Studio Ponoc
Studio Ponoc (スタジオポノック) is an animation studio founded in 2015 after the closure of Studio Ghibli's animation department. After Ghibli's announcement after the production of When Marnie Was There, Yoshiaki Nishimura departed and founded the studio, taking Hiromasa Yonebayashi (director for The Borrower Arrietty, When Marnie Was There) and several other Ghibli employees with him. Although Ghibli has since reopened their animation department, with the production of The Boy and the Heron, Ponoc still remains as a separate entity. In 2017, they released their first feature film, Mary and the Witch's Flower, based on The Little Broomstick by Mary Stewart. In 2022, they announced The Imaginary, based on the book of the same name by A. F. Harrold. It was delayed to winter 2023 in the Northern Hemisphere, but it did not release then, and no information was announced for half of 2023. An announcement on the fourteenth of July, 2023 finally confirmed the film's Japanese release date: December 15, 2023.
The studio's animation quality is lesser compared to their big brother, with more reliance on detailed background shots and less attention to detail, due to their smaller size and budgets. The studio tends to prioritise storytelling more than Ghibli, leading to faster pacing and more conventional productions. That isn't to say that their quality is poor, however. Their backgrounds are just as lush and detailed as Ghibli, and their characters looks just as good. Some magical Slice of Life moments present in Ghibli's works are absent in Ponoc's, and Ponoc as a whole tends to have less things moving that Ghibli, but the studio's works are stunning nevertheless.
- Anthology Film: Modest Heroes is comprised of three short films.
- The Film of the Book: It's risky for any anime studio to release a brand new, shiny series or film, due to the insane costs associated with production. Thus, the studio focuses on adapting existing books into films. Unlike other anime studios, they seem to focus exclusively on adapting English literature into films, instead of adapting manga into series.
- Mascot: Mary Smith, from Mary and the Witch's Flower, serves as this for the studio.
- Meaningful Name: Ponoc means the beginning of a new day, or midnight, reflecting their status as a new beginning for ex-Ghibli members.
- Production Posse: Inherited from their bigger Ghibli brothers. Hiromasa Yonebayashi and producer Yoshiaki Nishimura shows up quite a bit in their works.
- Scenery Porn: What do you expect for a studio descended from Ghibli? Their films tend to tone it down, putting more of an emphasis on the story rather than scenery, but they clearly took some inspiration from their older cousin when it comes to long shots.
- Start My Own: The studio was founded by ex-Ghibli employees after they shut down.
- Vanity Plate: One of the few anime studios to use a vanity plate. Just like Ghibli, they have an iconic character (Mary Smith) appearing in it, with the words "STUDIO PONOC" displayed. Unlike Ghibli, it uses a white rather than blue background.
- What Could Have Been: A fourth short film in Modest Heroes is set to be directed by Isao Takahata, however his Author Existence Failure put that plan to a halt.
Major productions:
- Mary and the Witch's Flower (2017)
- Modest Heroes (2018), an anthology film
- The Imaginary (Winter 2023)
Other productions: