Kiki’s Delivery Service
Posted on: April 30, 2008
- In: ANIME | REVIEWS
- 9 Comments
As you can most probably observe from the artwork in the picture above, Kiki’s Delivery Service is another one of Studio Ghibli’s masterpieces. This movie was produced in 1989, a long 19 years ago, but the vibrant artwork still triumphs over certain modern animes of today. So far, Ghibli’s movies have never disappointed me… Well, perhaps besides Howl’s Moving Castle, which didn’t leave that big of an impression on me.
Today, I took some time off to watch Kiki’s Delivery Service and after finishing it, the only thought on my mind was, “Darn! The movie was so damn short!”
From my above reaction, you can roughly guess how good the movie is – Ghibli really should consider making a sequel for it.
This is a small trailer for the movie. Enjoy it! The song in it is splendid too.
Summary
This movie tells of the story of a 13-year-old female witch, Kiki, who’s leaving her hometown for at least a year for independent training. She left on one clear night with her black cat, Jiji, with her family and friends sending her off.
By a stroke of luck, she came to a beautiful town by the ocean. She decided to stay there and train.
At this town, she found a nice lady by the name of Osono who provided her with lodgings and meals.
Seeing that her expertise is flying, she decided to set up her own business called Kiki’s Delivery Service whereby she’ll help people to deliver stuffs for a small fee.
At this town, there was a boy by the name of Tombo who was quite interested in Kiki…
Out of a sudden, Kiki’s witch powers disappeared and she got very frustrated. Luckily, thanks to the help of her friend whom she met in the forest, she managed to get her spirits back.
After that, Tombo was in the midst of trouble and at the nick of time, Kiki’s witch powers returned and she successfully saved him…
End
I shan’t spoil the story further for those who haven’t watch it yet. Of course, there are much more funny and sad moments in the movie itself so if you like my summary of it, there’s only 1 thing for you to do now – Go watch it!
Besides the storyline, the music in the movie was excellent too. Well, this was to be expected since most of them came from Joe Hisaishi, who is well-known for his many melodious tunes from other Ghibli movies like Spirited Away and My Neighbour Totoro etc.
My favourite tune would have to be ‘A Town where you can see the Ocean’. Below is an orchestra version of it performed by the Hong Kong Symphony Orchestra. Notice that the tune is similar to the one in the trailer above.
Now, you may ask, why would I suddenly watch this movie? Well, I was actually brought to it through its music. My school’s Harmonica Band would be performing ‘A Town where you can see the Ocean’ in our first ever concert at Esplanade recital studio in June this year. That’s how I came to know of this great movie.
Now… What other Ghibli movies should I watch?
9 Responses to "Kiki’s Delivery Service"
May 1, 2008 at 2:53 am
Kiki is one of the best Ghibli’s works :) The story, the animation, and the music are very nice :)
“Now… What other Ghibli movies should I watch?”
I suggest you see all Ghibli anime and see which ones you like the most. A complete and well organized list can be found here:
http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/films/
My favorite Ghibli films are:
Grave of the Fireflies (War Drama)
Spirited Away (Adventure)
Kiki’s Delivery Service (Slice of Life)
Princess Mononoke (Adventure)
My Neighbor Totoro (Slice of Life)
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (Adventure)
Only Yesterday (Slice of Life)
Whisper of the Heart (Slice of Life)
Castle in the Sky (Adventure)
Cat Returns (Adventure)
They are all linked to pages with descriptions on my anime recommendation list:
http://celestialkitsune.wordpress.com/category/anime/recommendations/
May 1, 2008 at 5:51 am
I agree that this movie was beautifully animated, had a fantastic soundtrack, and had that great 80′s / old-school charm that sadly is missing from Ghibli’s more recent works (in my opinion). It’s nice to see people still watching the classics!
May 2, 2008 at 8:17 am
Mimiwosumaseba（耳をすませば）and Miraishounen Conan（未来少年コナン） is also good.
It is recommendation.
http://japanese-naruto-anime.blogspot.com/
Please link to this site.
Thank you.
July 22, 2008 at 12:27 am
It indeed was a short movie! I loved every minute of it. I should watch it again, most certainly will bring back memories.
November 16, 2008 at 2:20 pm
omg i luv this movie, when i was little i wenever we went to rent a movie i would pick that one and sum other anime were a wolf, some giant bean thing with an eye, a boxing bunny, a kid, a squichy turtle thing, and a girl were in sum majical world w/ giant worms nd thge worm thing died nd i think i cried but then i thiunk he was reborn or sumthing i dunno well any ways the movies really good i agree studio ghibli never disapoints although i hafta say i liked howls moving castle, but i never really understood what the main girls curse waz….
June 12, 2009 at 11:03 pm
i’ve seen a couple of other Ghibli films but not this one yet. there’s so much rave about this film that’s hard to ignore. ok, the next anime movie i watch will be Kiki’s Delivery Service for sure. thanks for a great review :)
"Why does he always say things which make people misunderstand! That idiot."
May 1, 2008 at 12:01 am
This is my favorite Ghibli movie of all time, I watched it before I even knew what anime was!