Harry Potter’s Wizarding Worldhas helped define the realms of magic and sorcery for an entire generation of filmgoers and wannabe warlocks. The adventures of youngDaniel Radcliffeas “the boy who lived” and his classmates at Hogwarts aimed to balance the dramas of blossoming adolescence and academic trials of witchcraft with epic sagas of wizardry warfare. Whether they were a member of Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw, the average student of Hogwarts had to juggle facing final exams and threats of expulsion while facing off against Death Eaters and the life-threatening evil forces of Voldemort. Despite the boy wizard’s blockbuster films making a global splash in the way audiences discovered the educational creed of magic, the best film to be made about learning witchcraft far predatesJ.K. Rowling’s Hogwarts hero. Released in Japan in1989 – an excellent year for animation– byStudio Ghibli, famed directorHayao Miyazaki’sKiki’s Delivery Servicetells the story of Kiki (voiced byMinami Takayama), a young witch in training who sets out on her own for the first time at the age of thirteen in a coastal town with her talking cat familiar Jiji (Rei Sakuma). While Kiki may not attend a cushy, suspiciously tuition-free private school like Hogwarts or evenThe Owl House’s Hexside, her journey to learn the ways of magic strikes a more personal and nuanced chord in how practicing witchcraft can echo coming-of-age truisms of education and personal passions.
Kiki’s Delivery Service
A young witch, on her mandatory year of independent life, finds fitting into a new community difficult while she supports herself by running an air courier service.
Why Is Kiki Learning Magic in ‘Kiki’s Delivery Service’?
Unlike Harry Potter, theworld of witchesthat Kiki is brought up in is not a widely kept secret community of creatures and organizations that hides away from the likes of mere muggles. Kiki’s magical upbringing is that of a cultural family tradition that is passed down among a lineage of women who openly train in different specialties of magic to build lives of their own. Much like howMiyazaki’s other filmstreat the existence of fantasy as the norm, practicing witchcraft is treated not as a secretive systematic curriculum that prepares its students for a grand magical destiny, but as a rite of passage for a young witch to gain independence as they enter maturity and enter the real working world as a professional witch.
InKiki’s Delivery Service, being a witch in training means more than just learning mystical arts and practicing magical skills. The customary trial for a young witch to leave home and live on her own for a full year is meant to encourage an education of “learning by doing” to see if they can put their magic to use for a local community.While Hogwarts’ education is based around traditional grade schooling that becomes background noise to the melodrama of a grand scale wizard wars, the personal and familial expectations placed on Kiki are largely weighted on if she can learn to be independent with her craft.The film establishes right away that the education Kiki sets out to learn is to see if she can use her magic to survive on her own and make a name for herself as a witch. Kiki’s proficiency in her magic and ability to fly her broom is secondary to whether or not she can put it to use for others and live independently.
The biggest obstacle that Kiki faces on her journey to become an accomplished witch is not the likes ofdark lords or Death Eatersor even rival wizards, but very real-world adult dilemmas that are new to anyone her age. Kiki’s year-long trial does not pit her against threats to have her face magic with magic, but to see if she and her magic can find a place in the world as a functioning self-made adult.The film’s greatest strength is in how it earnestly shows the struggles one encounters as a goal-oriented novice in a new environment, especially for a young adult.The very presence of magic in the film is downplayed to the needs of Kiki’s personal story of growth and whether she can even make enough money to feed herself. The problems Kiki faces cannot only be solved by magic but by how Kiki uses it to make ends meet and survive on her own.
Why Is ‘Kiki’s Delivery Service’ Such a Great Movie About Magic?
What ironically makesKiki’s Delivery Servicean especially strong story about magic is how it minimally utilizes the little magic that is used throughout the film to advance Kiki’s character growth. As still a young witch, the only magic Kiki can use is her ability to fly around on her mother’s broom. She uses what magic she has to help others. Beyond that, she is no different from any other girl in her town. If anything, Kiki’s magic does not grant her anything she needs as a person apart from her skills as a delivery girl. For Kiki, magic is not power and not something that can be learned traditionally.
The biggest conflict Kiki faces duringKiki’s Delivery Serviceis when her magic stops working. She can’t fly, she can’t understand Jiji, she is at a near loss of her inherited witch abilities. The explanation for this is as far from magical as it gets: burnout. The film treats magic as analogous to any artistic skill, which is overtly illustrated and examined by Kiki’s conversation with her painter friend Ursula (Minami Takayama). From her,Kiki learns that she must take a break from magic to examine why she wants to be a witch and what it is that motivates her spiritually to fly in the first place.Throughout the film, Kiki experiences highs and lows, socially and professionally, that leave her roadblocked and put her stumped. Kiki learns that magic, like art, is fueled by inspiration and spirit that was easily burnt out once she started flying for work and responsibility.
Learning magic for Kiki was always more than just learning spells or mixing potions. Weighed down by the pressure of her insecurities and the expectations to make her family proud, Kiki’s block in her magic mirrors many young artists' experiences in finding their inspiration out of a creative slump. Thefilm’s placement of magicas more an expression of personally rooted advocation than a tactile academic skill makes it a strong metaphor for learning and following a passion. WhileHarry Potter’s epic saga of warring wizards is spectacular,Kiki’s Delivery Serviceshows the appeal and pathos of a magical education more than any day at Hogwarts has.
