Back on April 9th Twitch broke word of an impending live action adaptation of Kiki's Delivery Service to be helmed by The Grudge and Ju-On helmer Shimizu Takashi. The novel by Kadono Eiko has proven versatile source material, triggering a stage musical and manga series in addition to the famed Miyazaki-helmed Studio Ghibli animated feature so news of a new version should not have come entirely as a surprise. And yet the news was met by skepticism, perhaps because of the choice of director, perhaps because we ourselves ran it labeled as a rumor given that we could only verify through one source and many seized on a statement from Studio Ghibli saying, "We have nothing to do with it" as a denial that it was happening at all.
What those who seized on the Ghibli statement failed to appreciate is that Kiki doesn't belong to Ghibli and they don't need to have anything to do with it.
And so, today both Sports Nippon and Sports Hochi are confirming the news. The live action version is coming, Shimizu is directing, and sixteen year old figure skater Koshiba Fuka has been cast as the lead. Japanese reports indicate that the live action version will go deeper into the story than did the Ghibli version. While the previous animated feature adapted the first novel of the series this new live action version will use material from the first two entries.
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