What about Jiji?
Can Kiki still understand Jiji? Because at the end he was still meowing.
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MovieChat Forums > Majo no takkyûbin (1990) Discussion > What about Jiji?
In one version, it shows Kiki can understand Jiji and in another version(Disney), it shows she lost the ability. I am not sure but I think Miyazaki said he loved the Disney edit of not being able to speak or understand Jiji anymore as it shows she grew up to become an adult.
Just because you've got the emotional range of a teaspoon, doesn't mean we all have !
You've got it reversed: in the original Japanese, Jiji meows as he runs up to Kiki at the end. For an instant she looks dismayed, but then cuddles him. In the first edit of the Disney dub, we hear Jiji saying "Kiki, can you hear me?" as he approaches her. (This may have been removed from the second edit: a lot of Jiji's speeches were.)
shareIn that dub, the meow he gives was obviously Phil Hartman doing the meowing. It was different from the earlier just cat meows, and I took it to mean Jiji was teasing Kiki by pretending to still be talking like a cat and that Kiki understood that.
shareIt seems the consensus fan theory is Jiji never could talk in the first place. Kiki only imagined he could because he was the only friend she had in her new town. On the other hand, it could be a natural part of witch familiars that they can talk when the witch is young. Either way, Jiji doesn't speak to Kiki anymore in the end. This is suppose to be a sign of our character maturing and fully accepting her new life and friends.
"Unless you're an alien, time traveler, or esper, your opinion doesn't matter."
you don't make any sense, in a movie where a witch fly on a broom, i'm sure she wasn't imagining a talking cat.
shareI only gave what the popular fan theories are and one of them is Jiji's dialogue is imagined. But I also gave the theory that witch familiars only speak when the witch is young. I didn't say either was necessarily correct, we don't really know the real answer. But regardless, it's mostly established that Jiji no longer speaks human speech at the end of the movie.
"Unless you're an alien, time traveler, or esper, your opinion doesn't matter."
I was confused by that too, I liked the talking cat.
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