Kiki's Delivery Service

Out of all Miyazaki's films, I feel that Kiki's Delivery Service is one that resonates with me the least. Despite my efforts to enjoy the movie, it was really difficult for me to be drawn in or empathize in anyway to the experiences of a teenage witch. Unlike his other movies, Kiki possesses neither the exotic allure of a fantastical setting nor a main character figure that I can relate with. On the first point, one may think that the European styled city may be enough of a departure to interest the audience, since such a place is used also with Porco Rosso and Howl’s Moving Castle to great effect. But I believe that the reason that those two films succeed and Kiki does not is with presence of a hero or heroine that draws the audience’s admiration, instead of asking the audience to relate to the mundane experiences of a delivery girl. In addition, the self-discovery that Kiki goes through at the end is not one that leaves the audience rooted into his seat like the action-laden moments Nausicaa or Mononoke, nor is it one that leaves the audience teary-eyed and heavily nostalgic like moments in Spirited Away or Ponyo. Finally, I believe that Miyazaki does not explore enough of the magical in Kiki’s Delivery Service, at least not as much as was promised to us in the beginning of the movie. What I mean is that the audience is instilled with an expectation that the tale is one of magic and fantasy when the story began with a teenage witch leaving home. However, the story, after an uplifting start, settles down to the mundane and ordinary and decides to explore the ubiquitous inner conflict of an adolescent instead of expanding upon the wondrous and surreal world that was presented to us at the start.