I had seen this movie when I was younger, but rewatching Howl’s Moving Castle at the age I am now, I felt like I could relate to Sophie in a way. Lastly, I think it’s very important to have a protagonist in a movie who isn’t objectively or conventionally considered pretty. Howl’s development, too, would be less poignant if Sophie wasn’t plain. Howl, someone previously established as being extremely shallow and obsessed with looks, actually falls in love with Sophie for who she is as a person. And it’s very important for Howl’s development that he manages to find every part of Sophie beautiful, even if she is not conventionally so. “Doesn’t that mean she’s pretty?” Well, beauty can mean a lot of things besides surface level looks. “But Howl calls her beautiful!” you might be thinking. Once her spell is broken and she is able to live again as a young woman, she is visibly happier and more confident because she had time to develop her character without these societal pressures weighing on her. She was able to shed this bitterness towards her appearance and live freely without judgement.Īs a result of living as an old woman, with no one to openly or even subconsciously hold her looks to a standard she cannot meet, she was able to explore her own personality and stop concerning herself with her appearance. Once Sophie turned into a 90 year old woman, she was not expected to be pretty anymore. However, once you become ‘undesirable’ (that is, you hit a certain age) you no longer have these expectations thrust upon you. And while she isn’t horrible looking, the important aspect here is that she does not easily conform to the beauty standards of the society she lives in.Īs a young woman, even if you purposely reject society and are content with how you look, you will still be expected by others to uphold beauty standards and will be criticized when you fail to meet them. She is someone you’d overlook in a crowd. It’s important to note that Sophie is not supposed to be horrendously ugly. She has a very pretty sister who she clearly compares herself to, and Sophie is always undermining her own self worth because of this.

I think it’s very important to the story that Sophie actually is plain looking, and here’s why.įrom the beginning, we realize Sophie is insecure about her looks. The idea being that she realizes at the end of the film that she was pretty the whole time, and just insecure. Although recently, I’ve seen some people claim that Sophie isn’t really bad looking, she’s actually very pretty but just doesn’t know it. Howl’s Moving Castle is one of my favorite Ghibli movies and I love that there’s still so much discussion about it so many years after it came out.

Sophie howls moving castle