Kiki's Delivery Service

Kiki's Delivery Service
is a 1989 Japanese animated fantasy film written, produced, and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, and is based on the 1985 novel of the same name by Eiko Kadono. It was animated by Studio Ghibli for Tokuma Shoten, Yamato Transport (which licensed the trademark for the film) and the Nippon Television Network. The Japanese version stars the voices of Minami Takayama, Rei Sakuma and Kappei Yamaguchi, while the 1998 English dub stars the voices of Kirsten Dunst, Phil Hartman, and Matthew Lawrence. The story follows Kiki, a young witch who moves to the port city of Koriko in order to learn to be independent. While in the city, she meets Osono, who offers to let her stay in her bakery and earn a living by starting a flying courier service. She also interacts with the various citizens of Koriko, which includes a boy named Tombo.
The film was first conceptualized when Group Fudosha asked Kadono's publishers for the rights to the novel to be made into a feature film by either Hayao Miyazaki or Isao Takahata in 1987. However, production began near the release of My Neighbor Totoro. Miyazaki would be chosen as producer, while he initially made Sunao Katabuchi as the director, although he would later take Sunao's place as director because of how much he was involved in the project. Because the original novel is based on a fictional northern European country, Miyazaki and his team traveled to places like Visby to research its landscape. Miyazaki would also alter the story of the original novel for his movie, adding new scenes to emphasize the theme of independence and growing up. According to Miyazaki, the movie portrays the gulf between independence and reliance among teenage Japanese girls.
The film was released in Japan on July 29, 1989, by the Toei Company. The film was the first released by Studio Ghibli to be successful in its initial release, grossing a total of ¥4.3 billion ($31 million). An English dub would be requested by Tokuma Shoten and be distributed by Streamline Pictures in 1989, and Walt Disney Pictures would also produce an English dub, which became the first film under a deal between Tokuma and Disney to be released in English. The film would receive critical acclaim and multiple awards.
Plot
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.
Voice cast
Themes and analysis
A major theme of the film is maturity. 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. 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."
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. Kiki also engages in other traditional methods, such as baking with a wood-burning stove and flying her mother's old broom.
Kiki's loss of her witch powers is considered the worst crisis she has to face during the film. Her loss of flight reflects the harm dealt to Kiki by her own self-doubts. 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. 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. 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.
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, Kiki's use of a broom for flight, and her black dress. 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.
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. 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.
Production
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. Miyazaki accepted the role of producer while the studio continued to search for a director. Near the end of Totoros 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. 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. The architecture of Koriko is also based on the design of buildings from other cities such as Amsterdam, Paris, and San Francisco.
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. 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. 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. 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. Miyazaki remarked, "As movies always create a more realistic feeling, Kiki will suffer stronger setbacks and loneliness than in the original". 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. 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.
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. 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.
The word 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 . While Yamato Transport did sponsor the movie, it initially didn't approve of the usage of its trademark, since it was used by Kadano without permission. However, the success of the film restored relations between both her and Yamato Transport.
The film had a production budget of , making it one of the most expensive anime films up until then, along with Akira (1988) and Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise (1987).
Music
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.
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. Paul Chihara would also compose the music for the dub, adding music to scenes that were previously silent in the original Japanese version.
Release
Kiki's Delivery Service premiered on July 29, 1989, in Japanese theaters. It sold around 2,640,000 tickets in Japan, with a total box office of in gross receipts. It would become the first Studio Ghibli film to be successful during its initial release and would become one of 1989's highest-grossing films in Japan. It also grossed in Hong Kong upon release there in 1990. Later re-releases and international releases between 2004 and 2023 grossed US$10,366,082 worldwide, adding up to grossed worldwide . In the United Kingdom, it was 2018's seventh best-selling foreign-language film on home video, and 2019's fifth best-selling foreign-language film (below four other Japanese films, including three Miyazaki anime films).
English dubs
The first official English dub of Kiki's Delivery Service was produced by Carl Macek of Streamline Pictures, who previously dubbed Castle in the Sky and My Neighbor Totoro at the request of Tokuma Shoten for Japan Airlines' international flights. Tokuma was satisfied with the dub of My Neighbor Totoro, which allowed Carl to work on the dub of Kiki's Delivery Service in November 1989. This dub is available only in the Ghibli Laserdisc Box Set.
Disney would later produce an English dub of their own, and would become the first film to be released through a deal it made with Tokuma. It premiered at the Seattle International Film Festival on May 23, 1998, and was released on both VHS and Laserdisc by Buena Vista Home Video in September 1998. It would go on to be the 8th most sold title on Blockbuster during its first week of availability, and would sell over 900,000 copies by September 28, 1998. It would be released on home media in North America on 2003, alongside the releases of Spirited Away and Castle in the Sky. In the United Kingdom, the film was released on Blu-ray by StudioCanal alongside a release of Grave of the Fireflies on July 1, 2013, while in North America, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment released the film on Blu-ray Disc alongside Princess Mononoke and The Wind Rises, on November 18, 2014. GKIDS re-issued the film on Blu-ray and DVD on October 17, 2017. In 2020, it was announced that both the original Japanese version and the Disney dub were made available to be streamed on Netflix.
Differences between versions
Disney's English dub of Kiki's Delivery Service contained some changes, which have been described as "pragmatic". The changes were approved by Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli. There are a number of additions and embellishments to the film's musical score, and several lavish sound effects over sections that are silent in the Japanese original.
The depiction of the cat, Jiji, is changed significantly in the Disney version. In the Japanese version Jiji is voiced by Rei Sakuma, while in the English version Jiji is voiced by comedian Phil Hartman. In Japanese culture, cats are usually depicted with feminine voices, whereas in American culture their voices are more gender-specific. A number of Hartman's lines exist where Jiji simply says nothing in the original. Jiji's personality is notably different between the two versions, showing a more cynical and sarcastic attitude in the Disney English version as opposed to cautious and conscientious in the original Japanese. In the original Japanese script, Kiki loses her ability to communicate with Jiji permanently, but the American version adds a line that implies that she is once again able to understand him at the end of the film. More minor changes to appeal to the different teenage habits of the day include Kiki drinking hot chocolate instead of coffee and referring to "cute boys" instead of to "the disco".
However, when Disney re-released the film on DVD in 2010, several elements of the English dub were changed, reverting more towards the original Japanese version. Hartman's ad-libbed lines as Jiji were removed, and Forest's opening and ending songs were replaced with Arai's original Japanese opening and ending songs. Additionally, Jiji does not talk again at the end, implying that Kiki never regains the ability to talk to him, and many of the sound effects added to the original English version have been removed. The English subtitled script used for the original VHS subbed release and the later DVD release more closely adheres to the Japanese script, but still contains a few alterations. Tokuma mistakenly believed the Streamline dub was an accurate translation of the film and offered it to Disney to use as subtitles. As a result, several additions from the dub appear in the subtitles regardless of whether or not they are present in the film.
Reception
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." Metacritic, another aggregator, collected 15 reviews and calculated an average rating of 85 out of 100, signifying "universal acclaim". 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. Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune and Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave it "two thumbs up" and Ebert went on to rank it as one of the best animated films released in the U.S. in 1998. The film ranked #12 on Wizard's Anime Magazine's list of the "Top 50 Anime released in North America". 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."
Accolades
Other media
Books
A four-volume ani-manga book series using stills from the film was published in Japan by Tokuma Shoten between August and September of 1989. An English translation would later be published by Viz Media between April and July 2006. Tokuma also published a 208-page art book on February 11, 1989, and Viz Media published the English translation of it on May 9, 2006.
Musicals
A musical based on the film ran at the Southwark Playhouse in the UK from December 8, 2016 to January 7, 2017, and officially opened on December 13, 2016. It was adapted by Jessica Sian and directed by Katie Hewitt. The musical would later run again from August 10, 2017 to September 3, 2017.
There were also other musicals that ran in Japan. The first ran in Tokyo and Osaka from June 2017 to September 2017, and starred Moka Kamishirasi as Kiki and Aran Abe as Tombo. A second one ran in 2018 which starred Riko Fukumoto as Kiki. The most recent one ran from March 2021 to April 2021 in Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka. It stars Neo Inoue as Kiki, and Yūto Nasu as Tombo.
Notes
References
Bibliography
External links
Kiki's Delivery Service page at Nausicaa.net
Violation of Agreement with added Dialog and Sound Effects.
1989 anime films
1989 fantasy films
1989 films
1980s adventure films
1980s children's animated films
1980s children's fantasy films
1980s Japanese-language films
1980s road movies
Animated coming-of-age films
Animated films based on children's books
Coming-of-age anime and manga
Drama anime and manga
Animated films set in the 20th century
Animated films set in the 1960s
Animated films about witchcraft
Films based on fantasy novels
Animated films based on Japanese novels
Films directed by Hayao Miyazaki
Films scored by Joe Hisaishi
Films with screenplays by Hayao Miyazaki
Gallop (studio)
Japanese animated fantasy films
Japanese coming-of-age films
Japanese magical girl films
Studio Ghibli animated films
Witchcraft in anime and manga
1989 in Japanese cinema