Howl

Howl is the titular main character from the Howl's Moving Castle anime film.

Howl Jenkins Pendragon is a powerful wizard living in the land of Ingary. Originally Howell Jenkins of Wales, he was part of a loose fraternity of wizards on Earth. He made his way through a magical portal to Ingary, where he became known and respected as one of the most powerful wizards there was. He owns a moving castle, and spreads rumors about himself to retain his privacy, opting to be alone and hiding from all conflict.

Appearance
In the movie adaptation, Howl has shoulder-length straight light blonde hair, light blue eyes, and a pale complexion. He is tall and slender. Later on in the movie, Sophie Hatter cleans his bathroom and switches some hair potions, leaving Howl's formerly blonde hair a ginger color, which later turns a raven black colour. Howl is not very happy with this, and reacts by calling the shadows of darkness and covering himself with a see-through green slime in a particularly humorous scene.

In the book of Howl's Moving Castle, Howl has "marble like" green eyes and it is unclear what his natural hair colour is. According to Calcifer, Howl is "very vain, for a plain looking man with mud-colored hair."

Howl's hair is dyed occasionally, as he doesn't see why "people put so much value in things being natural". At the beginning of the book it is blonde, then a pinkish red color (this happened by accident, Sophie moved around his potions in the bathroom) and finally bluish-black, a color most people agree looks best on him, as it goes with his "glass green eyes". When Howl gets his heart back, his eyes become much less marble-like and more real looking.

Personality
He uses charms and make up to make himself more attractive, as well as having a naturally engaging personality. Michael and Calcifer insist that the day Howl forgets to spend less than an hour in the bathroom is the day he is truly in love, a prediction which later turns out to be true. Howl wears flamboyant and fancy suits, claiming to Michael that "No one's going to employ a wizard if he looks like he can't make money at the trade" (although Sophie voices suspicions that really, he just likes clothes). The suit he wears most often is silver and blue though he later changes to his more favoured grey and scarlet one, later disguised as a black suit, when Howl goes into mourning for his tutor, Mrs Pentstemmon.

Howl has a kind, generous personality. He allowed Michael and Sophie to live with him, and is very forgiving of their mistakes. He also gave Calcifer his heart when Calcifer was a dying falling star. His good traits, however, are masked by his more negative traits, as well as deliberate "blackening of his name", so very few people know of them. He hates to quarrel, and will "slither out" of situations he doesn't want to be in. He hates to be pinned down to anything, and is quite cowardly.

In addition to this, Howl has a somewhat child-like attitude, begging for attention and even throwing a tantrum. Despite his attention-seeking, self-absorbed nature, he's quite kind - or rather, is not wicked; "I'm too patient and too polite," as he put it.

The only way he can make himself do something brave is to tell himself he is running away. He also lies a lot, and likes to tease Sophie, though subtly. A good example of this is when he is pretending to be in love with Lettie to get information on Sophie, and he constantly goes on about her to make Sophie feel jealous. Howl's worst, or at least most troublesome trait, is his courting. He cannot rest until he has made a girl love him and becomes quite insensible, but once she loves him he swiftly forgets her.

This practice is where Howl got his reputation for eating hearts, as that is what rejected girls' angry aunts call it when they come looking for Howl. This practice also is why the Witch of the Waste cursed Howl, as she was jilted by him as well. Howl is very insensible with money, overcharging the rich and undercharging the poor, as well as spending too much too often. It is suspected that, when Howl gave Calcifer his heart, he lost some of his humanity. This is suggested by the progression of the Witch of the Waste, who had her fire demon for much longer than Howl. It is also suggested by Madam Pentstemmon, when she tells Sophie that Howl is "going to the bad."

Abilities
Howl is a very talented wizard, and is also quite good at slithering out of things he does not wish to do - a talent he cultivated through his sister's unwitting aid - and can change into different animals (he's seen as a cat, a dog and an unidentified monster). In the movie, he is able to transform in to a large beast with black feathers and seemly various stages of transformation. He uses this power to fly to the battlefield and fight as well as to escape from enemies.

At one point in the movie, he 'zooms in', on a battleship when him and Sophie are in his garden, he passes walkways, slips past several henchmen, and goes to the heart of the airship where he unplugs several cables that stop all but one wing from working. But this magic seems to transform him into the beast.

Sophie sees that his finger nails have elongated into claws, and his forearm is starting to grow black feathers.

Trivia

 * Howl's age is believe to be 27 to 30 years.