A Certain Writer

魔女の宅急便 (Kiki's Delivery Service) was the very first novel I bought in Japanese. I loved the Studio Ghibli movie adaptation and wanted to know how different it was from the source material. Those reasons, coupled with the fact that the novel is often recommended for beginners, made it an obvious choice for my first entry into the world of Japanese literature. I remember the excitement I felt when I finally got my hands on it... and how quickly that excitement faded as I pried open the book and was met with a wall of kanji. After spending nearly an hour trying to make sense of the first page, I begrudgingly acknowledged that the novel was far too advanced for beginner reading level. Instead of forcing my way through it, I decided to shelve it with the hope that I'd return to the novel once my Japanese improved.

Nearly a decade later, I stumbled upon the book again while preparing for a move. I finally got around to reading it this weekend and wanted to share some thoughts.

I won't be giving a very in-depth synopsis of the novel but I will touch upon some story points. If you want to go into the novel blind or haven't seen the movie yet, I'd recommend clicking away from this post.

Story Overview

魔女の宅急便 tells the story of Kiki, a young witch who, as per witchy tradition, must leave home and live by herself for a year. Joined by her cat Jiji, she decides to settle down in the seaside town of Koriko. Although she is met with some resistance by townsfolk who dislike witches, Kiki is offered a place to live and opens a delivery service business.

If you've seen the movie, you're probably already familiar with what I just described. The movie follows the first four chapters of the novel very closely. The rest of the novel, however, is completely different.

While the first four chapters of 魔女の宅急便 follow a linear story, the other chapters are non-sequential. Each chapter is a slice-of-life episode that features a day or two in the life of Kiki as she completes a delivery. Some deliveries are more mundane than others. In one chapter Kiki is asked to deliver a poem, while in another chapter Kiki is asked to break into a moving high-speed train to deliver musical instruments.

I think it's important to mention that 魔女の宅急便 is the first novel out of a series of six. Due to the length of the series and episodic nature of the first novel, characters like Tombo or Osono who have major roles in the movie only appear a handful of times. Once a chapter is over, the characters or events from that chapter are rarely ever brought up again.

My Thoughts

I waited too long to read 魔女の宅急便.

I think I would have enjoyed the story a lot more when I was a Studio Ghibli obsessed middle-schooler. 魔女の宅急便 is a children's novel and it really shows. Don't get me wrong - I have no aversion to consuming media that's targeted at a younger audience. I mean, most of the stuff I read nowadays is light novels and, if you've been following this blog, you'll know that I'm no stranger to children's stories. I think what I'm trying to say is that there are stories that are written for people of all ages and there are stories written specifically for children. I feel like 魔女の宅急便 falls into the latter category.

魔女の宅急便 is written in a very childlike way. If you have any knowledge of Japanese, you probably know what I'm talking about. Most descriptions are given in the form of onomatopoeia. Most of the dialogue, including the lines said by adults, is written very casually. The episodic tales don't make a whole lot of sense in terms of how the events play out. Some chapters like the one about the love letter or the one about the clock are excusable to me because they're whimsical and charming. On the other hand, chapters like the one about the laundry lady or the one about the sailors were just tedious, making their faults a lot more obvious. I could see how a child would enjoy them but as an adult, most of the episodic plot points felt illogical and uninspired.

As with the story, I think I would have enjoyed 魔女の宅急便 more as a Japanese learner around the JLPT N4 or N3 level. I had just finished Genki II when I first attempted the novel. I found it far too advanced at the time, but I wonder if I would have enjoyed it if I had just pushed through. At my current level of Japanese, I found the text to be kind of annoying. While the novel does contain some kanji, most of text is written in kana alone. Most of 教育漢字 is written in kana while kanji like 藁 is included without furigana. I'm sure this makes sense to a Japanese child but from the point of view of someone who learned Japanese as a second language, I found it a little head scratching. To be honest, reading 魔女の宅急便 made me realize that I may have become a little too reliant on kanji.

I want to reiterate that I have no problems with the fact that this is a children's novel. I just want to make it clear that if you are an adult who picked up this novel because of the Studio Ghibli movie adaptation, you may be a little disappointed. The story and the way it is written are only problems if plan to use the novel as a learning source as an adult. I really wish that I persevered and read 魔女の宅急便 when I was part of its target audience.

I read Thornhedge and Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher in a single sitting yesterday. Yes, I have problems, but I don’t have any problems with the books. They were great. Once I started, I couldn’t resist staying up all night to finish them. So today, instead of doing another site update, I’m going to try to collect my thoughts on Thornhedge. I’ll do a writeup of Nettle & Bone at a later date, but Thornhedge left a bigger impression on me and I really want to talk about it. Thornhedge isn’t very long and I’m going to spoil everything so please, please, please avoid reading any further if you’re planning on reading it yourself!

Thornhedge is a modern fairytale. It centers of the life of Toadling, a fairy who can transform herself into a toad. She was born a human but was raised in the fairy world when she was taken as a baby and replaced with a “changeling.” She is later tasked with returning to her home to bless the changeling so it would “do no harm.” When she gets the incantation wrong, she is instead tasked with the responsibility of not allowing the changeling to do harm. The changeling is a monster in human flesh and after committing a series of murderers, it is put into a deep sleep and sealed away. Still bound to her duty to keep it from doing harm, Toadling remains by the tower the changeling is bound to for centuries until she devises a plan to kill it.

I knew going in that I was going to love Thornhedge. From reading the synopsis alone, I knew that the story has everything that I adore in fiction: fairies, knights, princesses, curses, and a secret tower. The characters in Thornhedge are written really well and I love them all. The novella is short, only about 100 pages, but I left feeling like I’ve spent an entirety with them. Toadling is just a darling. She’s charming and dutiful and I was rooting for her through the entire book. Halim is just so perfect. He’s shy and kind of a loser but very chivalrous and such a sweetheart. He’s literally husband material. I loved his character so much.

I love, love, love the idea of the princess being a monster. She’s just horrible. She tortures animals, murders her attendants without mercy, and even reanimates her prey. I like the idea of an absolutely irredeemable villain and Feyette was the perfect example of one. This isn’t really a gripe at all because I feel like the ambiguity of the conclusion, but I really want to know who or what she was planning on summoning. Did she just want revenge on Toadling and her kingdom or did she have greater ambitions? I left wondering how powerful Feyette really was or could become and what it would have looked like had she awaken and escaped the tower herself.

I’ll end this writeup with a confession: I actually started writing a story similar to the premise of Thornhedge a while ago. I stopped writing out of fear of my housemate finding it and general embarrassment over my inabilities as an author. Reading Thornhedge has given me the motivation to return to that story. I have a clearer vision of what I want it to be and although I’m still terrified of my housemate finding it and getting angry, I really, really want to write something now. So thank you, T. Kingfisher, for helping me find that spark again. I’ll never be able to write anything on the level of Thornhedge but you’ve inspired me to give writing a story another shot.