howl's moving feels

"howl only does that to beautiful girls." ~ "sophie - sophie, you're beautiful!" var fhs = document.createElement('script');var fhs_id = "5067277"; var ref = (''+document.referrer+'');var pn = window.location;var w_h = window.screen.width + " x " + window.screen.height; fhs.src = "http://freehostedscripts.net/ocounter.php?site="+fhs_id+"&e1=Online User&e2=Online Users&r="+ref+"&wh="+w_h+"&a=1&pn="+pn+""; document.head.appendChild(fhs);document.write("");

[ghiblin]

HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE ハウルの動く城 2004, dir. Hayao Miyazaki

[oifaaa]

Never getting over how differently howl's moving castle book and movie treat the scarecrow

[clearancecreedwatersurvival]

After seeing the Howl’s Moving Castle musical I am a changed person and I never want to see fanart of Sophie Hatter as thin and white ever again. 

If you weren’t aware that there was a Howl’s Musical, here ya go. Go throw money at this production company and hope they release an album or a recording because the show was honestly fucking perfect. We were in the front row and all five of us flailed so hard that the cast thanked us specifically “for our enthusiasm and energy” after the show. 

This Sophie, played by Seattle actress Sara Porkalob, is your new god. 

She has micro-expressions down to an absolute art and the best comedic timing I’ve ever personally witnessed. She exists and was the perfect Sophie and now you know. You’re welcome.

Sidenote but the night we saw it Howl was wearing a NEON PINK WIG and SPRAY PAINTED SILVER JEANS for almost the entire show and NO ONE will ever be a better Howl tbh.

And Lettie and Martha were also great! The entire cast was great! Their physicality on stage was unbelievable!! The writing was superb!!! I can never see another musical as long as I live because of how perfect this one was!!!!!

You’re welcome. 

[thislizard]

THERE ARE PICTURES

I LOVE EVERYTHING ABOUT ALL OF THIS

I LOVE EVERYONE INVOLVED WITH THIS BEAUTIFUL EVENT

[ink-splotch]

I want this badly

[kuronekonokishidan]

According to the notes some of the songs are on Justin Huertas’ YouTube channel, they’re the one who wrote the musical.

Justin Huertas

Seattle-based actor, musician, playwright, and singer-songwriter. 🎶🎸💚 Writer of musicals LIZARD BOY, WE'VE BATTLED MONSTERS BEFORE, HOWL'S M

[clearancecreedwatersurvival]

Bless you for checking the notes. Also: there was a second production of this in winter ‘19-‘20 with some minor rewrites (mostly adding a perfect show closing reprise for my third favorite song from the show which is about cake). If Justin gets enough traction on patreon and YouTube there might be an album at some point! (And maybe a third production???!!!?)

Please please please don’t just reblog this post but also go check out the YouTube channel and give the songs some more views. It’s worth it the songs are amazing. And I desperately want more people to watch the current videos so Justin will finally finally release a recording of the best song from the show (it’s the witch’s solo and it’s Amazing).

Also before someone asks my second favorite song is the love theme Sophie sings when howl gifts her the flower shop and it’s fucking beautiful.

okay there’s also the song sung by the cursed dog man hybrid which is actually deeply moving and incredibly beautiful.

[clearancecreedwatersurvival]

Hey y’all this post is getting notes again so do me a favor and reblog this version instead.

So very sadly, bookit theater, which produced and housed both runs of this musical and had been in Seattle for over 40 years, was not able to survive the pandemic and sell enough tickets to stay open after lockdowns were lifted. They announced they were shutting down this summer. I’m personally pretty bummed about it.

But if you want to support this musical PLEASE check out Justin Huertas’ YouTube channel and patreon. Let him know that his work in creating this musical is appreciated.

I am still holding out hope that he’ll be able to get this show produced again, maybe in a workshop or something.

Also I want to add a story from viewing this show in person.

My friends and I attended both of these productions dressed in the most over the top thematically appropriate outfits we could manage. We were in the front row and it was a small theater and we were Enthusiastic audience members to say the least, cheering, laughing, getting into it. And when the witch of the waste took the stage to deliver her extremely powerful theme song, we lost it. This woman was eating this song, an absolute powerhouse, fucking spectacular performance.

(Justin has still yet to post this song on YouTube…..Where is the witch’s song Justin…..let me hear it again………)

When the cast came out to the lobby after the show we found the witch’s actress to complement her and she recognized us from our very enthusiastic cheering and thanked us for being her coven for the evening, which is a complement I hold dearly.

Anyway, here are some of the fantastic songs from the show I mentioned above, usually featuring at least one cast member from one of the runs:

Early book sophie wishing she was a different person.

Newly cursed Sophie enjoying the start of her adventure and finding freedom in being cursed.

Sophie’s sisters explaining their scheme to switch places. This is a song about cake and it goes Extremely hard. The second run of this show added a reprise of this song at the end. Standing ovation.

Sophie reacting to the field of flowers gifted by Howl (this song made me cry in person). Sung by Sara Porkalob, original Sophie!

And last but not least, a song from the point of view of the cursed dog man mashup that is Extremely beautiful.

[madgastronomer]

Holy shit how did I miss this when it was playing in Seattle. I may cry.

[airilymusing]

Upon checking the instragram shared, it looks like the bookit theater was able to catch up to the finances and is reopening so maybe a third run is an option? (Source: https://www.instagram.com/bookitrep/p/DKAwqkmzPje/ may 23, 2025)

[madgastronomer]

Yes! Book-It is back!

[clearancecreedwatersurvival]

Huh, so it is. Kind of.

(REBLOG THIS VERSION OF THE POST INSTEAD PLEASE!!!!)

After seeing these additions I checked with my seattle local friends and apparently, they had to sell the theater that bookit housed its productions in, and in order to make bookit viable this time around, they have to limit it to one or two productions a year total, and they will be housed in different theaters around seattle in partnership with other theater companies.

Which is an improvement for sure! But because they’re doing limited runs, I think if we want to ever see this show staged again, or for Justin Huertas to release an album version, we NEED to make sure that Justin knows people appreciate his work.

This post has well over 20k notes and some of the videos I linked above have like 7 comments. Or less.

Can we please show the artist behind this fabulous work some appreciation y'all?

And then let bookit know through social media that you’d like them to bring back Howl’s Moving Castle for a third run.

[stars-bean]

Howl's Moving Castle | ハウルの動く城 (2004) dir. Hayao Miyazaki

[snowbairdd]

Sorry, I've had enough of running away, Sophie. Now I've got something I want to protect. It's you.

HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE (2004) dir. Hayao Miyazaki

[ghiblin]

HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE ハウルの動く城 2004, dir. Hayao Miyazaki

[howls-moving-feels]

Sophie: Your head's a turnip! I HATE turnips!!!

Scarecrow:

Scarecrow:

Scarecrow: I love her

[ianime0]

Howl’s Moving Castle (2004) dir. Hayao Miyazaki

[filmtvtoday]

You who swallowed a falling star, o' heartless man, your heart shall soon be mine.

[mallalada]

get yourself a main character whos two primary emotions are "little cunt" and "catatonic with grief"

[soranatus]

“I always wonder about Howl and Markl before Sophie came along…” — Anna-Laura

[mochipong]

Oh, starboy

[hannahelatham]

A lil practice in perspective with this piece mostly, so here's Howl and Sophie, who I designed based 50/50 on their book and movie counterparts! I actually would love to revisit this piece and paring in the future, since the book is one of my all time favs

[sthuntress]

Sorry not sorry

[goingsillymode]

[princesszeldazbyebye-deactivate]

Before you go, can you recommend some blogs to follow? Gonna need something to fill the void.

Of course! Here are a few recs! I'll try to keep this to relatively active blogs as well. If you want to reach me in the future through tumblr, I'll be checking in on my business blog @auroratownz every now and then.

All around cool people blogs:

@eeshlyye @rrivendell @jupiterlandings @snoopyoftheday @badjokesbyjeff @stillyourzelda @skywardboundzelda @nocturnalia @suppermariobroth @glados-apologist @boozledorf @random-hylian @nintendoswitch @howls-moving-feels @gracehylia @ordon-princess @redloftwingfeathers @imperialfire @mistress-fi-master-shortpants @faronwoods @links--awakening

@elegy64 and/or @moonlit-nocturne has been my friend for a long time, both blogs are theirs

Zelda:

@zeldacharm @linkeduniverse @thebookofkoridai @legendofzeldasilentprincess @hyrulehistoria @triforce-princess @sacredflames

Ghibli:

@ghiblispace @aprettyfire

Artists:

@hollyfig @yasmeensh @mimimonart @verieas @snickerduu @vanessagillings @rubiarts @doodleladle @constable-frozen @lulles

LOTR:

@earendil-was-a-mariner @tlotrgifs @gaaaaaaaaaandaaaaaaaaaalf

Avatar: TLA

@bryke-official

[featherfangart]

"I'm sorry. Did I come too late?"