When I set out to write a review of a show that would be
suitable for both children and adult audiences, the first thing that came to
mind was Ghibli. Unfortunately, my Ghibli collection is sparse, though I have seen
most of the movies through other outlets like video rental places and Netflix
and even VHS tapes. In fact, I still have the VHS for My Neighbor Totoro, which I’m pretty sure is the dub before Disney
did theirs. I also remember being disappointed when I got the VHS for Princess Mononoke for my birthday.
Imagine that! Disappointed in received a Ghibli movie. Now, I treasure each
Ghibli movie I have (my collection thus far only includes Nausicaa, Kiki’s Delivery
Service, and Whisper of the Heart).
And that’s where we are right now. I’m watching Kiki’s Delivery Service as preparing my brain for reviewing it as
if I was a child and as if I was me, a child in an adult body.
The first things that appeal to children is going to be the
age of Kiki and her call to action. [Side note, fans of the Sam Raimi Spiderman films will recognize Kiki as
Kirsten Dunst.] Also there’s a talking cat. But Kiki is a 13-year-old witch who
is setting out on her own for a year to hone her witch-y powers. Kiki isn’t
perfect, though; she’s a normal teenager who’s way too sure of her own powers
and gets to get out of the family life that we 13-year-olds hated sometimes.
Kids will love seeing an adolescent around their age able to set out on their
own, much like Ash in Pokémon. And in
her character, kids will relate to her fun, easy-going, and often naïve ways
and adults will appreciate the accurate, albeit sometimes too childish,
portrayal of a 13-year-old girl.
It’s something that I love in Miyazaki’s work, and really
Studio Ghibli’s work in general, that they have strong, young, female leads.
This does two things for me: A. It’s very interesting to see a female in this
kind of lead position, especially in an anime and B. It makes a character that
nearly anyone of any age will be able to relate to. It’s something in our psychology
that makes it easier for us to relate to females as opposed to males. I mean,
how different a movie would it be if Kiki was a male?
But Miyazaki initially portrays Kiki’s adventure as
something that will be seemingly easy. Everyone accepts witches as a part of
this world and would, of course, love to have a witch stay with them. Us adults
realize that hardships are yet to come, but kids love the free-spirited-ness of
the first 20 minutes. But she starts to lose control of her broom, almost
causes a traffic accident, almost gets arrested, and eventually fails to find
immediate lodging at a hotel. Because who would give a hotel room to a minor?
Realism hits the kids like a ton of bricks, reminding them that this fantasy is
indeed steeped in realism.
It isn’t all horrible real-world realism though. Soon, Kiki
starts her delivery service, from which the film derives its name. She begins
to stay at a bakery with some really nice people. [Another side note, Simpsons fans will recognize the
pregnant woman as tons of voices from The
Simpsons.] Soon, the beautifully childish music that children will love to
dance to and we adults will love what it adds to the already child-like ambiance.
This delivery portion is really just a segway for more to come.
It eventually leads to her and the boy, Tombo, becoming
closer. Tombo is the boy that the male children can relate to. Just having the
female with more female leads could work, but the addition of characters like
Tombo and Sosuke and Howl into Ghibli’s movies makes it so much more relatable
to the younger male audience, who might find more difficulty relating to Kiki
than the older audiences and females might. We’ve all been in that situation
where the girl we like doesn’t really want to talk to us or hang out with us or
associate with us and the dynamic between Kiki and Tombo brings back nostalgic
memories for the adults and puts kids in a very relatable right now situation.
Kiki then hits her big road block in life with her powers
starting to wane. She’s hitting an age where all people, males and females, are
confused about what they want in life because of the changes their bodies would
be going through. We adults recognize that her magic difficulties are
representing these changes but the kids relate to the general hardship of
overcoming that one big road block (for kids, probably just parents and their
seemingly unfair rules) to reach a higher pinnacle.
Even the characters represented in the story provide great
relation for both kids and adults. First, the kids see Kiki’s mother and father
as, of course, the parents they always wanted who would let them roam free.
Then there’s the bakery shop owners who are like an aunt and uncle to both Kiki
and the view. Then there’s Ursula, the woman in the woods, who is like an older
sister/older woman figure for Kiki. We adults recognize the roles that these
characters are playing and love how they’re portrayed in the series at the
times when Kiki needs them the most (the aunt and uncle take Kiki in when she
feels like she’s at her lowest; Ursula is the fun woman who provides sometimes
childish wisdom for the even more childish Kiki; and the mother and father simply
provide a place where Kiki knows she’s always welcome, which allows her to be
so free-spirited in her journey away from home). The roles that these
characters play in Kiki’s life can be represented so simple, so a child could recognize
them even on a subconscious level, yet can be analyzed in a much more complex
way so we as adults can see them and love them for that deeper meaning. Even
the old woman who gives Kiki the pot pie delivery and her cake represents the
kind, old, grandmotherly figure in Kiki’s life. But she’s the voice of reason
for Kiki, who finally gets the push she needs to overcome her hardships
involving her magic and allows Kiki to be able to fly easily again.
The cross appeal in anime, and in anything, really comes
with having a simple enough story that children can understand it (in this
case, the story of Kiki learning to be a witch and overcoming not having full
control over her magic), but complex enough that we adults can see something
further underneath the childish surface. In this case, the characters Miyazaki
has woven into his adaptation represent something simple, but can go so much
deeper than that.
Children can appreciate Avatar
for its humor with Aang and Sokka. But adults can recognize the complexities
and nuances of each character and how they’re more than just the cool Avatar
and the cool waterbender and the cool blind earthbender. It’s the same with Kiki’s Delivery Service. Kiki is more
than just a witch who has cool witch powers. Kiki is the little girl we can
remember being or we can remember hanging out with who’s a little naïve, but a
lot of fun. But she’s also the relatable character that so many kids can see
themselves in because of her naïveté and childishness, whether those kids be
male or female.
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