A producer for the award-winning animation film studio, Studio Ghibli, has decided to finally explain an unanswered question that has been in the minds of fans for a long time now, concerning a moment that happens in the latter part of the 1989 movie “Kiki’s Delivery Service.”
“Kiki’s Delivery Service” follows a 13-year-old witch who moves to a seaside town with her talking cat, Jiji, to spend a year alone, in accordance with her village’s tradition for witches in training. She then opens a “Witch Delivery Business”, delivering goods by broomstick.
After a while, Kiki begins to suffer from burnout which is further aggravated when a client expresses dissatisfaction over a delivered item. Kiki’s depression affects her magical abilities and finds out that she can no longer fly nor understand Jiji. But when something suddenly happens in the town and Kiki realizes that she’s the only person who can solve it, she eventually regains her confidence and powers.
Here’s the thing: despite the happy ending, it’s found that Kiki still couldn’t understand or talk to Jiji anymore, and Jiji ends up becoming a normal black cat. This has puzzled a lot of fans over the decades, many of whom decided to give their own theories as to why that happened.
Fortunately, it seems that we can finally clear this mystery up once and for all as Nippon TV’s “Kinyo Roadshow” revealed the answer during a recent rebroadcast of the film on Japanese television.
“It appears that Kiki is now able to fly again but Jiji remains silent. Actually, it’s not because Kiki’s magical powers have weakened, but because Kiki has progressed to a new stage that Jiji has returned to being a ‘just a cat,'” explained the TV network on its official Twitter account (as translated by SoraNews24).
“Regarding this topic, this is what producer Toshio Suzuki has to say: ‘Jiji is not just a pet, he’s another self [for Kiki]. So when she’s conversing with Jiji, she’s really just talking to herself.’ Her being unable to speak with Jiji at the end means that she no longer needs her alter ego, and that she can now do well in the town of Koriko. Kiki will grow into a fine witch who can do things by herself without having to rely on the existence of Jiji.”
So apparently, according to the producer, Kiki had just been projecting herself onto her cat this whole time!
I’m certain that a lot of fans have likely guessed this already and are now satisfied with this answer, but it doesn’t explain how Jiji is able to obtain information that Kiki possibly couldn’t know on her own (like helping her translate what birds say or finding out things from places where only Jiji was in). Then again, we’re dealing with a magical witch here and it’s safe to throw logic out the window for a moment to enjoy such a delightful story.
(ALSO READ: WATCH: Here’s Your First Look at Studio Ghibli’s “Whisper of the Heart” Live-Action Sequel)
But what are your thoughts on this? Let us know in the comments!
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