This is the first animation work published by Hiromasa Yonebayashi after he left Studio Ghibli. The animation studio he collaborated with, Studio Ponoc, was established by Yoshiaki Nishimura. Hiromasa Yonebayashi and Nishimura Yoshiaki also joined hands with most people who have worked together before. For example, Takaji Muramatsu, who served as the soundtrack of " When Marnie Was There ", is responsible for the music of the work and assisted in the production of the Ghibli animation "かぐや姫の Monogatari". "Riko Sakaguchi also assisted in the writing of the script.
During the production of "When Marnie Was There" by Hiromasa Yonebayashi and Yoshiaki Nishimura, Toshio Suzuki of Studio Ghibli revealed to them privately that Ghibli was already facing the need to dissolve the animation production department. After the completion of "When Marnie Was There", Yoshiaki Nishimura asked Hiromasa Yonebayashi if he still wanted to continue filming feature-length animations despite the fact that Ghibli would be disbanded. Hiromasa Yonebayashi expressed the idea of making another feature-length animation.
In 2015, Nishimura Yoshiaki went to the United States to attend the awards ceremony because of "The Story of かぐや姫の姫" which was nominated in the 87th Academy Awards. Although "The Story of かぐや姫の姫の物" did not win the award, the director of the animation " How to Train Your Dragon 2 ", Dean DeBloy, who also did not win the award at the time, made a speech at the post-award party, which made Yoshiaki Nishimura want to do it himself. The idea of starting a studio. After returning to Japan, Yoshiaki Nishimura started planning, and then set up his personal studio Studio Ponoc during April 2015, and invited Hiromasa Yonebayashi to join.
Then Yoshiaki Nishimura chose Mary Stewart's children's novel "The Little Broom" as the original work of the new animation. Although the positioning is the same as the previous Ghibli animation " Kiki's Delivery Service ", it is a work of the witch theme, but I am Representation: It will be a different style of witch animation. For Hiromasa Yonebayashi, "When Marnie Was There" was a static work in the past, but this time I wanted to present a work that was more dynamic.
When Hayao Miyazaki learned that the latter two were going to continue shooting long-form animations, he said, "You must remain conscious." Let’s do this animation as if it was to fulfill my wish to make “ Winsor McCay ” an animation with Hayao Miyazaki in the past.”
