Kiki's Delivery Service

Thirteen-year-old trainee witch Kiki leaves home with her talking black cat Jiji. She flies on her broomstick to the port city of Koriko. While trying to find somewhere to live, Kiki is pursued by Tombo, a geeky boy obsessed with aviation who admires her flying ability.

In exchange for accommodation, Kiki helps Osono, the kind owner of a bakery who is pregnant with her first child. She opens a business delivering goods by broomstick—the "Witch Delivery Service". Her first delivery goes poorly; she is caught in the wind and loses the black cat toy she is supposed to deliver. Jiji pretends to be the toy until Kiki can retrieve the real item. She finds it in the home of a young painter, Ursula, who repairs and returns it to Kiki so she can complete the delivery and rescue Jiji.

Kiki accepts a party invitation from Tombo, but is delayed by her work and, exhausted, falls ill. When she recovers, Osono clandestinely arranges for Kiki to see Tombo again by assigning her a delivery addressed to him. After Kiki apologizes for missing the party, Tombo takes her for a test ride on the flying machine he is working on fashioned from a bicycle. Kiki warms up to Tombo but is intimidated by his friends, so she walks home.

Kiki becomes depressed and discovers she can no longer understand Jiji, who has befriended a pretty white cat named Lilly. She has also lost her flying ability and is forced to suspend her delivery business. Kiki has a surprise visit from Ursula, who determines that Kiki's crisis is a form of artist's block. Ursula suggests that if Kiki can find a new purpose, she will regain her powers.

While Kiki is visiting a customer, she witnesses an airship accident on television. A strong gust leaves Tombo hanging from a rope in mid-air. Kiki regains her flying power and manages to rescue him. She recovers her confidence, resumes her delivery service, and writes a letter home saying that she and Jiji are happy.

Kiki and Jiji (sitting on Kiki's back) flying by the clock tower in Koriko just after arriving. According to Helen McCarthy, the "vibrant" Stockholm-inspired city gives a sense of safety as well as independence.[6][7]

A major theme of the film is maturity.[8] After leaving her parents who are supportive of her independence, Kiki has to face problems common to adolescence such as finding a job, seeking acceptance, and taking care of herself.[9] The concept of vulnerability is also examined closely in the film. Critic Mark Schilling notes a scene during Kiki's first night away from home where Kiki rushes back to her room and slams the door behind her to avoid being spotted by Fukuo. Fukuo, however, steps outside simply to stretch his arms, and Kiki's bizarrely shy behavior "expresses [her] youth, vulnerability, and isolation."[10]

Another theme is the transition from traditional to contemporary. Kiki is shown to balance both of these qualities. For instance, Kiki observes the tradition of witches wearing black, but adorns her hair with a bright red bow.[11] Kiki also engages in other traditional methods, such as baking with a wood-burning stove and flying her mother's old broom.[11]

Kiki's loss of her witch powers is considered the worst crisis she has to face during the film.[12][13] Her loss of flight reflects the harm dealt to Kiki by her own self-doubts.[12][14] This hardship causes Kiki to realize that being vulnerable does not always lead to failure and can help her learn valuable lessons to better understand herself.[14] Petrana Radulovic also suggests that Jiji's bond with Kiki represents the experiences she had as a child, and that once Kiki loses her powers to talk to Jiji, she becomes more lonely.[15] Jiji had served as the wiser voice (imaginary companion) to Kiki, and she stopped being able to understand him the moment she struggles with self-doubt. According to Miyazaki himself, Jiji is meant to represent the immature side of Kiki, and her inability to talk to Jiji represents her newfound maturity at the end of the movie.[16]

In relation to Kiki's portrayal as a witch, some have drawn comparisons to historical or contemporary views on witches and witchcraft. The film incorporates some conventions from fairy-tales such as a black cat companion for Kiki,[17] Kiki's use of a broom for flight, and her black dress.[18] While girls with magical powers are common in Japanese television, Miyazaki noted that, "the witchcraft has always merely been the means to fulfill the dreams of young girls. They have always become idols with no difficulties." In contrast, Kiki cannot use her powers as a means of wish fulfillment.[1]

Kiki has also been compared to other characters in Miyazaki's films. While there are overt differences in demeanor between Kiki and San from Princess Mononoke, a character who is motivated by anger, both characters take control over their own lives. This theme of remarkable independence is also seen in Miyazaki's earlier works, such as in Nausicaä in Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.[19] Kiki is also compared to Chihiro of Spirited Away as they are both young girls attempting to seek independence without being rebellious. Both Chihiro and Kiki develop their independence with the help of their friends.[20]

Almedalen in Visby, Gotland. This was one of the regions where Miyazaki got inspiration from for the film.

Kiki and Jiji illustrated by Akiko Hayashi from Majo no Takkyūbin. For the film, Kiki's hair was cut short to make the workload easier for the animators.[21]

In 1987, Group Fudosha asked Kadono's publishers for the rights to adapt Kadono's novel into a feature film directed by either Hayao Miyazaki or Isao Takahata of Studio Ghibli. However, both of the chosen directors were busy, working on My Neighbor Totoro and Grave of the Fireflies respectively.[22] Miyazaki accepted the role of producer while the studio continued to search for a director.[23] Near the end of Totoro's production, members of Studio Ghibli were being recruited as senior staff for Kiki's Delivery Service. The character design position was given to Katsuya Kondo, who was working with Miyazaki on Totoro. Hiroshi Ohno, who would later work on projects such as Jin-Roh, was hired as art director at the request of Kazuo Oga.

Miyazaki chose Sunao Katabuchi as director. Katabuchi had worked with Miyazaki on Sherlock Hound; Kiki's Delivery Service was to have been his directorial debut. Studio Ghibli hired Nobuyuki Isshiki as script writer, but Miyazaki was dissatisfied by the first draft, finding it dry and too divergent from his own vision of the film.[24] Since the novel was based in a fictional country in northern Europe, Miyazaki and the senior staff went to research landscapes and other elements of the setting. Their main stops were Stockholm and Visby on the Swedish island of Gotland.[25]

Upon their return to Japan, Miyazaki and the creative team worked on conceptual art and character designs. Miyazaki began significantly modifying the story, creating new ideas and changing existing ones.[26] Majo no Takkyūbin, the original children's book by Kadono that the movie was based on, is very different from Miyazaki's finished film. Kadono's novel is more episodic, consisting of small stories about various people and incidents Kiki encounters while making deliveries. Kiki overcomes many challenges in the novel based on "her good heart" and consequently expands her circle of friends. She faces no particular traumas or crises.[27] Many of the more dramatic elements, such as Kiki getting attacked by many crows, losing her powers or the airship incident at the film's climax, are not present in the original story. In order to more clearly illustrate the themes of struggling with independence and growing up in the film, Miyazaki intended to have Kiki face tougher challenges and create a more potent sense of loneliness.[27] One such challenge is Kiki's sudden loss of ability to fly. This event is only loosely paralleled in the novel, in which Kiki's broom breaks and merely requires her to fix it.[10] Miyazaki remarked, "As movies always create a more realistic feeling, Kiki will suffer stronger setbacks and loneliness than in the original".[10] Kadono was unhappy with the changes made between the book and film, to the point that the project was in danger of being shelved at the screenplay stage.[28] Miyazaki and Toshio Suzuki, the producer of Ghibli, went to the author's home and invited her to the film's studio. After her visit to the studio, Kadono decided to let the project continue.[23]

Miyazaki finished the rough draft of the screenplay in June 1988 and presented it in July 1988. It was at this time that Miyazaki revealed that he had decided to direct the film, because he had influenced the project so much.[26] Kiki's Delivery Service was originally intended to be a 60-minute special, but expanded into a feature film running 102 minutes after Miyazaki completed storyboarding and scripting it.[29]

The word takkyūbin (宅急便, literally "home-fast-mail") in the Japanese title is a trademark of Yamato Transport (which stylized it in non-Japanese languages as TA-Q-BIN), though it is used today as a synonym for takuhaibin (宅配便, "home-delivery-mail"). Initially, Yamato Transport didn't approve of the usage of its trademark, but the success of the film restored relations between both Kadono and Yamato Transport.[30]

The film had a production budget of ¥800 million ($6.9 million), making it one of the most expensive anime films up until then, along with Akira (1988)[31] and Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise (1987).[32]

As with Hayao Miyazaki's other films, Joe Hisaishi composed the soundtrack for this film. Three months before the theatrical release of the movie, the image album for the film was published by Tokuma Shoten on Compact disc. A vocal album would also be released in November 1992.[33]

For the 1998 Disney English dub, much of the soundtrack was kept except for "Message of Rouge" and "Wrapped in Kindness", which were the opening and ending themes of the original Japanese version. Instead, they would be replaced with two songs by Sydney Taylor; "Soaring" and "I'm Gonna Fly". Both these songs would themselves be removed from the 2010 DVD re-release of the English dub of Kiki's Delivery Service.[34] Paul Chihara also composed new instrumental pieces over scenes that were originally silent in the Japanese version, such as a rendition of In the Hall of the Mountain King.[35]

Kiki's Delivery Service premiered on July 29, 1989, in Japanese theaters. Its distributor rental income was ¥2.17 billion,[36][37] with a total box office of ¥4.3 billion (US$31 million) in gross receipts.[38] The film was 1989's highest-grossing film in Japan.[39] It also grossed HK$4.04 million (US$519,000) in Hong Kong upon release there in 1990.[5] Later re-releases and international releases between 2004 and 2023 grossed US$10,366,082 worldwide,[40] adding up to $41,885,082 grossed worldwide as of 2023.[note 1] In the United Kingdom, it was 2018's seventh best-selling foreign language film on home video,[41] and 2019's fifth best-selling foreign language film (below four other Japanese films, including three Miyazaki anime films).[42]

At the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 98% of 43 reviews are positive for Kiki's Delivery Service, and the average rating is 8.1/10. The critics consensus reads, "Kiki's Delivery Service is a heartwarming, gorgeously-rendered tale of a young witch discovering her place in the world."[60] Metacritic, another aggregator, collected 15 reviews and calculated an average rating of 85 out of 100, signifying "universal acclaim".[61] On September 4, 1998, Entertainment Weekly rated it as Video of the Year, and on September 12, 1998, it was the first video release to be reviewed as a normal film on Siskel and Ebert rather than on the "Video Pick of the Week" section.[45] Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune and Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave it "two thumbs up"[62][63] and Ebert went on to rank it as one of the best animated films released in the U.S. in 1998.[64] The film ranked #12 on Wizard's Anime Magazine's list of the "Top 50 Anime released in North America".[65] Other reviews were very positive as well. Andrew Johnston wrote in Time Out New York: "Although the story has a clear moral about learning to develop self-confidence, Kiki is never preachy. The story is given time to unfold at a natural pace..., which contributes greatly to the sense of depth it conveys."[66]

• Official website
• Kiki's Delivery Service page at Nausicaa.net
• Kiki's Delivery Service at Rotten Tomatoes
• Majo No Takkyubin at The Big Cartoon DataBase
• Kiki's Delivery Service (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
• Kiki's Delivery Service at IMDb
• Kiki's Delivery Service at AllMovie
• Violation of Agreement with added Dialog and Sound Effects.