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Toei Animation Makes Promo Videos for Senya Mihagi's Novels
posted on by Alex Mateo
Kawade Shobo Shinsha began streaming on Tuesday a promotional video animated by Toei Animation for Izumi Todo (the collective pseudonym for the Toei Animation staff) and novelist Senya Mihagi's Tokimori no Last Dance, a sequel novel to Toei Animation's Popin Q anime film, and Mihagi's Tanabata no Yoru ni Okaeri (Welcome Back on the Night of Tanabata) novel.
The returning cast from Popin Q includes Asami Seto, Shiori Izawa, Atsumi Tanezaki, Ari Ozawa, and Tomoyo Kurosawa. The video features the song "Otogibanashi" (Fairy Tale) by Yuki Tsujimura feat. Isumi Kominato.
Mihagi, who is writing a novella of short stories set after the story of Popin Q, is also writing the new novels. The film's original director Naoki Miyahara is collaborating with Mihagi on the Tokimori no Last Dance novel. Miyahara also directed the promotional video that depicts part of the novels. The novels contain cover illustrations by the film's original character designer Kouhaku Kuroboshi. Kuroboshi is also credited for the promotional video's illustrations. Like the novella, the new Tokimori no Last Dance novel will be set after the story of the film.
Part of the promotional video is available to the public, but the full video will only be distributed to project backers. Miyahara stated on the Campfire page that successful crowdfunding of the project would be a big step toward the goal of a fully animated sequel.
Both Tokimori no Last Dance and Tanabata no Yoru ni Okaeri will ship on October 14.
Tokimori no Last Dance is a sequel to Popin Q, and it centers on Isumi Kominato as a first-year high school student who comes to Tokyo to form a dance unit with her classmates. Isumi and friends confront strange, surprising incidents with the power of dance.
Tanabata no Yoru ni Okaeri follows Iori, who goes to a university in Tokyo. She went there to escape after Satoshi, who was like a brother to her as well as a child prodigy, died suddenly at 21 years old. Three years later, Iori finds a mysterious email on Satoshi's smartphone, and a miracle happens on the night of the Tanabata summer festival.
The "project20" crowdfunding campaign for Toei Animation's Popin Q anime film concluded successfully in January, having raised 25,669,319 yen (about US$245,400) from 1,457 backers to produce a new full-length novel and anime promotional video for the project.
The Campfire crowdfunding campaign launched last December, and aimed to raise to raise 14.5 million yen (about US$140,000).
The franchise's previous crowdfunded project, "project19," successfully met its crowdfunding goal of 2.5 million yen (about US$24,000) in 2019 to fund a novella of short stories set after the story of the film.
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. Miyahara (Dragon Ball Z, "Precure All-Star DX 3D Theater" short, Precure series dance sequences) directed the film, and 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: Mainichi Shimbun's Mantan Web via Nijimen, Otakomu
