Kiki's Delivery Service

Thirteen-year-old Kiki leaves home to spend the required year living on her own as a witch. She settles in a lively port town where she has to build a life from scratch, make friends, and support herself. Using broomflight as a skill, she launches a small air courier service, delivering packages while learning how to run a business, handle setbacks, and grow more confident. Along the way she forms bonds with a kindly bakery owner, an eager boy fascinated by aviation, and her talkative cat, and she copes with bouts of doubt about what she can offer to the people around her.

Released in 1989, the film was directed by Hayao Miyazaki and adapts Eiko Kadono's novel. Produced by Studio Ghibli, it arrived as part of the studio's late 1980s output and helped broaden its international reputation.

The movie performed well at the box office in Japan and found an appreciative audience overseas, contributing to Studio Ghibli's growing profile outside Japan without focusing on specific gross figures.

Visuals like Kiki soaring above rooftops, the black cat's dry quips, and the cozy bakery scenes have entered popular awareness. Those images and moments are often referenced in animation discussions, merchandising, fan art, and cultural celebrations of Studio Ghibli, reinforcing the film's familiar presence in global pop culture.

Critics have long praised the film for its warm, human scale, richly detailed animation, and gentle humor. Its themes center on growing independence, learning practical skills, coping with creative block and self-doubt, and the value of community support and small acts of kindness. The tone is calm rather than sensational, and the film often emphasizes everyday rhythms as much as moments of wonder.