After School Midnighters is Hitoshi Takekiyo's directorial debut. He was invited by T-Joy to make this film as a "sequel" for his short film "After School Midnight", which was basically a showreel for his (at the time) recently created production collective koo-ki in 2007.

St. Claire Elementary School is an elite school with its own unique mysteries. After school, when no one is in the classrooms, a piano plays itself in the music room, a shadow appears on the pool, a blue light comes from the computer room, and a scream is heard in the bathrooms. Oh, and there's also the walking, talking and dancing anatomical figure and his pal skeleton in the science lab.

We join Mako, a girl on an eternal sugar high; Mi, an aristocratic, snobbish little lady; and Mu, a quiet little gothic girl, as they explore the St Claire School on their first day. They notice the Science lab, which has been sealed off for renovations, and crash in, mainly because they don't know how to read [to realise they are not welcome,] and when they run into the anatomical model, Kunstlijk, and play with him to "beautify" him with several scribbles as well as some strategically placed elephant tattoos.

To carry out his revenge on the girls for humiliating him, Kunstlijk (or Kun-sama, according to Goth, the skeleton) enlists three gangster rabbits in formaldehyde to lure the girls into the school and punish them.

Colourful and bonkers. This is the best way to describe After School Midnighters. The plot is simplistic, but the richness of the characters, the visual spectacle, and the great voice cast make up for it. This CG piece of animation has some simple character design for the girls and quite complex designs for Kun, Goth and even the Rabbit trio.

The characters grow on you, the comedy timing is perfect, and some of the plot's most important devices are introduced with little fuss, but as the action advances and the payoff comes around, it is fantastic. Chalgris, the antagonist, has his origins explained in the film and it is something that I doubt anyone can see coming!

The film producers are quite confident about this film, so they even submitted it to Hollywood to be considered for the Oscar for Best Animation feature. Considering the competition, I actually believe this has the odd chance to win.