Kiki’s Productivity and Its Relation to Alienation in ‘Kiki’s Delivery Service’

Simran Parashar
TYBA, 2021-22

Kiki’s Delivery Service, seemingly innocent on the outside, packs a plethora of symbolic and political messaging, working both as an animated movie and a symbolic masterpiece. The inviting visuals and the straightforward storyline deal with heavy topics such as depression, individuality, alienation, labour, production, work-life balance, specialisation, kinship, love, loss of innocence and creative exhaustion. Kiki in many ways represents a thirsty, hungry artist, who craves recognition while struggling to become the ‘perfect witch’. Hayao Miyazaki was a self-proclaimed Marxist and often showed interest in the connection between labour and economy, evident in Kiki’s Delivery Service. A decade later things have changed; he even admitted to Marxism being a mistake. It is safe to say that his work is more than just children’s entertainment. In this post, I explore the relationship between Kiki’s Delivery Service, Miyazaki’s ideas, alienation and modernization, specifically modern capitalism. 

Alienation is the process of being separated from ‘the object’. It is the feeling of withdrawal from the production process and isolation from other individuals in the social structure, solitude and loneliness from the self and the other.  The film is about  ‘A young witch, in her mandatory year of independent life, finds fitting into a new community difficult while she supports herself by running an air courier service.’* The movie is a perfect metaphor for young creatives trying to make it on their own in the capitalist superstructure, while battling the ambiguous cycle of alienation. Kiki, who comes from a small town where everything and everyone is connected, is on her way to finding a new city to live in. She comes across a senior witch, who already has her ‘unique selling point’, fortune telling. Kiki feels bad for not yet having her own “special skill”, a prominent plot point to the film and the toll capitalism takes. 

Think of it as the setting of a classroom in a baking school. The chef asks you to bake a cake following the recipe while also making it creative. Points will be given for following the recipe, however, most points will be awarded to the cakes that taste the best and stand out the most. Some students use fondant, others use icing, a few students bend the rule and change the recipe adding nuts, many students leave the classroom to smaller classrooms where their work, though very similar to others, stands out more due to the lack of competitors. You are one of the few students who just follow the instructions and attempt to decorate the cake. You work with the skills you have, which is not appreciated by the chef. You are given only a few points, and feel the phantom of your classmates’ judgement. The few friends you have in the classroom seem to be doing better than you. Eventually, you lose interest in baking,  your skill is unique to the general public but it is common in the baking industry, making it hard for you to stand out. This inferiority, as well as the hostile work environment, eventually leads to a loss of passion, detachment from skill, defining the feeling of separation from self, where the artist cannot make it in the industry. 

When Kiki reaches the big city she finds it hard to fit in, she feels like everyone is looking at her, judging her. She is given shelter by a kind baker,​​ Onsono. Jiji, Kiki’s cat, voices her inner struggle. “Why don’t we go find another town? I bet there are bigger and better ones, ones that are friendlier than this.” Kiki perceives flying as her only “special skill” but that is not enough to keep her afloat, which leads her to start a delivery service. She runs the delivery service with Onsono, an artist, whose cakes Kiki delivers. Even though flying is Kiki’s passion, the strain of her job begins to kill her creative drive, leading to creative exhaustion and eventual burnout. Jiji, the cat, is the ego to Kiki’s id. The id is the inner child, the artistic drive. The ego is the disciplinarian to the id, it also acts as Kiki’s inner voice. Jiji is the pressure that Kiki puts on herself as an artist under societal pressure.

This could be further explored through Mead’s idea of ‘the self’; it is her interaction that allows her to function as a social being; once she loses her ability to talk to Jiji, she loses her ability to continue with her art. The artist in Kiki warns her to look for another place to work, one where she will find it easier to fit in and thrive. Kiki dismisses it, not wanting to return a failure. When she is still unable to connect to the world around her, she loses the string that connects her inner feelings, eventually losing connection with JiJi and leaving her in a true state of solitude.  

Going back to you as the baker. The idea of making a name for yourself mixed with the idea of ‘hustle culture’ is a massive deterrent in the world of ‘art’. You as the baker know you can score more points if you bend the recipe, or use fondant, however, you also want to be just as good as the others with the skill you possess. You assume that art is what drives the economy, however real-life experience shows you how in the production cycle the economy controls your art. 

In the movie, the importance of labour and productivity is central as it links the characters with their surroundings. Kiki’s mother specializes in mixing potions and lives in a very secluded town that has not yet had to face the extreme brunt of mechanised production. She is seen as a strong independent woman who has made her living through hard work. Onsono is the kind lady who allows Kiki to live in the attic of her house. The bakery she owns is small but Onsono works hard, even though she is an entrepreneur she finds joy in her work and art, not succumbing to capitalist ideologies. 

Ursula is another artist in the movie. Her relationship to art however is different to Kiki’s as she does not give in to false consciousness nor does she share the ideology towards art that the city people showcase. She recognises the importance of the heart in art and does not chase monetary rewards. Ursula’s home in the woods displays her separation from the industrialised world and is one of the reasons why she can survive as an artist. It is also the place where Kiki finally gets some clarity regarding her self worth and “special skill”. Even though not fully separate, the lack of modern technology makes it easier for Kiki to focus on her art. She, like Kiki, felt burnout before, after being stuck as a cog in the machine of a materialistic society. Ursula through separation understood that ideological, and institutional processes exist to mislead members of the structure. 

Tombo’s plane construction is another show of creativity existing in the structure, even though he grew up within the structures of modernity he still had a more artistic labour intensive outlook. Perhaps it was because of that, he was able to appreciate Kiki’s ability to fly over others in his city. It is also important to note the existence of cultural capital within the capitalist structure. Tombo is from the big city and comes from an economically comfortable family. Ursula is also a non-witch and finds it easier to fit in. Kiki, on the other hand, comes from a small island, is not used to the focus on specialisation or the city way of life. She is also ‘the witch’ and is often treated poorly by other children her age. 

The privileged kids who don’t work are often the recipients of Kiki’s deliveries. She essentially works for them which symbolises the way artists have to cater to the rich. Not being able to relate to her peers, feeling inferior to the city children make her feel isolated within society and from the work she is forced to do. “Flying used to be fun until I started doing it for a living.” 

Kiki’s loss of flight symbolically represents burnout, where passion has been forced to become just a job she is no longer able to create. A process of alienation does not just come all at once, it is a gradual breakdown of human connection to the self and the separation of reality from the machine because of the machine. There is a feeling of dissonance present within the hierarchy and Kiki, who is the bottom artist labourer finds herself facing it from the bourgeoisie she often delivers to. This loss comes not just from the city, the people or herself rather it is a culmination of all of them. 

Her shaky flying not only represents her inexperience but also her anxiety and feelings of loneliness. "I got so caught up in all the training and stuff, maybe I'll have to find my inspiration." This is a statement she repeats throughout the movie. Flying becomes a means of survival, a technicality for her. However later in the movie, she recognises that she needs to make it her own and not try to fit into the mould of a “perfect witch”.  Her loss of magic tempts her to give up and go home, a predicament faced by many artists. However, her time with Ursula helps her regain her confidence. Because to Kiki the idea of what the ‘perfect witch’ was incomplete when she left the island. It was to prove to the family she could survive on her own, to herself it was the idea that should live in a big city by the sea, and to the other witches, it was the want to fly. She projected the idea of the ‘perfect witch’ onto others and through Ursula, she understood that the ‘perfect witch’ does not exist. 

You, as a baker, chase perfection, there are expectations that you must live up to, some as a student, a child and as an artist, until you realise, that perfection is a myth, and that there is no one perfect baker, a perfect student or a perfect anything. Is this where you achieve fulfilment from your work?

The capitalistic system makes Kiki stick out. Her black dress and broom do not fit in with the style of the town, she is often yelled at and looked down upon. In the start, she wishes to change herself and buy clothes that might make her fit, but she does not have the money to do that. Material things defined her place in the big world. It was no longer about just possessing a skill, people wanted to befriend her based on her appearance and value rather than for who she is. The only people who are truly kind to Kiki are Onsono, who steps away from the hegemony of society and survives on passion and community. Tombo, an inventor who also finds himself distanced and different from people in his city despite having grown up with them, probably because he is a social outcast and does not respect the capitalistic values imposed on him. Older women, who grew up in a time when witches (of Kiki’s mother’s generation) were more respected. These were women who survived in a time before massive industrial changes. 

Kiki is forced to leave the carefree innocence of childhood for artistry. The best examples of labour we see are Kiki’s deliveries, Tombo’s plane construction, and the bakery. What ties all of these together? Well, they’re independent ventures that connect those around them, creating a spiral, perhaps even a web of producers. Of course, this is a capitalist society, so it’s not the union of producers Marx discussed, but that’s essential. For Kiki’s, the importance of labour is central. It’s the feeling of not being able to accomplish what she’s supposedly meant to that leads to Kiki’s depression. Kiki felt exploited as a labourer. Kiki does not overcome her depression. Not entirely as she cannot talk to Jiji. 

There is a critique to Kiki’s character, that she is an imperfect artist because she did not try hard enough. But I believe that that is exactly the point Miyazaki was trying to make. She is an artist because of her imperfections, and it is the structure that is punishing her for that. Her work can be done through new technology, like Tombo’s plane, her artistic labour is no longer required. So it is not her imperfection that is to be commented on, rather it is the constantly changing structure that causes her to fail and doubt herself. Even her self doubt and expectations come from the internalization of needing to succeed according to a flawed, predetermined path.   

Though you can bake the cakes, you are left with a feeling of emptiness, not wanting to bake anymore, the art of baking has become extremely mechanised, you dodge orders and skip classes, you still have remnants of passion that you can explore with some interesting assignments like making themed cakes, however, you still feel as if you could give up any minute. 

Through my multiple viewings of Kiki’s Delivery Service as a visual and cultural media, I’ve come across various perspectives, and have come to the decent understanding that Kiki’s Delivery Service can be simply defined by two words: loss and gain. Though that is generalised, I feel it is appropriate because no artist gains and no person grows without loss. The purpose of the article wasn’t simply to discuss Marx’s idea of alienation and Miyazaki’s portrayal of it, nor was it to understand loss and gain in an artist. The idea of this post is not to dismiss or critique the capitalistic framework that supports the arts. Rather it is to understand this framework through the struggles of Kiki. It is important to note that there are a plethora of artists who deeply value the framework. They are able to find success and are rewarded by the pain of mechanised production. . There are also many young artists who find themselves relating to Kiki and her struggles. The post aimed to look at these struggles and link them to the ideas of productivity, production and alienation. 

Hey, baker! What have you lost and what have you gained? Do you feel content with connection, have you understood your perfection? 

Notes

*  Kiki's Delivery Service (1989). (n.d.). IMDb. Retrieved 10 10, 2020, from https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097814/

References 

Alienation (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). (2018, August 30). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/alienation/ 

Anthony Pereyra (hypersonic91@yahoo.com). (1989, July 29). Kiki’s vliegende koeriersdienst (1989). IMDb. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097814/ 

Kiki’s Delivery Service: More Relevant than Ever. (2021, July 27). YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gqc7mV-vaM&list=WL&index=28 

Kiki’s Delivery Service: The Millennial Starving Artist. (2018, March 29). YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vv9mL0YjUiE&t=8s 

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Rocca, A. J. (2017). Miyazaki’s Haunted Utopia: The Ghost of Modernity in “Kiki’s Delivery Service.” PopMatters. https://www.popmatters.com/miyazakis-haunted-utopia-ghost-modernity-kikis-delivery-service-2495410503.html 

Wallace, R. A., & Wolf, A. (1995). Contemporary Sociological Theory: Continuing the Classical Tradition (Subsequent ed.). Pearson College Div. 

Z., & Zeria, V. A. P. B. (2019, December 31). Miyazaki’s Marxism – The Politics of Anime’s Legendary Director. Floating into Bliss. https://floatingintobliss.wordpress.com/2019/12/31/miyazakis-marxism-the-politics-of-animes-legendary-director/ 

Image Credits

Lil Miss Mercurial on. (2021). Twitter. https://twitter.com/msariesmoon/status/1313511279613468677?s=12 

S. (2021, September 30). Animated GIF. GIPHY. https://giphy.com/gifs/sPOcrwOI9PncCQ6UwC