This is the second important conclusion I came to after reading 'Howl's moving castle' in the original for the second time. The book kept me occupied for two days. This I can say for sure - even if you realise you're not completely happy with what you read, as long as you read without dropping, reading is wonderful.
story and characters
And as you may have understood, the first conclusion is that I am not entirely happy with the book. While I certainly enjoyed greatly the subtle humour of the dialogues and situations so peculiar to English authors, for some reason I felt like something was missing. By the second third of the book I understood that the shortest way to name that 'something' would be 'love', by which I mean the relationship between Sophie and Howl, at least the way it was supposed to be in my imagination, at least after I watched the anime. I wouldn't necessarily call my impression a disappointment, but I'm not sure I can praise the book as a separate work of art.
I must confess the anime is not full without the book, since certain moments in the anime were made to follow the book to the word but lacked explanation. Such were Sophie's words to Calcifer 'may you live 1000 years' explained by the fact she had the magical ability to make things do what she tells them. Such was the milk dress and hat of Fanny, who married into money thanks to the same ability of Sophie. More importantly, the witch's curse to Sophie seemed more logical in the book since she had a proper reason for the curse, as well as for hunting Howl.
However, the same as the anime needs the book, the book needs the anime too. While Sophie's feelings could be vaguely seen in scenes like when she talks about Howl to the king or Fanny, or feels jealousy towards Lily Angorian, Howl's feelings and Howl's soul remained completely out of sight. He lacked half of his anime charm, starting with the very beginning when he didn't help Sophie out of a difficult situation with soldiers making a move on her (since the scene was different), and ending with the last scene when the closest to a confession we can hear from him is a displeased 'I break my neck to get here, and I find you peacefully tidying up'. He was not a brave protector, since there was no war, and there was not even a trace of his caring side portrayed in the anime so attractively, except for a very, very short mention that he did try to lift Sophie's curse. Even the way Howl gently takes the pan from Sophie and starts to cook instead of her in the anime would make a girl's heart tremble, while in the book there is nothing special about it. I must look like I am overly excited with the cooking scene, but don't misunderstand me, there really was just as much tenderness there as I describe it.
conclusion
While I usually see the story and the characters as a whole, since the story is a number of events happening with the characters, or, you could say, the characters' actions make the story, 'Howl' is the rare case when I have to praise the former while the latter I have to call not very satisfying. It is actually a pun, since in my native language 'character' means only 'personality', not a person. Personality is what mrs. Jones managed to create very well, since all the people (and objects) involved were extremely interesting and amusing. I also mentioned that the dialogues and situations, strange and surprising, were a source of great enjoyment for me. I wish the story flow would be composed in a different way, but if you ask me whether these two days were a happy time for me, I'll say they were.
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