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Popin Q Anime Film's 1st 16 Minutes Streamed
posted on by Crystalyn Hodgkins
Toei Animation began streaming the first 16 minutes of its original Popin Q anime film on Thursday.
The film opened in Japan on December 23. The film opened outside of the top 10 list at the Japanese box office in its first weekend. The film is commemorating Toei Animation's 60th anniversary.
The 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?
The main cast includes:
Shiori Izawa as Aoi Hioka
Tomoyo Kurosawa as Saki Tsukui
Ari Ozawa as Asahi Ōmichi
Atsumi Tanezaki as Konatsu Tomodate
Kōki Uchiyama as Reno
The cast for the Popin race includes:
Kaori Ishihara as Luchia, Aoi's Isotope
Kaede Hondo as Darren, Konatsu's Isotope
M.A.O as Tadona, Asahi's Isotope
Satomi Arai as Rupy, Saki's Isotope
Other cast members include (romanizations not yet confirmed):
- Unshou Ishizuka as Elder
- Erii Yamazaki as Remy
- Azusa Tadokoro as Miharu Fukamachi
- Megumi Toda as Nana Mitsuhashi
- Wakako Shimazaki as Eriko, Isumi's mother
- Daisuke Ono as Junpei, Isumi's father
- Michio Hazama as Genji, Isumi's grandfather
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. Shūko 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 performs the opening song "Teenage Blues" for the film. Questy performs the theme song "Fantasy" and contributes a background song for the anime. The performance marks the debut of the all-female dance and vocal unit.
Sega announced in November that it is developing a smartphone rhythm game based on the film.
