But perhaps I'm doing an injustice to her apprentices at the studio, who maybe weren't covered in the article and who may have gone on to find work on other projects as Ghibli wound down.
The comparison in the article between Kiki drawn with "standard" colors and the final version is really telling. Even though the standard version is more saturated, which in my naive mind should make it more vibrant, it actually looks more bland when you put it side by side with the desaturated colors of the actual drawing. It goes to show how much these little choices influence the final product.
One night I decided to watch it after I put them all to bed, and the older ones snuck down and watched it with me. They loved it, and I cried at the end.