Elizabeth Gootzeit

I have some very deep-feeling children, and movies often succeed a little too well at taking them on emotional journeys. The kids know that, and thus often resist turning on a movie, but, if we manage to convince them to start, often they get engaged.

This past week we got our youngest to watch Kiki’s Delivery Service with us. I’ve been a devout Studio Ghibli fan for much of my life, and all the films hold a special place in my heart. Although Howl’s Moving Castle is my favorite, Kiki is way up there. It’s one of the best coming-of-age stories I know, and explores the artistic process and the struggles of writer’s block very well.

So I, as another deep-feeling person in a family full of them, found myself crying at several points throughout the film. I probably first saw it as a young teen, and I have revisited it countless times at every stage in my life. It has been a comfort movie for me, one I could turn on in the dead of night when feeling panicky and depressed—and at the same time it’s one of those pieces of media that forces me to sit with some pretty Big Feelings. Certainly it’s only going to hit harder as my children continue to grow.

Hayao Miyazaki and everyone at Studio Ghibli are master storytellers. The music does a lot of heavy lifting (thanks Joe Hisaishi!), The beautiful artwork, both the characters and the scenery, takes us into the world. Most importantly, it is not rushed. It takes its time with a relatively simple story and thus the emotions resonate on a deep level. The pacing allows the characters ample room to breathe, to sit with feelings both pleasant and decidedly not so.

And the movie made us—my husband, my youngest, and myself—sit with those emotions too. We all cried at various points, from nostalgia, joy, anxiety, relief. My kiddo latched onto the black cat Jiji, and was very distressed at the point when Kiki stops being able to understand him. We tried to explain what was going on, put words to the emotional experience. During the film’s climax, when Kiki must fly to save her friend Tombo, my kid anxiously asked, “Does she have her confidence?”

As I said, my kids often don’t want to watch movies, but now and again we will keep pushing. We need to ride out these emotional journeys, and I love to do it together. Even when it’s hard. Even when we keep having to reassure them, “Everything will work out in the end.”

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Recently read: Finished Ted Chiang’s short story collection, Exhalation. Finished Wuthering Heights.
Listening to: Kiki’s Delivery Service soundtrack. Take a listen to the ending song and try not to cry.