Romance, in Studio Ghibli films, is replaced by self-realization—and not only princesses or warriors achieve it. Most of its female leads are insecure adolescent girls, striving for independence, making their own paths in life and discovering their true selves. In Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989), for example, a 13-year-old witch-in-training must leave home and live on her own for one year in order to become a real witch. The headstrong Kiki eagerly flies off on her broomstick, but soon loses her magic powers. “Without even thinking about it, I used to be able to fly,” she muses in one scene. “Now I’m trying to look inside myself and find out how I did it.” In Howl’s Moving Castle (2004), when a witch transforms Sophie into a 90-year-old woman, the self-conscious character sets out on a quest to break the curse. She climbs on board a floating fortress, befriends a fire demon, impersonates a witch and stops a war, but it is when she starts to feel confident in herself, and help others, that her wrinkles begin to fade.