Yeah, I got the impression from the special features that the crew working on the English-language dub seemed to believe this was all Miyazaki's brainchild, and I wonder how many of them (if any) had even READ the book and so'd been aware of the Welsh thing. I actually remember someone in the interviews saying Howl was such a typical Japanese character that they felt they needed to tweak him so Western audiences could appreciate him as a hero, and I just wanted to shake the guy, screaming "LET'S TALK ABOUT THE ENGLISHWOMAN WHO INVENTED HOWL!"

DO IT. BE SOPHIE. Or cosplay her, whatever works. Hubby must cooperate.