Almost all anime fans have watchedStudio Ghiblimovies, with one of the most popular in the Studio’s catalog beingKiki’s Delivery Service, released in 1989. It was directed by one of the greatest of all time, Hayao Miyazaki. It was an anime adaptation of a novel of the same name authored by Eiko Kadono and follows the story of a thirteen-year-old trainee witch, Kiki, who like her mother and all other witches, has to follow the witch tradition of leaving her home and settle in a new town to train herself to become a good and strong witch.
The movie has some deep and relevant life lessons in it that can be applied to real life as well.WatchingKiki’s Delivery Serviceas an adultis an entirely different experience than watching it as a kid. As an adult, the viewer gets almost an enlightening experience watching this movie. But how so? Let’s take a look at how ant does it feel like watching Kiki’s Delivery Service as an adult, what and makes it so good and enriching.
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Leaving Home Behind
It is the way of the world that in order to attain their goals and ambitions in life, one has to come out of their comfort zones, and what bigger a comfort zone than one’s own home. It is a Herculean task to leave one’s home and go on a journey to find the purpose of life or to accomplish something in life, these are the things that give one’s life meaning.Leaving the home can be extremely painfuland takes a heavy toll on the heart of the person who has to leave the place they call their home and settle in an unfamiliar place to achieve something in life. It is hard to do so and the initial days of it can be harsh but as soon as the time passes one starts to get comfortable in the new place, feel confident, and meet the people who make the unfamiliar place feel like home.
This is a situation that almost all people go through when they enter adulthood, andKiki’s Delivery Servicecaptures this whole scenario beautifully as Kiki has to leave her home and settle in a town somewhere far away from her home. As she arrives at a port town and decides to settle, she feels out of place, sad, and homesick in the early days but as time passes she overcomes feelings of homesickness, and sadness, and finds work that she does passionately while training as a witch. Hence,watching the movie as an adult is a different experiencealtogether as it is quite relatable with the t people who have or are facing the same sort of situations.
Being Independent
Switching from teenage to adulthood, and transitioning from being dependent on parents to becoming independent is a difficult process, a process whose outcome is often quite appealing. Butnothing comes for free in this crazy placethat we call the world, everything has an opportunity cost that one has to pay to get something. Being independent is nice and all but comes at a monetary and emotional cost, things are smooth and hunky-dory as long as one’s dependent (especially financially) on somebody else, but things go south when one tries to become financially independent.
Facing all kinds of stress, including emotional stress, and many other hardships, but it is all worth it as one gets to stand on their own two feet and earn a living for themselves. There are only a few feelings that can provide one with the same amount of satisfaction as the feeling of being financially independent and dealing with life, do. This life lesson is also evident and laid emphasis on inKiki’s Delivery Servicewhich again goes strong on the relatabilitywith adults and their life problems.
Ghibli Magic
The movies animated by the popular and much-celebrated Studio Ghibli are immensely famous among the anime audience. These movies are a huge success in terms of both critical and commercial success. But what makes these movies so special and in a league of their own? The audience watches movies for escapism from their own lives, to find an hour or two of peace and sigh. These are specifically the elements that almost all Studio Ghibli movies have along with some great real-life lessons and situations that the audience finds relatable to their own lives. This is themagic and charm of Studio Ghibli movies, andKiki’s Delivery Serviceis no exception.
Kiki bravely takes on the changes and problems that she faces after leaving her home and settling far away to complete her training as a witch. Things and conditions do not favor her at all in the beginning, but everything goes well after she overcomes the new hurdles in her life. Watching the movie as an adult and seeing Kiki do all this by believing in herself,fills the viewer with the feeling of calmand the intuition that everything in their own life will also change for good, and this entire process is natural that almost everyone has to go through in their lives at least once. But one can only realize the deep meaning ofKiki’s Delivery Serviceafter watching it as an adult because the relating with the protagonist Kiki is inevitable for any adult person for they might be going through the same thing. And that is howKiki’s Delivery Serviceelevates to a level of something morethan just an anime movie.
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