is a Japanese

animation Animation is a filmmaking technique whereby still images are manipulated to create moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Animati ...

studio based in

Musashino, Tokyo is a city located in the western portion of the Tokyo Metropolis, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 147,754 in 78,614 households, and a population density of 13,000 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Based on the 201 ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. The company was founded in April 2015 by Yoshiaki Nishimura, former lead film producer of

Studio Ghibli is a Japanese animation studio based in Koganei, Tokyo."Studio Ghibli Collection - Madman Entertainment". ''Studio Ghibli Collection - Madman Entertainment''. Retrieved 2020-12-14. It has a strong presence in the animation industry and has exp ...

. Its first feature film, '' Mary and the Witch's Flower'', was released on July 8, 2017, throughout Japan with the film's main character Mary Smith serving as the company's mascot in their logo, similar to Studio Ghibli's mascot, Totoro.

History

Yoshiaki Nishimura founded Studio Ponoc on April 15, 2015, and gained the support of several animators previously working under

, including director Hiromasa Yonebayashi. The name of the studio comes from the

Serbo-Croatian Serbo-Croatian ( / ), also known as Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS), is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro. It is a pluricentric language with four mutually i ...

word , for "midnight", meant to signify "the beginning of a new day". The studio worked on an advertisement for

JR West , also referred to as , is one of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group) companies and operates in western Honshu. It has its headquarters in Kita-ku, Osaka. It is listed in the Tokyo Stock Exchange, is a constituent of the TOPIX Large70 index, ...

for its 2015 summer campaign. '' Mary and the Witch's Flower'', the studio's first feature film, was able to reach number six of the highest-grossing films of the year in Japan. The film is based on '' The Little Broomstick'' by Mary Stewart. Several former employees of

have joined the studio to work on the film. Studio Ponoc produced an animated short film titled '' Tomorrow's Leaves'', written by Yoshiaki Nishimura and directed by Yoshiyuki Momose, in collaboration with the International Olympic Committee's Olympic Foundation for Culture and Heritage, timed to coincide with the opening of the Tokyo Olympic Games and inspired by Olympic values of "Excellence, Friendship and Respect". Production on the film started in June 2019. Its release was postponed along with the 2020 Summer Olympic Games, and the film had its world premiere at the

Annecy International Animation Film Festival The Annecy International Animation Film Festival (, officially abbreviated in English as the Annecy Festival, or simply Annecy) was created in 1960 and takes place at the beginning of June in the town of Annecy, France. Initially occurring ever ...

during its opening ceremony on June 14, 2021. The animated short film screened at the

Tokyo Skytree , also written as Tokyo Sky Tree, is a broadcasting and observation tower, located in Sumida, Tokyo, Japan. It has been the tallest tower in Japan since opening in 2012,

from July 12 until September 5. The animated short film officially premiered when it was made available on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

by the

International Olympic Committee The International Olympic Committee (IOC; , CIO) is the international, non-governmental, sports governing body of the modern Olympic Games. Founded in 1894 by Pierre de Coubertin and Demetrios Vikelas, it is based i ...

and on Studio Ponoc's official website at ponoc.jp on July 23, the opening date of the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo. On January 25, 2024,

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

announced that they had acquired worldwide streaming rights to '' The Imaginary'', which would be added to the platform later in the year. The deal also included global streaming rights to the studio's future feature projects.

Works

Commercials

"Summer Train" (2015)

Short works

* '' Tomorrow's Leaves'' (2021)

Films

References

External links

* * {{Portal bar, Companies, Japan, Tokyo, Anime and Manga, Film, Animation, 2010s Animation studios in Tokyo Japanese animation studios Japanese companies established in 2015 Mass media companies established in 2015 Musashino, Tokyo