Welcome to my piece on Kiki’s Delivery Service, the fourth film from Studio Ghibli and the fifth film in my retrospective on Hayao Miyazaki.

Kiki’s Delivery Service is based on the 1985 book of the same name by Eiko Kadono. It offers a lot of the same motifs and themes Miyazaki employs across his body of work. While it does not have a strong central plot, the story is strung together under the general auspices of Kiki’s journey toward adulthood. It’s a charming yet affirming coming of age story, supported by the same visual excellence you expect from Studio Ghibli.

Story of Kiki’s Delivery Service

Welcome to the world of Kiki’s Delivery Service. It’s very much like our world, but with one key difference; witches are real and are both known and accepted by the public.

Kiki is a thirteen year old witch in training. At the start of the film, Kiki sets off from home to continue her training, in keeping with witch tradition. She travels to a coastal city and attempts to make ends meet by establishing a delivery service using her ability to fly by broomstick. The rest of the film consists of slice of life vignettes exploring Kiki’s life in her new circumstances.

Characters

Kiki is our main character. At heart she’s positive and hardworking. However, she doesn’t have much more in the way of a set character. That’s not because Kiki isn’t developed. Quite the opposite. It’s because the film is entirely about how she grows and develops as a person. Sometimes she’s confident. Sometimes she isn’t. Kiki sometimes knows exactly what she wants. Sometimes she doesn’t. Her underlying decency always shines through, but she’s conflicted and mercurial in parts, like an actual young person.

Jiji is Kiki’s black cat familiar. He’s less rambunctious than Kiki, acting as either the voice of reason or voice of cynicism, depending on your version of the film (more on that in a bit).

Tombo is the overly chatty and helpful aviation nerd that Kiki meets soon after moving to town. He and Kiki quickly develop an attraction, although she’s not really equipped to deal with it just yet. Nonetheless, Tombo continues to be an important factor in the film.

Osono is the very pregnant baker who offers Kiki a place to stay in exchange for watching the bakery. Osono also has a husband who is a frequent presence in the film, but who only has a line or two in the whole film. The couple are unambiguously positive forces in the film, supporting Kiki as soon as she meets them.

Finally, there’s Ursula, a backwoods artist Kiki stumbles upon through a work-related mishap. Ursula only appears in two sequences, but she helps Kiki come to an important realization during a critical juncture.

Themes and Motifs

Coming of Age

The primary theme of Kiki’s Delivery Service is growing up. Kiki’s journey is all about learning to be self-sufficient, finding purpose, and engaging with other people.

Kiki has to find a job and a place to stay. She has to figure out how to pay for food, and make food. She deals with personal struggles and work struggles. And she even has to deal with a young crush, with all the complicated feelings that creates.

The truest expression of this theme is found when Kiki starts to lose her magic. She’s growing apart from old familiar things, most notably Jiji. However, her big moment isn’t in giving up because she’s grown past witchcraft. Her moment comes when she realizes what she wants out of life and recontextualizes everything. In doing so, she gains something while learning to reintegrate the old into her life.

Something Old and Something New

That’s another theme to Kiki’s Delivery Service: unifying what’s old and what’s new. It’s a corollary to the theme of growing up. After all, growing up is all about supplementing what you’ve been taught with new experiences and lessons.

There’s an undercurrent of Kiki embracing modernity while still holding on to tradition. A crucial example is the delivery service itself. It’s built on both tradition (the witchcraft allowing Kiki to fly) and modern convenience (Kiki takes orders by phone).

This continues throughout the film. There’s a give and take between tradition and progress. Kiki learns a a lot from her time in the city, but modern innovations aren’t perfect and sometimes need a little help. There are smaller moments where this is demonstrated, such as when Kiki helps an elderly clientele a wood stove in place of her oven. But the most obvious example comes when Kiki rescues Tombo during the dirigible accident by using her magic.

This dovetails nicely with Kiki’s coming of age. Rescuing Tombo, and the new possibilities he represents, gives Kiki new purpose. But that new purposes is what allows her to invoke her powers, the embodiment of tradition. It’s the new and the old acting together, synergistically.

The Resilience of Young Women

Miyazaki loves his strong female protagonists. However, Kiki’s Delivery Service is the first time the struggle of a young woman IS the story, rather than an aspect of it. Kiki’s journey is designed to be a testament to the strength of young women, particularly young Japanese women.

Flying

Hey, did you know that Hayao Miyazaki has a fascination with flying? Not only does this film have a bunch of flying, it also has a character (Tombo) who is as much of a massive aviation nerd as Miyazaki.

Why Doesn’t Jiji Talk at the End?

A common point of debate in the film is what happens to Jiji. We never actually see whether Kiki regains the power to talk to him. Therefore, people debate whether Kiki and Jiji ever speak again, and what the implication of that talking (or lack thereof) means.

Here’s what I think; it doesn’t matter. Not because I don’t think Jiji matters, but because the talking itself doesn’t matter.

We know what happens to Jiji and Kiki’s friendship, at least in the only way that counts. They reconcile. We see it when Kiki takes Jiji and his kitten on her broomstick for a flight.

Sometimes friends grow apart. Sometimes they lose the ability to communicate the way they used to. And sometimes when they reconcile they still have to find a new way to understand each other. But that isn’t as important as the fact that they DO reconcile.

Production Quality of Kiki’s Delivery Service

Hey, guess what! This film made by Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli looks really nice. What a surprise!

Animation

I do want to talk about one particular thing they really nail in this movie. The animation of hair and cloth is spectacular. The scenes where Kiki takes flight include some excellent rippling on both, and it looks amazing. Everything looks amazing, but that really caught my eye.

Backgrounds

Still awesome.

Character Designs

The characters verge on under-designed. The clothing and features are far less exaggerated than in many Studio Ghibli films. But that’s not a problem.

These characters don’t have dramatically unique and distinct basic designs because this is a really good animated film. That kind of stuff is gravy, not a necessary part of the deal. The characters can distinguish themselves in ways beyond static physical attributes and clothes. The animation lets them have unique mannerisms and movements that lend them personality beyond the rough sketch of their design.

I do have one specific note; I look at Tombo, but what I see is Tintin, the Belgian comic character. Not sure why, but I can’t make it stop.

Music

Joe Hisaishi is still great at his job.

English Translation

As with several other Studio Ghibli productions, there’s more than one English dub. The first was done by Streamline Productions, and is only available on Laserdisc.

The second English dub of Kiki’s Delivery Service was the first product of the Studio Ghibli/Disney partnership. The performances in this dub are generally quite good. Kiki is played by a young Kirsten Dunst. Jiji is played by Phil Hartman, his last role before his untimely death.

The Disney dub has two versions. The original version included a number of changes from the original Japanese. Music was altered or added. The opening and ending songs were replaced with original English compositions. Jiji was changed to be more sarcastic, allowing Hartman to ad-lib. A line was added at the end to imply that Kiki regains the ability to hear Jiji. Later releases of the English dub rolled back many of these changes to more closely adhere to the original Japanese version. All changes were approved by Studio Ghibli and Miyazaki.

Unless you’re a hardcore fan, my recommendation is that you watch the post-2010 version of the Disney dub. If you are a hardcore fan, I’m sure you already know what version will best suit your needs.

Conclusion

Kiki’s Delivery Service is an excellent film. It has some of my favorite character work out of all of these films, supported by a well-pace slow burn coming of age plot. It also has the expected spectacular animation and art direction we see in every Studio Ghibli production.

This film isn’t my personal favorite in the Ghibli library, or in Miyazaki’s own catalogue. However, that’s more a function of taste. I can’t deny the craft at play in Kiki’s Delivery Service. I’m making it the new #2 on my Miyazaki Rankings.

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