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Ao Oni the Animation Film's Trailer Reveals February 11 Premiere Date
posted on by Karen Ressler
The staff of the Ao Oni: The Animation anime film revealed a promotional video and the film's theatrical premiere date on Monday. The film will open on February 11, 2017. The website currently lists twelve theaters that will show the movie.
The anime stars:
The film has a new story that is different from the original game, novelization, and live-action films. It takes place in a suburban town by a mountain forest. The five members of the high school's folklore research club are trying to think of ideas for the culture festival when they discover a former member's collection of research notes from 40 years ago. The legend described in the notes resembles a popular free game called "Ao Oni," so they choose the game as their culture festival theme. They are able to meet with the game's creator, but shortly afterward the creator dies mysteriously. The club members are investigating the mystery at the school when the door shuts and they find themselves locked inside.
Toshirō Hamamura (3D director on Chivalry of a Failed Knight, Wake Up, Girls!) is directing the film at Studio DEEN (When They Cry - Higurashi, Hell Girl), and Takemaru Abiko (Kamaitachi no Yoru, The Starship Damrey) is writing the film's script. noprops is credited with the original work.
Crunchyroll began streaming the Aooni The Blue Monster (Ao Oni: The Animation) television anime shorts on October 2. Unlike the film, the shorts are a comedic take on the original story with the familiar characters drawn in super-deformed style. Hamamura is serving as chief director of the TV anime series alongside director Chisei Maeda (Wasimo's ending animation) at Studio DEEN. The artist kichi is adapting the original character designs by Kyuta Sakai (Steins;Gate, When They Cry - Higurashi) for animation. Kanekoke is supervising and writing the series scripts. The animation is credited to maxcaffy, Kagi, Poeyama, and Sena Makino. Shiyu Yanagida is composing the music, and Dax Production is producing the sound.
Ao Oni is a horror game that makes the player solve various puzzles and riddles in order to escape a demon in a locked or enclosed space. The game first debuted as a free game released online in 2004. The game is available to play in both Japanese and English. Publisher PHP Institute released a novel inspired by the game in Japan in February 2013. The franchise also inspired two live-action films in July 2014 and July 2015. A smartphone game sequel titled Ao Oni 2 launched on iOS and Android this month.
[Via Animate Times]
