Kiki's Delivery Service
1989 · Directed by Hayao Miyazaki
Original language: Japanese
- animation
- family
- fantasy
The story
A young witch, on her mandatory year of independent life, finds fitting into a new community difficult while she supports herself by running an air courier service.
What it’s like
Soft hand-drawn animation with watercolour-like backgrounds: sunlit seaside streets, a red-roofed town tumbling down a hillside, bakery windows steaming in the morning, and a sky that fills most of the frame and seems always to be shifting from pale blue to cloud-white. The camera is patient and unhurried, lingering on ordinary rooms and small domestic tasks, and the score is gentle, whimsical orchestral music with light woodwinds and a flutter of strings that rises when flight begins. Sound design is warm and textured: wind over rooftops, clattering pans, a cat's offhand noises. The pacing is leisurely and episodic, with lulls that let the mood settle. Emotionally it is warm and wistful, with a quiet undercurrent of homesickness and self-doubt that resolves into friendship and small confidences. Its people grow slowly, a young girl learning to trust her own nerve and to be trusted by the community around her. Entirely gentle, with no violence and only a brief, mild accident and a moment of peril. Suits a rainy Sunday, a comfort rewatch, or a calm evening with tea. For people who want cosy, observational, uplifting animation that treats everyday work and kindness with real care.
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