The Animation Is Film Festival in Hollywood has shown the English-dubbed premiere of Studio Ponoc’s Modest Heroes: Ponoc Short Films Theatre, Volume 1 film. There, Studio Ponoc founder and producer Yoshiaki Nishimura revealed that they’re already working on a new film. In fact, they’re already entering pre-production.

Unfortunately, Nishimura didn’t reveal any further details about the new film they’re working on. The producer also took questions during a Q&A session. There, someone asked him if Mary and the Witch’s Flower would possible get a sequel. To this, he joked that like the film’s titular flower that blooms only once every seven years, it mike also take that long for them to make the sequel.

Another question asked him if Ponoc is “The Next Ghibli” given that former Ghibli employees comprise its workforce. Nishimura acknowledged the comparison, and also acknowledged the talks of being a a “post-Miyazaki” studio. But personally, he feels that this is like saying “post-da Vinci” or “post-Michelangelo”. He then reiterated that it’s “useless to aim at becoming the next Ghibli, and that his studio is not mindful of being the next Ghibli”. However, he did say that their employees are mindful of the lessons they learned from Miyazaki and co. when they were working there.

source: Anime News Network