Kiki's Delivery Service Ending, Explained

Kiki's Delivery Service ends with Kiki flying again to rescue her friend Tombo, but never again able to talk with her cat, Jiji. She loses her magic and her conversations with Jiji in the third act; the flying comes back when Tombo is stranded in an airship accident; Jiji's speech does not, and when he reaches her he only meows. Disney's 1998 English dub gave Jiji words at the end instead; by ANN's account, the 2010 revision of that dub restored the original. This page covers the ending in full.

Sources for this page: two CBR articles, Vera Vargas's ending explainer and Renee Senzatimore's report on Toshio Suzuki's explanation (one publisher between them); Tulisha Srivastava's ComicBook report of the same explanation; and, at Anime News Network, Justin Sevakis's Answerman column on the film's versions and Todd Ciolek's Blu-ray review. We have not rewatched the film or compared the English releases ourselves.

Losing the magic

Vargas: “In all versions of Kiki's Delivery Service, Kiki loses her powers after a bout of exhaustion and sickness in the third act of the film. When she loses her powers, she also loses the ability to speak to Jiji.” Ciolek notes that Jiji has been voicing many of Kiki's worries, and does so even more once he stops talking to her. The help that brings the flying back comes from people: Vargas names Ursula and Osono, and Ciolek describes Ursula, an artist, as someone who reminds Kiki that “being special isn't as important as being honest with yourself.”

The rescue

Senzatimore: “Kiki taps back into it so that she can save her friend, Tombo, after an airship accident leaves him stranded thousands of feet in midair.” Ciolek's description of the moment is the one that names the broom: Kiki “grabs a janitor's broom and enchants it for the most important ride of her life.” He also points out that Miyazaki ends the film right after this, “leaving just the right questions unanswered.”

Why Jiji stops talking

In the Japanese version the loss is permanent. Vargas: when Jiji hops onto Kiki's shoulder after she saves Tombo, “he merely meows enthusiastically,” and Kiki smiles and nuzzles him. Toshio Suzuki, the Ghibli producer, explained the choice; his remarks were posted by Nippon Television's Friday Road Show account around its May 8, 2026 broadcast of the film and reported by both CBR and ComicBook. In ComicBook's rendering: “Jiji is not just a pet—he’s another version of myself. So talking to Jiji is like having a dialogue with oneself. The fact that she can no longer talk to Jiji at the end means that she no longer needs that alter ego; it signifies that she’s now able to make it on her own in the town of Koriko.” ComicBook adds that Jiji stays with her and, by the end, has started a family with a cat of his own.

What the English dub added

Disney's 1998 dub changed this. Sevakis writes that Phil Hartman, who voiced Jiji, “delivered a key line at the end in a way that drastically changed the meaning of the scene,” possibly an honest mistake from following the script without consulting the original audio. Vargas describes the result: in the 1990s dub released on VHS, after the rescue “Jiji leaps onto her shoulder and talks once more in his usual voice,” implying the two can talk again. She attributes the change to Disney-connected executives overseeing the dub and says Ghibli objected.

Sevakis says that when the film was re-released on DVD in 2010, “the important line at the end was restored to its original intent,” along with the original songs, and that the original Disney version had not been released since. Vargas likewise says the original ending is restored in the most recent English dub. One report reads differently: Senzatimore writes that in the Disney-produced English dub, directed by Jack Fletcher, Jiji shouts to Kiki as he runs toward her through a crowd, his mouth hidden, which she takes to imply Kiki can still understand him. She does not say which release she watched, and we have not compared them, so we leave that disagreement open. Our sub or dub guide covers the versions in detail.

What the ending means

Suzuki's explanation reverses the obvious reading. Many viewers took Jiji's silence as a sign Kiki was still weakened; ComicBook reports that the broadcaster's account said the truth was the opposite, that she no longer needs him to speak. Our reading: the film makes its point by refusing to return everything Kiki lost. The flying comes back because she needs it for someone else; the talking cat does not, because she no longer needs it for herself. The 1998 line undid that asymmetry, which may be why one changed line drew Ghibli's objection. That is our interpretation, not a statement from Miyazaki.

The Kiki's Delivery Service quotes page collects verified lines from the film, and the Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle ending explainers cover two more Miyazaki endings.