This delightful little volume, titled “Genki ni naresou” in Japanese (roughly translating as “to feel better/to get one’s spirits up” ) is not really an art book, but rather a children’s picture book of sorts based on artwork from Miyazaki Hayao’s “Kiki’s Delivery Service”.

The book is a collaboration between Miyazaki-san, who penned the short, poetic passages of text/commentary, and three Ghibli Studio artists, namely Kondo Katsuya, Otsuka Shinji and Kondou Yoshifumi, who provided the pictures.

(above) Kuroneko Jiji, one of the most endearing of Ghibli’s characters. ( “kuroneko” means black cat, though he’s noticable more blue here. )

At only 34 pages, this book doesn’t have too much artwork to show off, but its still a nice, light read and I wanted to share it with my readers as few people know of its existence. For those looking for more artwork from the film, you can find the official “Art of Kiki’s Delivery Service” here. I have a copy of the book and will do a review of it in the near future.

Kiki’s Delivery Service is an amazing film, certainly not one meant just for kids. It’s profoundly introspective and touches on the many challenges that we all faced as young individuals growing up – loneliness and solitude, and loss of confidence/direction at one point or another in our lives. Kiki braved all of these obstacles and emerged at the end of the film a stronger and more confident person, which is why the book is aptly titled “(I will) feel/get better”, I think.

Anyone else love this movie as much as I do ? :]

“Kiki’s Delivery Service Picture/Poem book” artbook details :

– Dimensions – 7.2 x 7.2 x 0.4 inches
– Hardcover with jacket,34 pages
– Watercolor with Japanese text

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