I never realized this when I was a kid, but I had kind of a weird childhood, movie-wise. Other little girls loved Disney princesses. I loved Studio Ghibli. And I never really understood what the big deal was about Disney princesses when there were these other amazing, underrated movies out there under everyone’s noses.

One of the very first Ghibli movies I ever saw was Kiki’s Delivery Service. I was maybe 7 or 8, and my dad had discovered a bunch of Ghibli classics (Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, and Kiki) at our library and brought the DVDs home to share with us. I had never seen anything like Spirited Away before and loved it (and will probably talk about it in a separate post later), and I was eager to try Kiki’s Delivery Service too. It quickly became a favorite pick-me-up movie that never gets old, and it was even better when I got to introduce it to Ben and experience (secondhand) watching it for the first time again.

Hey there! Miss Witch!

Kiki is a witch who has just turned 13. According to tradition, this means that, instead of getting a Hogwarts acceptance letter, she has to leave home for a year to begin her training. 

(When I first saw this as a little kid, I thought 13 was totally old enough and mature enough to leave home and live on your own. As a parent, my thought is, absolutely not. Time has such a weird effect on your perceptions.)

Thrilled to be setting out on her own, Kiki flies off on her broom with Jiji, her black cat, to find a town to make her own. She finds the perfect city on the seaside and, and, seeing no other witches there, decides to set up shop as resident witch.

Things go well at first. Kiki finds a home with a baker and her husband, makes new friends, and sets up a delivery service flying parcels across the city. But some people don’t like having a witch around, and Kiki struggles to feel at home when others don’t accept her for who she is.

When her self-doubts start to overtake her confidence, Kiki realizes there’s more to being a witch than just flying around on her broom and running a delivery service. She needs to have something more if she wants to succeed during her witch’s training period. And if she doesn’t figure out what that something is soon, she could be in danger of losing her witch’s powers—for good.

Come on, Jiji! Think Positive!

Obviously, I love Studio Ghibli. However,  I do recognize that not all of their movies are for everyone. Ghibli films, at least the most popular ones, tend to have a lot of fantastical elements to them that seem strange to western audiences.  And they frequently leave a lot of somewhat important points unexplained, preferring to leave the interpretation up to the viewer. This can lead to some beautiful storytelling. But it can also be baffling to people who aren’t familiar with Ghibli’s work.

So, when I want to introduce someone to Ghibli, I always start with Kiki’s Delivery Service. It’s sweet, heartwarming, humorous, and a lot of fun. It’s also easy to follow, even as it still leaves certain things to the interpretation of the viewer.

I wasn’t the person to introduce Ben to Studio Ghibli, but I was the person who introduced him to Kiki’s Delivery Service when we were dating.Every time I re-watch it as an adult I’m just reminded of how much I loved it as a kid, but also I’m amazed at how much more I can appreciate it now that I’ve (probably) completed the awkward transition through adolescence.

Kiki’s journey to become a full-fledged witch is the fun story on the surface; at its core, Kiki’s Delivery Service is really about that awkward transition to adulthood that everyone has to go through. Kiki is thrilled about the chance to leave home, but, as is to be expected, a thirteen-year-old living on her own doesn’t have much forethought and gets into plenty of scrapes. She loses an item she’s supposed to be delivering, spends all her grocery money on ingredients for pancakes, and helps her friend Tombo spectacularly wreck his bike during a trip to the beach. 

Even more relatable than leaving home at thirteen and getting into trouble is Kiki’s journey to figuring out who she is—something that I’m realizing can be a lifelong process. Kiki struggles with confidence from the beginning. She balks at wearing the traditional witch’s black dress instead of some of the cuter, trendier clothes she sees her non-witch peers wearing and feels uncomfortable when others don’t accept her. It’s not until she has to call upon her powers to help someone else that Kiki is able to regain her confidence in herself and who she is. 

It’s such a simple story, but it makes me smile so hard every time I watch it. If you’ve never seen a Ghibli movie before, or you have seen another Ghibli movie and it wasn’t your thing, give Kiki’s Delivery Service a try. If nothing else, it will make you super hungry for pastries.

Who to Watch With

I would watch Kiki’s Delivery Service with anyone, including Geekling (if he would stop playing Pokémon with Ben long enough to watch it with me!). At the end, one character has a fall from a great height but doesn’t get hurt, so that might frighten some smaller kids. But the film is clean and doesn’t have anything too scary.

What is your go-to Ghibli film? Let us know in the comments! And if you haven’t seen Kiki’s Delivery Service, you can get a copy on Amazon, or you can stream it on HBO Max if you have access to that service.