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Popin Q Anime Film Meets Crowdfunding Goal for New Novella

The official Twitter account for Toei Animation's Popin Q anime film revealed the details for the film's crowdfunded project last Friday. Titled "project19," it is a new novella of short stories set after the story of the film. The campaign launched on Monday, and has already met its goal of 2.5 million yen (about US$23,000). The campaign will end on November 30.

The film's original director Naoki Miyahara will collaborate with novelist Senya Mihagi for the novella. The novella will contain five short stories, each focusing on one of the main characters of the film. It will contain a cover illustration by the film's original character designer Kouhaku Kuroboshi, and will also have insert illustrations by Saki Sanju.

The film commemorated Toei Animation's 60th anniversary. The movie premiered in Japan in December 2016, and opened outside of the top 10 list at the Japanese box office in its first weekend.

The film's story begins the day before the graduation ceremony. Five middle school girls each are preoccupied with their real everyday lives. These girls meet each other in a fantasy world after being sent there through a sudden occurrence. There, they learn about the impending crisis that this world is facing. The way to avert this crisis is for the five to collaborate and bring their five hearts together as one through dance. However, the five cannot come to love the world, and cannot tell their true feelings to one another, so their hearts are unable to unite. The time limit is fast approaching. Can the dance of the five girls save the world? And will they be able to graduate?

Izumi Todo, the collective pseudonym for the Toei Animation staff, is credited with the film's original work. Naoki Miyahara (Dragon Ball Z, "Precure All-Star DX 3D Theater" short, Precure series dance sequences) directed the film, and Kouhaku Kuroboshi (Kino's Journey, World Conquest Zvezda Plot) drafted the original character designs. Shuko Arai (live-action Twin Spica series) wrote the script, and Takayuki Uragami served as character designer and chief animation director. Hiromi Mizutani (Tanaka-kun is Always Listless, Toriko, Non Non Biyori) and Shūji Katayama (Overlord, Yurumates3Dei) of Team-MAX composed the film's music, and the idol unit P.IDL performed the opening song "Teenage Blues" for the film. Questy performed the theme song "Fantasy" and contributed a background song for the anime. The performance marked the debut of the all-female dance and vocal unit.

Sega released a smartphone rhythm game based on the film titled Popin Q Dance for Quintet! in February 2017, and the game ended service in February 2018.

Source: Popin Q's Twitter account, project19 Campfire page via Yaraon!