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After School Midnighters CG Anime Gets Riddle Game App
posted on by Jennifer Sherman
The After School Midnighters full-CG anime inspired the Nazonazo Midnighters smartphone riddle app that launched for iOS and Android devices on Wednesday. Like the anime, the free app features the main characters Kunstrijk and Goth.
In the riddle game, players answer a question by selecting from four multiple-choice answers. Players can earn titles in the app as they answer more riddles correctly. The app also features conversations between its two main characters.
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The After School Midnighters full-CG anime film opened simultaneously in Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore in 2012. The film was released on Blu-ray Disc in 2013 and included English, Korean, and Chinese subtitles.
Kouichi Yamadera (Cowboy Bebop, Neon Genesis Evangelion) starred in the film as the naked anatomical model Kunstlijk, and Hiromasa Taguchi (Kaasan - Mom's Life) voiced the skeleton specimen Goth. Hitoshi Takekiyo returned to direct the film after directing the original 2007 CG anime short After School Midnight (Hōkago Midnight).
Television channel TOKU began streaming an English-dubbed trailer for the film in 2016. The company describes the story:
Mako, Miko, and Mutsuko are three young girls visiting St. Claire Elementary, a school filled with strange legends. The girls have an encounter with Kunstrijk, a human body anatomy model, and Goth, a skeleton model. Seeking revenge for being vandalized by the girls, Kunstrijk invites them to the school´s midnight party in order to scare them.
The film was screened in seven countries outside Japan, including France and Italy, and it won awards at Spain's Sitges Film Festival and Canada's Fantasia International Film Festival. The producers also submitted the film for consideration in the 2013 "Best Animated Feature Film" category of the Academy Awards.
The first set of After School Midnighters shorts debuted with Japanese, English, and Korean subtitles in 2016. The 90-second spinoff shorts again star Kunstrijk and Goth. Due to the shorts' popularity on social media, the staff decided to produce a second series.
MontBlanc Pictures held a crowdfunding campaign in 2017 to fund a second series of full-CG anime shorts. The campaign ended successfully after raising 14,928,795 yen (about US$133,000) toward its goal of 10 million yen (about US$89,000). A DVD with all 28 new episodes shipped this past May.
Sources: Nazonazo Midnighters game's website, After School Midnighters second shorts' Campfire, press release
