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Kiki's Delivery Service

Kiki's Delivery Service is a 1989 anime film, produced, written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki. The movie was based on Eiko Kadono's original story, Majo no Takkyubin (published by Fukuinkan Shoten).

The movie depicts the gulf that exists between independence and self-reliance in the hopes and spirit of common Japanese teenage girls.

Kiki is a 13 year-old witch in training, living in a small rural village where her mother is the resident herbalist. By tradition, it is time for Kiki to leave her home to spend a year alone in a new town to establish herself as a full witch. Kiki sets herself on her mother's broom with her closest companion, Jiji, a loquacious black cat. She flies off to a new life, but unfortunately has not inherited her mother's skills as a healer, nor developed any other magic skills, with the exception of flying - and she is notoriously unskilled even at that. At her departure from home, she has trouble controlling her newly-inherited broom, and ricochets from the trees in her front yard. Wind bells in the trees chime, and one of the neighbors wistfully comments that he will miss the sound of the bells.

Kiki settles in the beautiful seaside island city of Koriko, and after initially finding it difficult to adjust to the pace of life, starts a delivery service that takes advantage of her ability to fly. Kiki experiences several setbacks such as slow business, misplaced merchandise, rude customers and illness. She also has to deal with her loneliness, worries, and homesickness.

Having caught the eye of Tombo, a local boy about her age, who has an interest in aviation and in Kiki herself, she at first rebuffs, then befriends him, and they begin to develop a normal boy-girl relationship. Simulatenously, Jiji courts a local cat called Lily, with whom he has several kittens.

Perhaps as a result of neglect, Kiki's powers diminish and ultimately disappear, to her great shame and terror. Kiki learns about overcoming such obstacles with the help of a newfound friend, a young artist who gives some good advice about the kind of inspiration she needs to regain her magic.

Then comes a moment of deadly crisis, when Tombo who is so important to her is accidentally lifted into the air in a dirigible accident. When she is his only hope of rescue, she finds the inspiration to regain her flying ability.

Suddenly famous, she sends home a simple, modest letter to her parents, saying that she is becoming used to her new home, and that things are working out well for her.

The story continues through the end titles, as she flies a high-guard formation with her friend as he flies his human-powered aircraft in a flight sequence obviously inspired by the Gossamer Albatross. Later, she is on the street of her town and notices a little girl walking past, because the little girl has her hair and clothing styled like Kiki's and is even carrying a small broom.

The story is set in the fictional European country of Carikia. The time setting for Kiki's Delivery Service was a subject for discussion among the movie's fans for some time: Kiki carries a transistor radio apparently of 1950s vintage, and some characters are seen watching black-and-white television sets; but the cars and some of the aircraft seem to be from an earlier period (specifically, a plane resembling the Handley-Page HP42 is seen during the opening credits, but in the real world all eight of the HP42 aircraft had been decommissioned or destroyed by 1941). The controversy was settled when Miyazaki said the story took place in the 1950s of an alternative universe in which World War II never took place.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Kiki's Delivery Service".

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