Jiji

Jiji is the sardonic black cat who accompanies the young witch Kiki in Hayao Miyazaki's 1989 Studio Ghibli film 'Kiki's Delivery Service', adapted from Eiko Kadono's novel. Small, glossy and permanently unimpressed, he is part familiar, part travelling companion and part running commentary on his witch's decisions.

His role in the story is quietly profound. At thirteen, a witch in Kiki's tradition must leave home for a year to find her place in the world, and Jiji flies with her — perched on the broom, offering dry remarks, and occasionally being pressed into service impersonating a stuffed toy. For most of the film Kiki can understand him perfectly, and their conversation is the thread that keeps her company in an unfamiliar city.

Then, at the film's emotional low point, Kiki loses her powers — and with them, her ability to understand Jiji. He does not leave; she simply cannot hear him any more. When her confidence returns at the climax, his voice does not come back with it. Miyazaki has described this as deliberate: Jiji represented the immaturity Kiki was growing out of, and the loss of that private childhood language is the price and proof of growing up. It is a strikingly unsentimental choice for a family film, and it is much argued over by viewers.

Jiji's design — solid black, enormous eyes, expressive ears — has made him one of the most recognisable cats in animation, and a permanent fixture of Ghibli merchandise worldwide.