So. I don’t know how often I get to say this but Howl’s Moving Castle is genuinely one of my favorite books, if not my favorite of all time. I fell in love with that stupid Welsh idiot when I was seventeen and whenever I’m having a truly awful day I’ll get it out and reread it for the umpteenth time just so I can relive the absolute mess of a love story that lives in those pages.
The Howl for the Studio Ghibli movie never sat quite right with me. They got the style more or less right, I felt, but the voice was off and he just seemed either too much or not enough. Maybe both at the same time. I don’t know, the bishounen look never matched the kind of rogueish charm I thought Howell Jenkins was meant to have.
This, though. God this fits. This fits so incredibly well. The sly smiles, the casual flirtatious looks, the Presence, the grooming. The open shirt with the necklace, the long dreads, the septum piercing. This is what a 20 something thaumatics student at a Welsh college thinks a wizard looks like and damned if he’s not going to live up to the part. This is what a wizard who’s got a foot in two worlds and is straddling the line looks like. This is what a man looks like when he falls in love with someone under a curse and realizes the magic was the least of his worries.
I love this. Thanks for making me fall in love with Howl all over again.
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