Kiki’s Delivery Service is an underrated Labor Day watch. Not only is it about the pains of turning a passion into a career, but it’s also about valuing your labor as worth money. There’s this great moment where Kiki turns down payment for a small job, then Osono insists:

Osono, by the way, is the nicest landlord of all time (which is why she’s fictional) constantly guiding Kiki through the realities of capitalism and business without exploiting her. Far more fantastical than any flying broomstick magic

It’s worth charting Hayao Miyazaki’s own politics here, as at one time he was a staunch labor organizer & self-identified Marxist. It’s a label he says he forsook in the mid-‘80s (described in this old interview) as he started to craft fictional benevolent capitalists like Osono

It shouldn’t be surprising at all that he stopped being a Marxist as soon as he became the boss of Ghibli, but his pro-labor, anti-imperialism streak comes out. I think of Yubaba as him trying to balance the evil owner who literally owns your name but is also a forgivable grandma

And then of course there’s Lady Eboshi, a negative force actively destroying the soul of the planet, but someone you’re supposed to feel confused empathy for, and one who can possibly be taught to be an ethical capitalist. It’s the best case Miyazaki dreams of as a former Marxist

Well, this blew up! If you'd like to hear more of my thoughts on cartoons, including Kiki's Delivery Service, I cohost two weekly podcasts deconstructing toons and their creators

Perhaps start with this preview of our chat about Kiki: https://whatacartoonfeed.libsyn.com/a-preview-of-what-a-cartoon-movie-for-kikis-delivery-service