With the impending release of Hayao Miyazaki's The Boy and The Heron (2023), we've decided to kick off a short series of anime film discussions to ready ourselves for the visual feast Studio Ghibli is sure to serve up. What better way to start that than with a Hayao Miyazaki joint? Join Dixon, Ryan, and John as journey into the waste and the war-torn lands of Howl's Moving Castle (2004) to discuss and discover the motifs and meaning in this fantastical love story. What's up with the wizard war? Does a pretty girl's heart just taste better than other hearts? Why is everyone able to cast spells without knowing the means to break them? The Afterthoughts crew is going to do their best to answer these questions and more as they cobble together the core reasons Howl's Moving Castle may still be roaming around in the minds of film lovers today.