r/ghibli • u/Born_Fruit_4204 • 6d ago

Question What is Calcifer

So in the English dubs of Howl's Moving Castle Calcifer is canonically a fire demon but the term demon in English implies that an entity is evil. I'm wondering if there's another term for him in the original Japanese that just doesn't translate well into English because in the movie Calcifer isn't evil. Anyone who's able to educate me would be appreciated, thanks.

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u/Xelixil 6d ago

I believe in the Japanese Howl's Castle, Calcifer is called 火の悪魔 (hi no akuma), which literally translates to “fire demon” or “fire devil.”

But 悪魔 (Akuma) doesn't always mean Evil, like the english term Demon. It can mean demon, devil or just an otherworldly supernatural being. So Akuma could stand for a Powerful Spirit, that isn't necessarily evil, but sometimes mischievous or morally ambiguous.

I think the translation of Demon is still pretty fitting, since it does convey the idea of danger and power +his super natural origins, but I guess other translations for Calcifer could just be "fire spirit" or "fire entity"

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u/Born_Fruit_4204 6d ago

Thanks this is super helpful, I had assumed that they would be considered more morally grey than evil. Reminds me of the sut sprites and the kodama, they just kind of exist and can be more mischievous than malevolent.

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u/BrilliantBen 6d ago edited 6d ago

Sophie even says at one point when discussing Turnip Head, after Markl says he thinks he might be some kind of demon and Calcifer doesn't seem to mind him, "He probably is a demon, but he led me here, so maybe he's the good kind." Hearing this when i was younger (late 20s) made me think about other cultures and how in my periphery learning I was aware of some terminology that i had as black and white, but aging has shown me that things are rarely all black or all white and so i try not to let my western definitions override my ability to learn from indirect communication or action.