Okay, I love the Deltora Quest series, by Emily Rodda. It is one of my happy childhood loves, so when I discovered an anime of it, it was with trepidation that I watched the first episode. And there are two things I have to say about the anime version. One, for an anime, it seems to be pretty good at following the correct original plot, and two, Lief is blonde!!! How, in any possibility, could Lief be blonde?!?! It struck me as completely wrong the moment I saw it. Especially since everyone else has dark hair (excepting his father, who also shouldn't be blonde) and he's supposed to be 'average', so that it's logical for him to think that he's just a peasant like everyone else. Much annoyance.

Also, I recently managed to procure a copy of Serenity (Joss Whedon) and I'd like to say that it is AWESOME!!! Serenity is quick, funny, with great characters and a thrilling storyline, but it does have one rather strange con. The story is filled with the feeling of a conclusion. Throughout Serenity, the movie feels constantly as if its about to end... Completely insane.

That's it.

Review: Howl's Moving Castle.
Book By Diana Wynne-Jones.
Movie By Hayao Miyazaki.

I must admit, I am shamelessly obsessed with Anime. Which is the reason that, the moment I saw ads on TV for an anime about a moving castle, I was eager to see it, even going so far as to see it three times in the cinema, twice in English and once in Japanese. And no matter which language I see it in, I adore Howl's Moving Castle.

Howl's Moving Castle is a cinematic masterpiece. A well structured and engaging story, with likeable and well designed characters. The animation is first quality, with many beautiful painted backdrops, making it shine amongst all other anime.

After seeing such a brilliant and stunning movie, I was anxiously looking forward to reading the original novel. Upon reading it, however, I found myself sadly disappointed. It's a brilliant story, and there are many awesome concepts that are never explored in the movie. Unfortunately, the book lacks plot.

Well, I say plot, I should really say a climax. Howl's Moving Castle is really a quite well written book, but it lacks one of the most important features of a novel. The progression of cause and effect. Instead, Howl's Moving Castle has a progression better described as event and event. Basically, the book seems a bit like a series of short stories about a group of people, collated in chronological order, with the last story slightly longer and more dramatic than the rest.

This 'last story', which should probably be a climax, ends up as just a bit of a wimpy fight between Sophie and the ultimate evil, (which isn't all that impressive), and then a lame agreement between (dare I say it?) the main couple that they should live together in something akin to matrimonial hell.

A large fault to the book is perhaps the character development. The strange thing is, the characters are developed extremely well. It's the characters themselves that are the problem. Sophie, our main character, starts off as a slightly insane girl who's wasting her life being old, and turns into a crotchety old woman who's obviously got a thing for men 60 years younger than her. Howl, our other lead, is a narcissistic womaniser with absolutely no redeeming qualities, even when he does have a heart. This builds little sympathy for their well-being.

Amazingly enough, I found myself with sympathy for both characters. However, I am sad to say that this was brought about by the personalities that they possess in the movie. A good improvement on the book, Sophie is not quite so strange, a whole lot nicer, and the way she turns young again is explained. full stop. In Howl's case, he has human emotions, he learns some form of moral from his experience and the heart actually seems to do him some good.

I'll always be sorry that the alternate universe subplot was used only in the novel, as it was a part of the book that I enjoyed the most, but I believe that I will always have greater esteem for the anime. I'm sure that many people who've read the book first will jump to its defense against the 'perversion of the nasty anime lover', but the truth is, that, unless you develop a love for the book before you see the anime, the book is always going to seem second rate, and that really can't be avoided.

So, if you've never seen the movie of Howl's Moving Castle, my advice is to give the book a go first, and give yourself a chance to love it, before you overshadow it with the superior quality of the movie. If you've seen the movie, try giving the book a go anyway. You never know, someone might prove me wrong and enjoy the book even more than they did the anime. I'd suggest Howl's Moving Castle to both boys and girls in their early teens, and the anime adaptation to people of all ages.

Book: 6/10.
Movie: 9/10.