Studio Ponoc wants its anime to change the world — and escape Studio Ghibli’s shadow
When Studio Ponoc premiered its first feature-length animated film, 2017’s Mary and the Witch’s Flower, audiences and critics alike championed Ponoc as the successor to Japan’s famed Studio Ghibli, which at the time seemed to be on a potentially permanent hiatus. With the studio’s latest film, The Imaginary, Ponoc is aiming for something higher. In an interview ahead of The Imaginary’s American debut on Netflix, Studio Ponoc founder Yoshiaki Nishimura told Polygon that he’s ready for Ponoc to create its own style and legacy, and move out from under Studio Ghibli’s shadow.
“With [Mary and the Witch’s Flower], I wanted to carry on [Studio Ghibli’s] conviction and the legacy they created,” Nishimura said. “For The Imaginary, I was focused more on the pure filmmaking — not something to carry on from Studio Ghibli, but the creation of film itself. How would I want to depict this imaginary world?”
Based on A.F. Harrold’s 2014 children’s book of the same name, The Imaginary centers on Rudger, the imaginary friend of a young girl named Amanda who lives alone with her newly widowed mother, Lizzie. Rudger and Amanda are inseparable, embarking on fantastical adventures in beautiful worlds conjured up by the latter’s imagination. When an accident separates them, Rudger embarks on his own journey of self-discovery while attempting to reunite with Amanda.
The Imaginary is Studio Ponoc’s first film since the 2018 anime anthology Modest Heroes, and the studio’s first feature-length movie since Mary and the Witch’s Flower, its 2017 debut. Aside from Tomorrow’s Leaves, an animated short commissioned in honor of the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Ponoc has been quiet since Modest Heroes. When asked why Ponoc took so long to release a new film, Nishimura was candid: The studio simply needed the time to iterate before committing to a new animation style.
“We wanted to move forward and explore different styles,” Nishimura told Polygon. “In order to do that, we started creating shorter
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