is a Japanese

animation Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most ani ...

studio based in

Musashino, Tokyo is a city located in the western portion of Tokyo Metropolis, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 147,492 in 77,779 households, and a population density of 13,000 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Based on the 2015 Ka ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

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

Studio Ghibli is a Japanese animation studio headquartered in Koganei, Tokyo."Studio Ghibli Collection - Madman Entertainment". ''Studio Ghibli Collection - Madman Entertainment''. Retrieved 2020-12-14. It is best known for its animated feature films, and ...

. 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 , nicknamed , is a Japanese animator and director, formerly for Studio Ghibli. After his directorial debut with Studio Ghibli (''The Secret World of Arrietty''), he became the youngest director of a theatrical film produced by the studio. He was no ...

. The name of the studio comes from the Serbo-Croatian 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, and ...

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 (french: Festival international du film d'animation d'Annecy, officially abbreviated in English as the Annecy Festival, or simply Annecy) was created in 1960 and takes place at the beginning of J ...

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

Tokyo Skytree is a broadcasting and observation tower in Sumida, Tokyo. It became the tallest structure in Japan in 2010YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second most ...

by the

International Olympic Committee The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swiss ...

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

Works

Commercials

"Summer Train" (2015)

Short works

* Tomorrow's Leaves (2021)

Films

References

External links

* * {{Authority control Animation studios in Tokyo Japanese animation studios Japanese companies established in 2015 Mass media companies established in 2015 Musashino, Tokyo