By Nrl Liya
Hayao Miyazaki’s animated film in 1989 Kiki’s Delivery Service, portrayed a young witch named Kiki who travels all by herself and her black cat, Jiji to a new place as part of a witch tradition from her comfy countryside home to a bustling city. If you are familiar with Hayao Miyazaki's works, you would not be surprised that all his artwork is permanently embedded with more profound messages. Messages that people would commonly overlook due to the simplicity of the movie at first.
An element that caught my eye later than I would like to admit is the world-building of the movie. The transition of a countryside witch who lives in a calm and peaceful town suddenly faced with a city that is crowded and lively with modernity that she never experienced before. A transition of humanity from a much simpler time to the modern age.
The world-building in Kiki’s delivery service encapsulates the differences or gaps between the different lives of the countryside and the city and the generational gaps that exist in the story. Man and nature, as it is a profound element in Hayao Miyazaki's films that never failed to capture the heart of the audiences. While there is a much more mature approach towards the topic of man and nature by Hayao Miyazaki, and Nausicca, the film Kiki’s delivery services highlighted the changes that humanity experienced with the age of modernity.
When Kiki first arrived in the city, she was overwhelmed by the crowdedness of it and her inability to navigate in the buzzing city to the point she was stopped by police who asked her to stop flying around carelessly. Not only that but she also found herself different from others her own age that has adapted to the arrival of modernity. Kiki felt lost and felt like she is a separate entity from everyone else, kids her age dress differently from her and judge her for her simple look.
Kiki doesn't abandon her witchiness in a city of modernity but rather sees her magic as an asset that allows her to be able to live in the city but struggles with it. That is true, but finding her uniqueness and capability in flying in a machine born from modernity, Kiki struggles in finding her place in the lively city.
Kiki is a representation of humanity that struggles to find a place in the sudden change of the world. A witch that lives in the countryside with a friendly neighbour and large spaces to run around arrives in a bustling city full of crowds and machines that she is unfamiliar with. The nature and atmosphere that she embraced back at her home weren’t there anymore and we could see later in the movie that along the way she lost a part of herself when she lost her magic ability by not being able to fly nor talk to her cat.
In the rapid changes in her surroundings, Kiki loses part of herself. Just like humanity when the modern age arrives. A sense of loss not only to nature but to their own identity, just like Kiki. It also talks about how the changes can cause loneliness in the human heart. A feeling of detachment from a society that one is unable to fit in. This simple movie about a young witch who travels to the city as part of the witch tradition provides a deeper insight into humanity than one could think of.
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