Kiki's Delivery Service (A Puffin Book)

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Her approach to the situations she comes across are consistently surprising – sometimes mistakes are made; other times ingenious solutions are found.

The profound loneliness of Kiki’s Delivery Service - Polygon The profound loneliness of Kiki’s Delivery Service - Polygon

In other words, Kiki is a girl who learns from her mistakes, from her leaps of faith, and from her yeses and her nos. Her story is not unlike that of a Pokémon trainer: at age ten a young witch must begin to decide how to spend her life. I went into this review more-or-less totally clean and with a new eye. I was taken in by the bright cover and the hope for a fresh, lively tale. Fortunately, that’s exactly what Kiki’s Delivery Service, well, delivers. For young readers, Kiki’s Delivery Servicedelivers (sorry) a character who serves as a perfect role model. She is not perfect; Kiki’s flaws are her curiosity and her eagerness to bite off more than she can chew. But she learns and grows in a very human and not entirely smooth way. While reading this scene I remember thinking, “You’d better not mess this up, Kiki! What if these two could have ended up together forever, living happily ever after, and you ruin all of that before it begins!” So invested was I in Kiki, Jiji, and their escapades.

By thirteen, Kiki has at last decided to head out on her own to find a town. Not every town has a witch, but no town has more than one; and so, Kiki must find her own town. Her mother, after all, is the local witch in her town so now Kiki must become a small fish in a big pond. While it would be possible for this story to leave a sour taste — a witch, heavily judged and shunned, must prove to the locals that she is not, in fact, evil — instead the theme reads a little differently: local people learn from Kiki to be kind and accepting of others, especially those who are unusual. She doesn’t come from loneliness — she comes from a place of love and connection. She’s excited for the journey ahead, for a chance to grow up. It’s a classic coming-of-age fantasy setup. And unlike the above films, where a journey starts with loss, Kiki’s Delivery Service starts while Kiki still has something left to lose. This difference is really only a matter of perspective, but it is important to be read that way. And Balistrieri’s translation makes that very clear by not vilifying the locals too much and, instead, endearing us to them as much as to Kiki.

Review: Kiki’s Delivery Service by Eiko Kadono | Books and Bao Review: Kiki’s Delivery Service by Eiko Kadono | Books and Bao

I confess to not having read the original English translation (by Lynne E. Riggs) nor to having seen the film in around five or six years, but I’m glad for that.

That big pond is a town called Koriko, where, when she first arrives, Kiki is made to feel unwelcome and looked on with suspicion. She has a year here before she can return home to her parents and tell them what she has achieved.