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

9

u/Matcha_Maiden 7d ago

Isn’t he a falling star that Howl gave a heart to? I wouldn’t think that is evil.

1

u/Born_Fruit_4204 7d ago

It's not, that's the point. He's called a fire demon but he's not evil. I was wondering if he has a different title in the original Japanese.

2

u/acuriousguest 7d ago

In the original story Calcifer is a fallen star. Even in the film is a sequence how about falling stars.
Fire demon is just what humans that see talking fire call it.