Kiki’s Delivery Service (Challenges and Self- Trust)
After watching this anime, I felt a great sense of contentment. As with other slice of life anime or films (come to think of it, there will always be a slice of life in every film. Hah!), I always get the feeling that I was in the shoes of the characters whenever I watch. The astounding animation really helped in achieving this. They pay so much attention to minute details. For example, Kiki trips over from time to time. The animators do not have to show that but they did to better emphasize Kiki’s personality or characteristics, which in this situation is youthful. Another example is the climax (the scene with Tombo and the dirigible). When Kiki tried to fly, they chose to show Kiki not a hundred percent capable of flying again. They chose to show Kiki still getting the hang of flying because again, she is not some super special witch. These small details really helped me feel accomplished because Kiki really worked hard for it.
Kiki really does work hard and she is only thirteen! That is very uncommon for western and/ or westernized countries (as far as I know). The norm in the show is thirteen-year old witches have to learn to be independent. They are still portrayed as normal acting children yet they have to be separated from their parents. Is the anime showing an underdeveloped society? I think not. After all, being thirteen may be the eighteen in other real societies. In other countries, it may be natural for thirteen-year olds or may be even younger to start finding jobs and the like.
Although, the more important point the show tells us is the difficulty of handling things new to us. This is very apparent in almost all of the scenes. Kiki flying, getting sick, delivering, wearing her black dress, feeling envious, living away from her parents, making her own meal and being friends with Tombo are just some of the scenes that show the challenges Kiki has to face. She would, of course, sometimes mess up but that adds character to her. She learns and adapts. Thanks to her resiliency, she was able to gain enough trust in herself to do what she wants as a witch.
Kiki is not a very special kind of child (even as a witch because there are other witches), but the uniqueness of the challenges and the uniqueness of her way of handling things helped her trust herself and grow up. Perhaps we can remember a lesson or two with Kiki.
img from pixiv user: 亚壬
Ah, yes! Kiki is one of my favorite films
The characteristic you noted is also present in other Ghibli films. It seems that Miyazaki likes to emphasize these small moments. Recently, I re-watched Spirited Away on TV and noticed many such instances. As you mentioned, they don’t really have to include such moments, but they make the action more believable.
It really does! It really made the characters more humane. ^__^