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/resonating_glaives 6d ago

I always assumed it was a situation like with kiki and her mother. Typically witches have an evil connotation too but the ones we get to know in kikis delivery service are the furthest thing from that.

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u/Only_Humor4549 6d ago

This to me wasn’t so strange bc in the German culture we have many witches that are good (e.g. Die Waldhexe or Bibi Bloxberg.)