Image via GKIDS Films’ X/Twitter account
© 2026 GKIDS, INC. Kiki’s Delivery Service © 1989 Eiko Kadono/Hayao Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli
BBC Studios Kids & Family annonunced on Monday that it is partnering with U.K. production company Wheel in Motion and Kadokawa to develop a live-action television series based on Eiko Kadono’s Kiki’s Delivery Service (Majo no Takkyūbin) 6-volume novels. The companies are planning to create 10 half-hour episodes based on the first novel volume.
Irena Brignull (The Box Trolls, The Little Prince) is writing the series.
The six volumes of Kadono’s fantasy novel series Majo no Takkyūbin follow the coming of age of Kiki with her black cat Jiji. Kadono began the main novel series in 1985 and ended it in 2009. Kadono published a side-story centering on the character Osono in 2014. She received the Hans Christian Andersen Award for Writing in children’s literature in 2019.
Annick Press published the first novel with an English translation by Lynne E. Riggs in 2003. Penguin Random House published a new English edition of the first novel with a translation by Emily Balistrieri in 2020.
Hayao Miyazaki directed Studio Ghibli’s famous 1989 anime film adaptation of the first novel. Buena Vista Home Entertainment / Disney released the film in 1998 with an English dub on VHS, then released it on DVD in North America in 2003. GKIDS later released the film on Blu-ray Disc and DVD in 2017. HBO Max began streaming the film in 2020.
GKIDS began screening a 4K restoration of Studio Ghibli’s Kiki’s Delivery Service film exclusively in IMAX theaters in North America on March 13. GKIDS announced in December plans to partner with IMAX to bring 4K restorations of Studio Ghibli films to North American theaters in 2026. Studio Ghibli animator Atsushi Okui is overseeing the creation of the IMAX versions that are being made from new 4K restorations of the films. GKIDS previously screened the film in the United States during its Studio Ghibli Fest 2023 event.
The company describes the film’s story:
Celebrate this beloved coming-of-age story from the legendary Studio Ghibli, creators of Spirited Away, and Academy Award®-winning director Hayao Miyazaki, about a resourceful young witch who uses her broom to create a delivery service, only to lose her gift of flight in a moment of self-doubt.
It is a tradition for all young witches to leave their families on the night of a full moon and fly off into the wide world to learn their craft. When that night comes for Kiki, she embarks on her new journey with her sarcastic black cat, Jiji, landing the next morning in a seaside town, where her unique skills make her an instant sensation. Don’t miss this delightfully imaginative and timeless story of a young girl finding her way in the world, featuring the voices of Kirsten Dunst, Janeane Garofalo, Phil Hartman, and Debbie Reynolds.
The late theater director Yukio Ninagawa also directed a stage musical adaptation from 1993 to 1996. The first two novels inspired a live-action film starring Fūka Koshiba in 2014, a stage play at London’s West End in 2016, and stage musicals that ran in Tokyo and Osaka in 2017, and also in 2021.
Source: Variety (Naman Ramachandran) via Cartoon Brew
Disclosure: Kadokawa World Entertainment (KWE), a wholly owned subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation, is the majority owner of Anime News Network, LLC. One or more of the companies mentioned in this article are part of the Kadokawa Group of Companies.
