highlight should be the collection of art images. To be fair, I did find myself reading the screenplay a bit dragging. This could possibly be because I am not used to reading a feature-length screenplay, which I should if I want to pursue this as a career, or maybe the movie itself is not really my favorite. I was invested more with the dialogue than the sequence treatments and the action cues.

When it comes to the part that contains the art of the film, I enjoyed looking at them and I appreciated the perspectives and stories shared by the animators and evolution of each drawings, but when it comes to the text, I find it a bit difficult and distracting to read because the images are labeled with only numbers, while there's a portion in each sub-chapter that contains the information, including the information pertaining to a specific number, so it made me keep scanning. To format this properly, they should've inserted the information below, on top, or next to the images it pertains to so that I don't have to keep moving my head and eyes around to see which image the information pertains to. This format is similar to A Sky Longing for Memories: The Art of Makoto Shinkai.

Overall, this was a nice experience. I am interested in reading the other books in the series, but I'm most likely going to have the same experience in each book, so I'm not super excited to read another one of these. If ever Studio Ghibli makes The Art of Whisper of the Heart then that's the book I want to read next since it is my favorite film from Studio Ghibli.

[kelly]

howl’s moving castle isn’t one of my favourite studio ghibli films but i definitely have a soft spot for it in my heart. loved getting to see more of the production side of things and how studio ghibli makes their magic come to life in this book: there’s a good array of concept art, film stills and commentary from ghibli’s production team. would have more liked more commentary though – that part felt half-finished, too heavy on the technical side rather than the conceptual. all in all, a nice coffee table book to spend a lazy afternoon with.

[Alexander Curran · Rating 5 out of 5]

''It's all so familiar yet I know I've never been here before. I feel so at home.''

When an unconfident young woman is cursed with an old body by a spiteful witch, her only chance of breaking the spell lies with a self-indulgent yet insecure young wizard and his companions in his legged, walking home.

Hauru no ugoku shiro(2004), known to us as Howl's Moving Castle was greeted with numerous reviews not equaling those that Spirited Away received, which is understandable yet undeserving. Miyazaki tells his tale outside the parameters of Western storyline structure. Taking liberties with every aspect, telling it how he wants it to be told, and at first it is a little strange because of the failure recognitive of classic plot points we are so used to seeing; critics have marked it as below par Miyazaki on account of this. I find this ridiculous, and so does Miyazaki. In an interview Miyazaki said "The fact that you would expect a story to be told a certain way is ridiculous." I quite agree Mr. Miyazaki.

The film is among his best, abundant in rich imagination and delightful characters set in a world of fantastical sights and sounds, Where everyone has a fly-machine(Miyazaki is an aviation fanatic), where wizards walk among the common folk.
The film was not released in the United Kingdom until 23 September 2005, yet Director Hayao Miyazaki personally travelled to England in the summer of 2004 to give a private showing of the film to Diana Wynne Jones, a very respectful act. Dianne Wynne Jones, the writer of the book Howls Moving Castle; upon which this film is based combines the essence of the story Jones wrote with the style and art of Miyazaki.

The premise and plot; Young Sophie Hatter is cursed by the Witch of the Waste, and turns into an old hag. Ashamed of how she looks, she flees into the hills where a moving castle roams the hills. This castle known to belong to the young and handsome wizard Howl; whom has a bad reputation. Within the castle, Sophie befriends the fire demon Calcifer who promises to help her become young again. One catch, she must help Calcifer to be free of Howl, and Calcifer cannot tell her how. However, Sophie agrees to stay and try and find out about the contract threw other ways. Still, Howl can see that Sophie is under a spell (like Calcifer can) and falls in love with her for who she is and not what she looks like. Sophie manages to bring life to the moving castle, and help Howl to face his former tutor, Madam Sulimen.

Howl's Moving Castle is riddled with classic Miyazaki: strong women characters, open landscapes, flying machines that are so fantastical you don't care whether the make sense or not, and the horridness of war. These add strength to the love story of Howl and Sofi. Miyazaki uses his wonderful power to take classic, almost mythological and fantasy laden story of Dianne Wynne Jones we all know, and archetypal characters and make them a vision of his own making. He does this with a host of wonderful characters. More strange creatures play prominent role here then any other Miyazaki film.
The film even sometimes surpasses Spirited Away in sheer scope and majesty. There is Calcifer, the wonderfully comic fire demon, on Turniphead; the Scarecrow that leads Sofi to Howl's magical moving castle. The castle itself is one reason to see the film. Miyazaki succeeds in giving the castle life and personality. It lumbers along on its thin chicken-like legs, every atom of it's being pushing, pulling, pumping and gyrating in perfect synchronization.

What is truly mesmerizing about Howl's Moving Castle is how it reaches the imagination and fantasy that Spirited Away had; while with the subtlety and moral splicing of Princess Mononoke while standing on its own in perfectly unique way. There have been complaints of lack of proper character development, but like the point before this is no ordinary story. The characters are thrust into a world they do not know, and there they must adapt, and live outside what they have known all their lives. It is not a story of who they were, but what they have become, or what they must become in order to meet their existences purpose. It does not dwell on the past, and gets into the thick of the story; not pausing for flashback explanations we have come to know. It is like nothing I have ever seen before.

To summarize the whole experience : the American voice casting is brilliant, possibly the best assemble ever on a Miyazaki film, which is saying quite alot. Billy Crystal, Christian Bale(Upon seeing Miyazaki'sSpirited Away, Christian Bale immediately agreed to play any role in this film), Lauren Bacall, Jean Simmons and others provide perfect voice overs. Please, if you enjoy Miyazaki and you have not seen this yet, I recommend you do as soon as possible for you will of course fall in love with it. To summarize
Hayao Miyazaki's achievement with making a visionary film from a book should be summed up by the writer. A fitting way to end my review and sum up the film would be to quote Diana Wynne Jones thoughts on the film, "It's fantastic. No, I have no input - I write books, not films. Yes it will be different from the book; in fact it's likely to be very different, but that's as it should be. It will still be a fantastic film." Take her word for it and mine; It IS a fantastic film.

''You who swallowed a falling star, o' heartless man, your heart shall soon be mine. That can't be good for the table.''

[vicinthemeadow · Rating 5 out of 5]

These books are a must for Miyazaki fans/collectors. Howls Moving Castle is one of my favourite ghibli films and this book did not disappoint. It’s filled with concept art, storyboards, commentary on the designs process as well as the final screenplay at the end. I found the animators commentary super interesting on animating for a European setting versus their usual Japanese settings and what that entails!

[Sonia Jarmula · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful examination of one of my favourite Miyazaki films.

[mightazerie · Rating 3 out of 5]

miyazaki san’s sketches like he never has a bad drawing even if it’s just lines like the genius that he is

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very great art book that provides a lot of concept art and finished background paintings! A stunning book!

[love, j · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn’t read all the words but I love the pictures and the movie and I own it so I’m counting it !!

[Lore · Rating 5 out of 5]

amazing. beautiful. awe inspiring. humbling.

[Bug Be Reading · Rating 5 out of 5]

got it for my birthday from my roommates last year. its my comfort movie so this was an amazing thing to read 🤩

[Shannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was beautiful

[Abdulaziz Al-Mannai · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book! The art is of the highest quality, gives you insight into what went through the creators minds while making it for those interested in such details.
Great book for fans, and great reference for those interested in drawing/designing characters and environment.

[Jan46 · Rating 4 out of 5]

*4.5 The visuals from the movie are breathtaking! It was great getting behind the scenes from the making of Howl’s Moving Castle. Reading the script at the end almost felt as if I was watching the film. So glad I bought this one.

[Albea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading this felt like I was there in the making of my favorite movie of all time 🤧❤

[Kris · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Before we began working on this film, Miyazaki didn't specifically discuss the direction for this film, but his storyboards are so accomplished you can grasp his approach as long as you examine them closely." (Kitaro Kosada, Supervising Animator) (p. 143)

"Miyazaki would say, "Maybe like this, or something like this," and then he would end up drawing everything. In the end, he declared, "I'll assume full responsibility (laughter)." (Takeshi Inamura, Supervising Animator) (p. 45)

"We had the opportunity to take a research trip to Europe. We visited the French Alsatian city, Colmar. The light and atmosphere of the city, the reddish cobblestone streets, the drifting clouds and sunlight left such a strong impression on is they we're incorporated throughout the film.
Most of the films I had worked on were set in Japan so this was the first time I drew European cityscapes. It was difficult to restrain my ingrained Japanese approach to color, so Miyazaki would often instruct me to make my colors "brighter and more colourful." " (Yoji Takeshige, Art Director) (p. 49)

"I still didn't have a good grasp of the overall look for the film during the first few months, so I continued drawing rough concept sketches based on the photos from our research trip and other photograph collections. There wasn't a storyboard yet, but there was a concept sketch by Miyazaki depicting Sophie walking on the wasteland ridge under the sky filled with distant clouds. That drawing allowed me to grasp the overall look of the film." (Noboru Yoshida, Art Director) (p. 63)

"I'd never worked on a film where a character physically changed with her emotional changes, so I was never absolutely confident, constantly doubting my work and asking myself, "Are these colors really right?" It was fun though to feel such anticipation." (Michiyo Yasuda, Color Design Director) (p. 69)

"Miyazaki at first wanted to try out a castle with 10 legs. In the end, the task would have been too demanding. It turned out four legs was quite effective already, so we decided on four legs for the castle." (Mitsunori Kataama, Director of Digital Animation) (p. 77)

"In my concept art I experimented with turning Howl's room into a cave. Sophie is holding a candle so I tried incorporating its light, but Miyazaki said, 'No, I want to treat it as a mental image.' He informed me how the cave wasn't filled with real objects illuminated by Sophie's candlelight, so much as it was a passage to Howl's memory. So it's not a concrete illustration, it's a scene where one's memory of the past resurfaces. Because Howl's toys such as the dolls symbolize Howl's memory, I made the colors bright and immune to the candlelight," (Noboru Yoshida, Art Director) (p. 140)


► Piranesi: The Etchings by Luigi Ficacci – architecture, imagination, ruins
► Berenice Abbott: Changing New York by Bonnie Yochelson & Berenice Abbott – photography, documentary, new york
► Sketch and Finish: The Journey from Here to There by Milton Glaser – sketching, ideas, process
► Cabinet of Curiosities: My Notebooks, Collections, and Other Obsessions by Guillermo del Toro & Marc Zicree – fantasy, nightmares, notebooks

[jade · Rating 4 out of 5]

This extensive and magnificent artbook is a part of the Studio Ghibli Library, and features anything and everything related to Hayao Miyazaki’s animated feature Howl’s Moving Castle (2004). As is to be expected from a Studio Ghibli Library book, it contains many beautiful colour pages filled with concept art, stills from the film, character designs, posters, and more. It definitely serves as a very inspiring and captivating coffee table book.

Scattered among the many illustrations and art pieces are brief explanations of scenes, and provides the staff (mostly the supervising animators) the reader with details on techniques used (CGI, specifically), difficulties encountered, personal opinions on components of the film, and details on both the animating and the production process. It’s quite interesting to read about the motivations of the animators behind certain visible choices in the film, and makes one realize just how much goes into making an animated feature of the scope and size of Howl’s Moving Castle.

The book consists of three parts, namely: (1) Miyazaki’s own concept sketches of the film, including storyboards; (2) concept/background art, character designs and concept sketches of the film; (3) the final screenplay of the English dub. All are extensive and detailed, giving the reader a wonderful compilation of art, interviews, and fun facts.

The second part goes through the film chronologically, covering character designs as soon as characters are introduced, and covering practically every single detail in every single scene. Some scenes, however, only include stills from the final film – though I understand that there aren’t always concept sketches available (and that it would perhaps greatly lengthen the book), this is the only point of critique I could find.

Definitely recommended if you enjoyed the film, and especially if you like artbooks to boot. It’s a gorgeous book with high-quality art, and covers some great background facts on the film as well.

[Jack Shanks · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was incredible to see the sketches and drafts for each of the scenes from the anime, especially after recently completing the novel by Diana Wynne Jones. I will be rewatching the film some time in the near future, for sure!

Reading about the processes that went into making such a beautiful film was incredible! None of this animation was done by half, there was so much thought into even the smallest details that I never even thought about when watching the final product.
The number of people collaborating to make one masterpiece was incredible me and the fact that it was completed cohesively without too much strife, is just amazing to read about. Studio Ghibli seems like a brilliant workplace for animators and artists.

One of my complaints would be that reading this became quite tedious. Although the majority of the pages were filled with images from the film and drafted sketches, the reading involved was quite lengthy. Being that the writing was only about the creation of the work, and the artistic differences on set, it was easy to become a little bored of the text and distracted by the exquisite art of the images. This could probably be prevented if reading another book at the same time and reading this one bit by bit rather than solely focusing on reading this one like I did.

My only other complaint is that this book accentuates the drastic differences from the novel. The film is much lighter, happier and family based. As I have only just read the novel for the first time recently, I probably wouldn't have had any complaints if I had have read this book before reading the original text which is not afraid to become dark while maintaining the excitement of the magic involved in the plot.

Nonetheless, I did really love looking at the gradual progression and development of the animation - the art is so beautiful, and I am a massive fan of the brilliant, hard work put into this film.