“We Fly With Our Spirit”: 8 Books Like KIKI’S DELIVERY SERVICE

The gorgeous artwork that fills the pages of this sweet and magical manga by Kamome Shirahama is reminiscent of Studio Ghibli’s style. Just like Kiki, Coco’s greatest dream is to become a witch. Coco, however, was not born with magic. After she meets the mysterious traveling magician Qifrey, Coco learns there may be hope for her to learn magic after all. She soon finds herself becoming Qifrey’s new apprentice.

Like Kiki’s Delivery Service, this heartfelt graphic novel stars a teen witch and explores themes of self-discovery, family, and love. While Kiki’s is set above a bakery, Mooncakes also provides a cozy setting in the form of a bookshop. Chinese American and Deaf witch, Nova Huang, divides her time between helping in her grandmothers’ magical bookstore and investigating supernatural incidents in town. When Nova comes across a white wolf in the woods, she finds it’s her old childhood crush, nonbinary werewolf Tam Lang, and as the two reconnect, sparks begin to fly.

The setting of Kiki’s Delivery Service above a bakeshop creates such a feeling of comfort within me whenever I watch it. This delightful middle grade fantasy by Anna Meriano promises both baking and magic too. In Rose Hill, Texas, Leonora Logroño discovers she’s descended from a line of witches of Mexican ancestry, who infuse their baking with mouthwatering magic. Eager to test out her own newfound gift, Leonora decides to try out her magic by helping her best friend, Caroline.

This enchanting new fantasy by Claribel A. Ortega follows tween witches trying to make new friends and find a sense of belonging, just like Kiki. Ortega also shared a heartfelt tweet recently about how they’re nonbinary and wanted to create a magical world where they felt they belonged. Twelve-year-old Seven Salazar can’t wait to join the most powerful coven with her best friend during the Black Moon Ceremony. Yet things don’t go as planned for Seven. On the night of the ceremony, she gets placed in a Spare coven with an impossible task awaiting her and her unlikely new allies.

If you’re here for the talking cat (aren’t we all?), I’m right there with you. I love Jiji in Kiki’s Delivery Service; he makes for the most sassy yet loyal companion as Kiki embarks on her big adventure to a new city. This heartwarming book in translation by Sōsuke Natsukawa draws together a coming-of-age narrative with fantasy, plus a talking cat character. Bookish and introverted high schooler, Rintaro Natsuki, is on the verge of closing the bookshop he inherited from his late grandfather when a cat named Tiger appears and asks for his help saving unread and disregarded books.

Speaking of talking cats, let me introduce you to teen witch, Moth Hush, who finds her own talking cat companion too! When a group of 8th grade bullies try to ruin 13-year-old Moth’s Halloween, Moth uncovers surprising secrets about her family’s history in Founder’s Bluff, Massachusetts. As she begins discovering new powers, Moth meets a talking cat, falls into a magical diary, and unlocks a witchy realm.

While this book does not contain magic (besides the *magic of friendship*), it gave me such strong Kiki’s Delivery Service vibes with its themes of coming-of-age, slice of life, starting afresh in a new city, self-discovery, friendship, and falling in love. After Japanese American, Nao, chooses to defer college for a year, she returns to Tokyo to reconnect with her heritage and attend a Japanese language school. Moving into a Himawari sharehouse with four other college-aged young adults, Nao begins forming relationships that will leave a lasting impact. This heartwarming graphic novel is written and illustrated by Harmony Becker, the illustrator of George Takei’s They Called Us Enemy. This is one of my favorite reads this year, and I can’t recommend it enough.