Blair Loveday
It is not exactly a hot take to say that Studio Ghibli is an incredible film making studio.
Many anime fans will be aware of the incredibly iconic movies they have made. One of their earliest ones is the iconic Kiki’s Delivery Service which has managed to turn 35!
Well, what better way to celebrate with a new Bluray release which is exactly what we got.
If you haven’t seen this wonderful movie, it’s a treat. A young witch named Kiki has turned thirteen, and as such she needs to go on her own and spend a year away from her village. Apparently this is a normal thing in the witch community.
So she ventures off with her cat Jiji to spend her year in a seaside village.
When she gets there she is a little lost and not sure what she should do.
A woman, Osono, yells out to a customer about her baby’s pacifier that was left behind. Kiki being the delightful young woman she is, grabs the pacifier and returns it to the woman. Osono reckons that Kiki would make a good delivery person, and as such offers her some room and board if she will help in the shop. This also allows Kiki to starts up her little delivery service.
The movie then follows our young Kiki as she deals with some weird challenges, from angry crows, to dealing with the chaos that is boys. The first time I watched the story I was expecting things to go a little more disastrous, but this is very much a coming of age story. Kiki faces challenges to overcome including evolving her magic itself, but she finds her way through it all. She discovers delightful people, and awful people, giving her a nice rounded view of the world.
I mean, there is a big ass disaster in the movie, but that’s less around something horrifying happening to Kiki. It’s such a well put together movie that doesn’t just hold up today, it’s excellent still today.
There has been an issue with the original english voice acting being lost or something. As such most of the releases now have a really questionable voice sound-work in them. Unfortunately that is very much still the case here. As such when the voices, especially when they are louder, have a weird tinny sound.
It’s unfortunate as the voice acting was solid, and it’s especially weird given the incredible soundtrack behind it. It doesn’t stop you enjoying the movie, but early on it is distracting every time.
The Bluray is loaded with heaps of behind the scenes features including one I enjoyed where they look at places that inspired the locations in the film. This edition comes in a slip case with alternate art, and with two vinyl stickers. One is a long sticker of Jiji, and the other has Kiki and Jiji riding the broom through a wreath.
If you’re a fan of this iconic movie, then this the best edition you will find currently. I hope they manage to fix the English audio, but for how good this movie is, you can get over it.
Or I dunno, watch it in Japanese. Either way, this is a welcome edition of a fantastic Studio Ghibli movie.
