Kiki's Delivery Service possesses a number of Studio Ghibli's trademarks that include focus on a female character, flying scenes via Kiki's broom flying and a lack of villains. Throughout this film, Kiki undergoes the challenges of learning about independence and responsibility. As events in the movie transpire, the girl learns to cope with her new life as she is no longer dependent on her family, has the desire to fit in with others and dealing with her her first job. Her powers as a witch by talking to her cat, Jiji, and flying on her broom also provide symbolism to her passing childhood. As the movie lacks any kind of antagonist, it is free to explore the challenges Kiki is facing in her life without having any other conflicts to get in the way of her character's developments and the focus on her struggles would make make it an easy movie for folks to connect with due to having their own struggles with understanding what it means to grow up.
On the visual end, Kiki’s Delivery Service features plenty of nicely-detailed and expansive settings that are influenced through Ghibli's efforts to research the landscape and building structures of European settings in developing the film. Character designs are a bit on the simple side with facial and clothing designs, but do well to compliment the light-hearted mood of the movie. There is a good deal of fluid movement throughout the film offered from moving vehicles and characters shown to walk city streets. But the animation highlight of Kiki's Delivery Service comes in the form of Kiki's broom-flying scenes that do an excellent job at simulating the sensation of flying whenever Kiki is flying at fast speeds to react to sudden obstacles or changes with the weather.
Overall, Kiki's Delivery Service is certainly among Ghibli's most memorable films thanks to its simple focus on the coming-of-age trials faced by Kiki as she learns to live independently and adjust to her new surroundings. This is a definite recommendation for fans of Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli's works.
