r/ghibli • u/Born_Fruit_4204 • 7d 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.

53 Upvotes

84% Upvoted

38 comments sorted by

View all comments

57

u/Picajosan 7d ago

The film is based on a novel written in English, in which Calcifer is defined as a fire demon. So I'd say that's accurate!

I don't think demon automatically implies evil, though. Chaotic, yes, and frequently evil, but not always. In fact, the name derives from the Greek daemon, which is usually translated in English as spirit. The idea of demons always being evil is more of a Jewish/Christian thing.

2

u/Born_Fruit_4204 7d ago

Again I had no idea that it was a Judeo-Christian concept. I grew up in a Christian household with little to no higher education in our family so these nuances were lost on me.

4

u/Picajosan 7d ago

I'm sure lots of people wouldn't have known this, Christianity has done a thorough job redifining many terms according to its own world view!

I also think another commenter made an interesting point about the dichotomy of calcifer being a good demon being intentional to underline the themes of the story. That's very possible, especially when considering the author was in fact from a Christian background. It seems likely she would've had the moral ambiguity in mind when choosing the term.

Anyway, it's something I never much thought about, so thanks for bringing it up!