When Kiki embarks on her first delivery, she flies as high as she can, so high that airplanes pass beneath her. From Kiki's vantage point, we can see parts of Koriko City far from the center of town, however briefly. There are a few large apartment buildings there whose architecture appears much more modern than Kiki's usual part of the city. I've visited cities like this, with areas that preserve an old-fashioned appearance at the core and have more newfangled construction in surrounding areas. This is a film all about the old and the new. The tradition Kiki participates in when she sets out on her own for a year of witch training is, we are told, an old one that has gone somewhat out of fashion. Kiki's mother remarks that the roles of witches in general are changing. One of the best sequences in the film involves Kiki taking an order from an elderly woman to deliver a pie to her grandddaughter. When she stops by the woman's...
"We are in the world, not against it." - Ursula K. Le Guin