There are a lot of differences between the English and Japanese audio in Kiki. For instance, there are more silent periods in the original Japanese version, whereas in the (American) English version they almost stereotypically cannot stop talking. So it seems there was some cultural adaptation beyond simple translation.
> There are a lot of difference between the English and Japanese audio in Kiki
Definitely. Jiji (the cat) has a totally different character if you listen to the dub vs the original Japanese. One of the few instances where I prefer the dub... but I think it's just because I watched it that way as a child. This article [1] is convincing me to go back and give the Japanese audio another try.
Another layer for this—Kiki's Delivery Service was originally a book series. As far as I am aware, only the first was ever translated into English, and it was translated twice. The second time somewhat recently, and should still be easy to find. There are quite a lot of differences between the two, and you can really see how Miyazaki focused the plot of the movie on what he considered the most important aspect. But in the books, Kiki never loses her ability to converse with Jiji (at least not by the end of the first book; I don't know what happens in later books).
Anyway: if you like the movie, I would recommend tracking down the book. Some of the movie's scenes are lifted directly, but (as always) there's scenes I would have loved to see show up in the movie that didn't.
