After School Midnighters

Top Japan entertainment complex T-JOY begin bringing movies to Singapore

Yesterday evening, we visited VivoCity at Singapore’s HarbourFront Station to catch the premiere of After School Midnighters at Golden Village Cinema. The first in a line of movie animations to be brought over to Singapore by T-JOY, one of Japan’s top entertainment complexes.

The young spirited director of After School Midnighters, Takekiyo Hitoshi was here to introduce the movie to us this evening. After a successful screening his short animation in 2007 at various film festivals, Takekiyo spent the past 5 years working with various talents to turn After School Midnighters into a full length animation.

Despite the wacky trailer that is sure to confuse first time viewers, After School Midnighters actually bears a fairly simple premise. The director explained that there is no deep meaning to the show, instead focusing on entertaining viewers. The concept of the movie, revolves around the scary folk tales that kids spread about their school. Sure enough, most of the movie seems to be targeted towards a younger audience, much in the same way that DreamWorks Animation or Pixar films do.

After School Midnighters art direction is surprisingly refreshing, distancing itself from both the industry norm and the typical anime sinks. The show uses 3D animation for the most part, though there are hand drawn segments, particularly for the action scenes. This allows After School Midnighters a sense of freedom that wouldn’t usually be possible when sticking to just one medium.

Takekiyo Hitoshi explained that motion capture was used to animate the main characters in the movie, a living anatomical model and skeleton. He also commented how this allowed for the mo-cap actors personality and quirkiness to be instilled into the characters.

After School Midnighters.

Overall, After School Midnighters is a nice family movie. The film is chocked full of sophomoric humor that should hit a home run with kids. For more information, you can visit the official After School Midnighters site.

As part of a collaboration with T-JOY and the Anime Festival Asia, After School Midnighters will open in Singapore cinemas on 25th August 2012, the same day as Japan. Two more animations Tiger & Bunny – The Beginning and 009 RE:CYBORG, a new adaption of the classic Cyborg 009 series by Ishinomori Shotaro, the father of the Sentai and Kamen Rider series.