Animes have been a significant reason for the shift of global attention towards Japanese literature. This increasing popularity has led to many Japanese novels and mangas have been translated into English to be sold outside Japan.
Penguin Random House has published a new English translation for Eiko Kadono’s Kiki’s Delivery Service novel. The hardcover version of the new translation is retailing at $16.99 and $19.99, and started shipping on July 7.
Eiko Kadono began the series back in 1985 and ended it with the sixth novel in 2009. Since then, Kadono has also published a side-story revolving around the character Osono in 2014.
Kiki’s Delivery Service novels have inspired many movies and plays. Hayao Miyazaki directed studio Ghibli’s famous animated adaptation of the first novel in 1989.
Minami Takayama voiced Kiki in the film while Rei Sakuma voiced Jiji, Kiki’s black cat. The animated movie was also licensed by Walt Disney Studios and GKIDS to be distributed outside Japan.
Kiki’s Delivery Service’s received an English translation by Lynne E. Riggs that was published by Annick Press in 2003.
Fans looking for the animated version of Kiki’s Delivery Service can stream it at HBO Max along with the rest of the Studio Ghibli film Library.
The children’s novels later received a stage play adaptation by director Yukio Ninagawa from 1993 to 1996.
Kiki’s Delivery Service’s first two novels later inspired a live-action film that starred Fūka Koshiba in 2014, a stage play at London’s West End in 2016, and a new stage musical that ran in Tokyo and Osaka in 2017.
About Kiki’s Delivery Service
Kiki’s Delivery Service is a series of children’s storybooks by Eiko Kadono that began publishing in 1985.
The novel revolves around Half-witch Kiki, who must follow witch’s traditions and choose a new town to call home for a year on her 13th birthday.
Kiki chooses the seaside village of Koriko and wishes to help the village folk with her magical powers. She soon finds it difficult to gain the villager’s trust, but with her wise-cracking black cat, Jiji, she moves on to forge new friendships.
Source: Penguin Random House Website
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