- Sensibility: The nature of Kiki's magic and the witch rituals are a bit undefined and flexible throughout. Also, Kiki's complaints that the new town people don't like witches feels unfounded
when almost every character she interacts with takes a strong liking to her and expresses it almost immediately. Additionally, trouble with a broom and a confetti'd celebration after a miraculous save
are a bit odd in context.
- Cinematography: Visually stunning like most of Ghibli's works. Great character design, animation, and background visuals throughout. The music is also quite enchanting, but some intermittent, obviously, electronically produced orchestral music creates for a major let-down on the music front.
- Energy: The film is a bit boring. There are almost no stakes for Kiki throughout. She is just experiencing life as it comes. This has merits, but it takes too long to
get somewhere that forces character development.
- Narrative: The story has too much exposition, and then the interesting parts of Kiki's character feel a bit rushed and crammed into the ending. The film tackles introversion and
depression in a very interesting way but only does so near the very end. Feels like it could have been another great coming of age story, but there is too little content
to make the film interesting and the characters live aimlessly with very low stakes throughout until an ending that feels a bit forced. However, strong character design with Kiki and Jiji helps keep things interesting
when the plot lacks substance.
- T-Points: The film received two bonus points: one for each of the major broom takeoff sequences.
The biggest downfall of this film is the low stakes. The film is just a bit dull. It doesn't have the mysticism or the spirituality of other great Miyazaki films like Ponyo or Spirited Away.
All that being said, this is a harsh criticism for what is also objectively a solid film with a lot to offer.
Number of Watches: 1
