Why Kiki Lost Her Magic, and Why Miyazaki Refused to Say

Kiki's Delivery Service never tells you why Kiki loses her magic, and Hayao Miyazaki said explaining it would have been pointless. Here is what he did say, what he refused to explain, and why her cat never speaks to her again. Why does Kiki lose her magic in Studio Ghibli's Kiki's Delivery Service? Hayao Miyazaki's film lines up five suspects in the twenty minutes before her broom breaks: a delivery in the rain, a herring pie the granddaughter never wanted, a fever, flying that turned into a job, and Tombo's friends. In The Art of Kiki's Delivery Service, Miyazaki refused to pick one, calling magic a limited talent and comparing Kiki's slump to losing a drawing that once came easily. In Eiko Kadono's original novel Kiki never loses her powers at all; Miyazaki added the fall, and Kadono was reportedly unhappy enough that the film nearly got shelved. The cure is Ursula the painter, whose painting comes from a school class in Hachinohe, and the flight returns on a borrowed deck brush when Tombo is in danger. The one thing the filmmakers did explain is why Jiji stops talking, in the words of producer Toshio Suzuki and Miyazaki, plus what Disney's 1998 English dub with Phil Hartman changed at the end. Every quoted line is from the film's subtitle track or the published record. Chapters 0:00 The Lost Magic 0:52 The Lineup 1:37 The Order 2:24 He Would not Pick 2:58 His Own Desk 3:42 Not in the Book 4:29 The Painter 5:25 The Deck Brush 6:00 The Other Self 6:51 Jiji and I Are Fine More at Cutscene HQ: https://www.youtube.com/@watch-cutscene