adapted by Naoko Amemiya
3 stars
A lengthy picture book that covers the entirety of the film, Howl’s Moving Castle. I don’t normally like picture books that use screengrabs of movies, but the artwork from this movie is so well done, I really didn’t mind. I think you could take any Miyazaki film and easily turn it into a picture book. The art is so full of depth and detail. Stunning visuals.
The book is composed of multiple images per page as well as contiguous text to describe the events. Storywise, there is quite a bit to pack into a picture book. I found some of the spans a little confusing to figure out the order. It’s not always clear whether to read the text or look at the pictures first. Some of the images also have speech bubbles added and it wasn’t always clear where they fit within the text. Okay flow overall. I’d definitely say it’s best to have already seen the movie before going into this.
Includes the lyrics to “Sekai no Yakusoku (Promise of Love)” at the end.
Overall, a nice rendition. Works well for fans of the movie.