Japan’s About to Make History With First-Ever Interactive Anime Movie

Infamous despite being relatively niche outside of hardcore idol anime fan circles, Hypnosis Mic -Division Rap Battle- is one of the most interesting, eccentric, and creative concepts for an idol franchise in decades. Beginning as a mobile game, Hypnosis Mic has received multiple manga adaptations as well as a 26-episode anime series produced by A-1 Pictures. Much like other fictional idol franchises in Japan, Hypnosis Mic features a stunningly talented voice cast that portray fictional characters that make up the story’s main cast. Now, the series is pushing creative boundaries more than ever before with the release Japan’s first ever interactive film.

Slated to release on February 21, 2024, the story of the film will have three possible endings that audiences will have a chance to see unfold, and the story will deviate in realtime depending on polling responses by fans using their smartphones. The film will be directed by Takanori Tsujimoto (also known for his work on Resident Evil: Vendetta) alongside Polygon Pictures, with Yuichiro Momose, who assisted in developing the franchise’s setting, story, characters, and in-game events writing the film’s script. The character designer for the series, Kazui, returned to work on the film adaptation and TOHO NEXT will be distributing the film upon release.

Hypnosis Mic -Division Rap Battle- Has Always Been A Trend-Setter

Like other idol series, especially in the world of gacha games, Hypnosis Mic -Division Rap Battles- boasts a number of groups or “units” comprised of eccentric characters who all tick specific boxes for popular character design tropes and personalities. Unlike other idol series, Hypnosis Mic‘s big gimmick is that it focuses on J-Rap, and the lore behind Hypnosis Mic -Division Rap Battle- is so wild that it’s almost unbelievable – but it’s the madness behind the main plot that makes it stand out so much compared to its contemporaries.

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In Hypnosis Mic -Division Rap Battle-‘s main story, it’s quickly revealed that the world the franchise is set in is a post-war dystopia where women have taken over every branch of government and has complete control over politics, banning and destroying all weapons in the process. This change has forced men to compete with one another in fierce rap battles using devices called Hypnosis Mics which have the ability to tap into other people’s sympathetic nerves and alter their way of thinking. The trouble begins when an iconic rap group called The Dirty Dawg split into separate rap groups, each representing different divisions of Tokyo, Japan and compete in turf wars using the power of Hypnosis Mics. Considering the franchise’s source material is a mobile game, the cast is filled with unique, conventionally attractive bishounen-style characters to make up the main cast.

The groups that make up Hypnosis Mic‘s main cast include Buster Bros!!!, who represent Ikebukuro; MAD TRIGGER CREW, who represent Yokohama; Fling Posse, who represent Shibuya; Matenro, who represent Shinjuku; Dotsuitare Hompo, who represent Osaka; and Bad Ass Temple, who represent Nagoya. The game originally launched in 2018, and quickly went viral for how unique and eccentric the franchise is. The official Twitter account quickly became the most-followed and most engaged with account on Japanese Twitter when the game launced. The units from the franchise began dominating Oricon charts as well, and, now that the series will be launching Japan’s first ever interactive animated film, Hypnosis Microphone continues to prove that it’s constantly pushing the boundaries of what anime and anime-adjacent content can be.