#113: Kiki’s Delivery Service
Part of the Top 150 Films series
Kiki’s Delivery Service isn’t often ranked among the uppermost echelons of Studio Ghibli films, but it’s a stupendous showcase for the animation studio’s winning ways nonetheless. The plot concerns a winsome young witch, Kiki, who moves to a new town with her broomstick and black cat and uses her flying ability to earn a living. Rather than turn this into a Potter-esque tale of magic and metaphor, Miyazaki is more concerned with telling a realistic coming of age tale about the place of teenage girls in Japanese culture. Kiki is one of the most nuanced heroines in the Ghibli canon, and though lessons are learned, nothing is trite nor taken for granted. The deceptively simple animation style works wonders to create a picturesque seaside ambience, which makes the darker turns (depression is portrayed as a matter of fact) more poignant. Kiki soars where modern kids films feel increasingly deadweight.
