How Studio Ponoc made the break from Studio Ghibli

When producer Yoshiaki Nishimura first talked to director Hiromasa Yonebayashi about the project that would become the animated feature Mary and the Witch’s Flower, Yonebayashi had reservations. “I hesitated a little bit,” he tells The Verge, “because I thought it might be compared to Kiki’s Delivery Service, directed by Hayao Miyazaki, which was also about a young witch.”
It’s a valid concern. The film’s protagonist, Mary, is a forceful redhead wh