Pony Canyon (Japan)

Background
Pony Canyon is a division of Fujisankei Communications that primarily focuses on music and anime releases. Until 1989, when Pony Records merged with Canyon, the division was known as Pony Video.

1st Logo (1983-1987)
Nicknames: "PC", "The Light Show", "No Pony", "Logo Within a Logo"

Logo: On a gradient background, a white spotlight zooms from the bottom towards the horizon and flashes before vanishing. Two golden circles zoom from the horizon as the camera angle changes slightly. The circle on the left has a rectangular edge on the lower-left corner, and the circle on the right has a line from the middle of the circle to the right side. A thin flash of light appears below the shapes and reveals "PONY VIDEO", which is briefly seen before it fades out. The shapes flip over and turn into two identical circles, which flash and merge together to form one circle. The circle flips up and we zoom into it to reveal a black background where a series of glowing lines, stars and circles move around, like a light show. After that, the Pony Video "shapes" and the text, now all, zoom out from the top and bottom respectively before meeting in the center of the screen. The background then turns white.

FX/SFX: The movement of the shapes, the flashes, the light show, the print logo zooming out and the background changing. Not bad CGI for its time, but the flash of light merely looks like it's being stretched out before vanishing.

Music/Sounds: A calm, dreamy synth tune with synthesized percussion during the light show, a shine sound effect when the print logo zooms out, and a looped synth whistling sound effect when the background turns white. Electronic beeps are heard at the beginning when the spotlight moves.

Availability: Rare.
 * It can be found on early releases from the company. Because Fuji TV did not have the "eye" until 1986/1987, a VHS cover without the Fuji eye may be a good clue that it has this.
 * This logo was probably spotted on a Japanese VHS tape release of the movie Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence.
 * It might appear on the original Japanese VHS/Beta of Project A-ko, but we're not sure.

Editor's Note: Its presentation might be a bit choppy, but this is still a good logo.

2nd Logo (1987-1989)
Nicknames: "The Fuji Eye", "Drawing Eye", "No Pony II"

Logo: On an /white gradient background, a golden blob moves from the right side of the screen and stops in the center where it draws out the Fuji TV "Eye" logo (without the dot). The words "PONY VIDEO" in a different font than in the previous logo, sweep from the left of the screen and move through the eye. As they leave the eye, the dot fades in, completing the Fuji logo. "PONY VIDEO" then zooms out from the screen, with a 3D-trail that shrinks as it settles below the eye.

FX/SFX: The blob moving and drawing the logo, the text sweeping in, the red dot fading in and the words zooming out. Passable CGI for 1987, but it's not much of an improvement over the previous logo.

Music/Sounds: An odd dreamy synth ditty that starts off with what sounds like a tune on cowbells, a strange reverberating series of click sounds that changes pitch after one set, and the same tune from before with bongos added.

Availability: Rare due to its short lifespan. It was found on the original VHS release of The Adventures of Milo and Otis (in Japan known as Koneko Monogatari), and it also appears on AnimEigo's subtitled releases of MADOX-01.

Editor's Note: The music might not sit well with some people, but it's nothing compared to the next logo.

1st Logo (1988-1996)
Nicknames: "Psychedelic Pony Canyon", "Trippy Pony Canyon", "Fuji Acid Trip", "Acid Trip Canyon", "Everything Is Weird", "No Pony or Canyon", "SuperVideo Japanese Cousin", "I'm on Shrooms!"

Logo: On a sky blue/white gradient background with a floor, a living eyeball with an eyebrow zooms up from the bottom of the screen, pauses in mid-air and blinks twice. Then it zooms into the screen so the sclera (white part of the eye) takes up the entire screen, which cuts to a mostly background with a "sun"-like light shining in the upper-left corner of the screen and some multicolor changing on the other side. In the scene, a CGI-generated face (only eyes, mouth and eyebrows) is laughing. Then, as a field of somewhat odd shapes goes through the screen behind the face, the mouth and eyes suddenly change shape as it appears to be crying and move up the screen as the background becomes completely psychedelic. Then, a slew of somewhat odd living shapes appear from various parts of the screen, including an odd looking triangular creature with what looks like a plant or hair on top with a bucktooth that jumps from the left, then appears to be gasping in shock as another shape from the right of the screen passes through the right and the bucktoothed shape turns around to look at it. Then, it cuts to a scene where a rod with eyes on two more rods with two triangles on top and bottom zooms out and flies to the left. Two chess piece-like shapes come from both sides of the screen and the one on the left bobs up and down, seemingly tapping on something. Then, a CGI mask (looking like Andross from the Star Fox series) comes from the left and zooms far out as it goes to the right of the screen, then a triangle with two eyes comes out from behind the chess shapes and goes into the screen very fast. After all this happens, it quickly cuts to a background where all the other shapes (except the eye), including the crying face, the buck-toothed triangle and a couple of others, zoom out revealing themselves to be inside a transparent circle with white confetti floating down inside it, which zooms into the center and fades out as the Fuji eye fades in with "PONY CANYON" underneath. Then, another odd-looking creature, basically a long line with three eyes and one shoe, bounces from the left towards the right.

FX/SFX: Everything. Although the CGI graphics were interesting for the time, the logo resembles something out of a Nintendo 64 video game (despite the console not released until 1996).

Music/Sounds:
 * Music: A dreamy music ditty.
 * Sounds:
 * The eyeball making a descending noise as it zooms up and pauses, then a whoosh as it zooms in.
 * Some distorted alien-like laughing as the face laughs, then even weirder crying when the face cries.
 * A trumpet note when the buck-toothed triangle gapes.
 * A sliding-up whistle sound as the triangle-rod-two eyed shape appears and moves up.
 * A "plinking" noise when the chess-like object tapes.
 * A sliding-down whistle as the two-eyed triangle appears, then a quick whoosh as it moves into the screen.
 * A weird fading out noise, probably the face crying.
 * Two chiming ditties as the three-eyed object with a shoe bounces to the right.

Availability: Common on Japanese releases, uncommon elsewhere.

Editor's Note: The psychedelic background and all the very odd and bizarre shaped creatures as well as the laughing face make this logo truly one of the weirdest ever.

2nd Logo (1993-1995)
Nicknames: "Still Fuji Eye", "Boring Fuji Eye", "No Pony or Canyon II"

Logo: On a black background, we see the Fuji eye logo with the dot. Below is the text "PONY CANYON" and "PRESENTS" in a golden gradient.

Later Variant: The Fuji eye logo is in plain 2D, the text is white and reads "PONY CANYON, INC." and the Japanese name is seen below.

FX/SFX: None.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Extremely rare. The Super Famicom variant was spotted on Jungle Wars 2, while the later variant was spotted on F1GP for the 3DO.

Editor's Note: None.

3rd Logo (1991-2007)
Nicknames: "Silver on Water", "Golden Fuji Eye", "No Pony or Canyon III"

Logo: On a and rippling background, the words "PONY CANYON" zoom by. Then, a ring and sphere move. The sphere and the ring go through each other in alternating directions several times. The sphere settles in the ring and the ring rotates a bit. The ring spins, and it grows three protrusions that become the "eyebrows" of the now-finished Fuji eye logo. "PONY CANYON" suddenly flies beneath the "eye", causing the whole thing to jiggle a bit.

FX/SFX: The words, ring and sphere moving. Nice animation.

Music/Sounds: Assorted metallic sounds and a "cling" when "PONY CANYON" flies beneath the "eye".

Availability: Uncommon. Can easily be found on Japanese prints of anime released by the company, such as the anime adaption of Air. This is very know to appear on various Scitron laserdiscs.

Editor's Note: This logo could startle some people, mainly due to the quick flying in. However, it's tamer than the 1st logo.

4th Logo (2004-2017)


Nicknames: "The Rings", "Nippon Rings", "No Pony or Canyon IV", "No Fuji Eye"

Logo: On a /white gradient background, several thin black,, and lines trace all about as 3 thick lines, also in that order, draw in. As they rotate to become flattened, "PONY CANYON" also appears below, flipping out as all the thin lines disappear.

FX/SFX: The words, ring and sphere moving. Simple animation.

Music/Sounds: Simple synth notes, followed by 3 ringing sounds, which sounds similar to the 1st logo.

Availability: Common. It can be seen on a lot of releases during the time frame. Used in tandem with the next logo during 2016/2017.

Editor's Note: None.

5th Logo (2016- )
Nicknames: "Drips", "The Pony and Canyon Are Here... Sort Of", "No Fuji Eye II"

Logo: On a white background, a drop falls down, turning black while the rest of the background turns  via an iris effect. The drop then shakes to change the background back to white and reveal 2 more drops, the left and the right. The black drop then hops a little bit, and rushes to the drop, causing it to roll and reveal "ony" in a black Bauhaus 93-like font. The black drop hops and becomes a "p", forming "pony", the drop hops and turns into a "c", and the black letters "anyo" appear one by one, with the  drop becoming an "n". All of this forms the word "pony canyon". The wordmark then zooms out and moves down to leave room for larger versions of the "p" and "c" to fade and draw in.

Variant: A short version has a single drop coming in, forming the wordmark as the letters draw in. This version is silent.

FX/SFX: 2D animation.

Music/Sounds: An echoing drop sound is first heard, followed by a mellow guitar and chime tune, ending with piano notes mixed in.

Availability: Current. Can be seen on all of Pony Canyon's current releases in Japan.

Editor's Note: None.