Kiki's Delivery Service

Barely thirteen, the young witch Kiki rides her broomstick to a city she's never been to, with no plan, no contacts, and a talking black cat named Jiji who's honestly more worried about things than she is. That's the setup for Kiki's Delivery Service, and what follows is one of the most genuine coming-of-age stories you'll find in anime. Kiki has exactly one magical skill, flying, so she starts a delivery service in the coastal town of Koriko, working out of a bakery run by a warm-hearted woman named Osono. The movie isn't really about magic, though. It's about being young and alone in a new place, trying to figure out who you are when nobody's telling you what to do anymore. There's no villain, no big battle. Just a girl learning that independence is harder and lonelier than she expected, and that losing confidence in yourself can cost you the things that made you special. Studio Ghibli's hand-drawn animation makes Koriko feel like a real place you want to visit, and Joe Hisaishi's soundtrack carries that bittersweet feeling of growing up without hammering you over the head with it. If you grew up with Ojamajo Doremi or Tweeny Witches and want something in that same magical-girl-finding-herself space but with more emotional weight packed into a single movie, this is the one. It came out in 1989 and still hits harder than most things airing today.