Review of Kiki’s Delivery Service / 魔女の宅急便, directed by Hayao Miyazaki

Back when the pandemic was still happening, before we pretended it never happened and tried to move on from the sheer number of deaths and agony that was inflicted on us during that period, my sister and I would sit in our living room every few days and watch movies.

Unable to go outside besides our jobs as essential workers, as my entire household was dubbed as essential workers, we would sit and watch those movies to remember what the world once was. We went through her DVD collection slowly, prioritizing the films we had already owned in her collection.

We alternated who got to pick, and of course it was my sister who wanted to watch all of her Studio Ghibli movies. I have nothing against Studio Ghibli, but at this point in my life it wouldn’t have bee my first pick when it came to movies to watch.

And that was how I ended up watching Kiki’s Delivery Service for the first time. I was thinking about this moment of my life recently, and decided to revisit it. This is how this blog post ended up coming about.

Let’s get into the review before I start rambling too much!

Young witch Kiki learns to live on her own with the help of a new community.

The plot on this film is a little more simple compared to some of the other Studio Ghibli movies I have seen throughout the years. Our protagonist is Kiki, a young witch who is going through her coming of age. She decides to leave her home, which is a requirement for young witches of all backgrounds.

So she takes her black cat, Jiji, with her. Fun fact: this cat talks and is one of the most iconic characters in the movie. Kiki’s mother tells her that she should take the old family broomstick, but as Kiki flies off into the night, she learns that she’s not that good at it.

When she comes across an arrogant witch and her cat, Kiki flies into a town called Koriko. Unable to cut through traffic properly, a police officer tries to stop her, but then a boy named Tombo helps her get away from him and into the town.

It’s in Koriko Kiki decides to set up her home base. She needs work, as we live in a world even in this movie where people need money to survive, and then she comes across a bakery where she can live and work. The owners, Osono and Fukuo, are kind enough to offer her this, and she decides to start her business delivering goods across the city.

So Kiki begins her job as a delivery girl. But during her very first delivery, she lands in a forest full of crows. They attack her and she loses the stuffed black cat she is supposed to deliver. Jiji pretends to be the actual item as Kiki goes searching for the real one; she finds it in the home of a painter named Ursula.

Ursula is kind too, and she repairs the stuffed animal and returns it to Kiki. Kiki then switches Jiji out with the stuffed animal, accomplishing their mission. Tombo then pops back into the picture when he invites Kiki to join his little aviation club.

She doesn’t end up going to it after getting caught in a thunderstorm and catching a cold. Osono then pulls some strings behind the scenes and gets Tombo and Kiki to meet up again, and they go for a ride on his test machine. Kiki does learn repeatedly that his friends aren’t the greatest.

But as all of this is happening, Kiki is losing touch with herself. She can no longer understand Jiji, nor fly. Unable to run her business, her depression spirals until Ursula invites Kiki to spend time with her. They go to her home, and Ursula discovers that Kiki is having a form of artist’s block.

Kiki watches television soon after this and watches an accident involving some airships in town; Tombo is visible on the screen, too, helping people. Kiki runs to the scene after she realizes he was swept away by the wind, and asks a local shop owner for a broom.

She musters the courage to take flight and is successful, rescuing Tombo and bringin him back to safety. After this, she resumes her business. The movie ends as she sends a letter home describing how happy she has become.

Overall Thoughts

I mentioned a little bit before about how this is one of the more simple Studio Ghibli movies, and there is nothing wrong with that because this isn’t meant to be a more thought provoking film. It’s a story about a girl’s coming of age, and we can analyze deeper through that medium instead.

Because of this, I enjoyed the film a lot. It’s cute and it’ll stand the test of time because of how simple it is, even when the content it depicts on the screen might not be seen as advanced compared to modern technology.

That said—this is one of my favorite Ghibli movies because of this. It doesn’t complicate itself, the dialogue is simple, and Kiki is a determined young girl. I could see a lot of myself in her throughout the film.

Go watch this one if you haven’t already! It’s a fun one.

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