Signal Boost: A Mixed Bag Of Kickstarter Projects

Source: Katabuchi Sunao via Kickstarter

I love me some crowd-funded projects so any time I can, I'll shout from the mountaintops about the latest and newest projects hitting Kickstarter at the moment. Here's a couple worth looking at!

-Following in the footsteps of Witch Academia and Kickheart, we have the Mai Mai Miracle Kickstarter, which is asking for funding for the English release of an anime film that has already been made and seen in Japan. It sounds like a truly magical film in the stylings of old school Studio Ghibli. And yes, it's already reached it's initial funding mark! But we have stretch goals, including an English dub track and possibly more if they reach the $60k mark. Sounds and looks like a project worth throwing money at.

-In the graphic novel division of KS, we have a Kickstarter Fund for the first volume of the Jewish Comix Anthology from Alternate History Comics Inc. 47 different artists, from all over the globe, each bringing their unique art styles to one book? Heck yes! The first volume of JCA has not reached it's initial funding goal yet, which sucks because the stretch goals look awesome - so if you like Jewish comics, please consider making a pledge to this project!

-Checking up on past Kickstarters highlighted on this blog: the Hana Doki Kira shojo anthology was successfully funded! It even reached a stretch goal which will mean all books come with pretty foil covers. Unfortunately, not every campaign is successful: the 9 Deadly Killer Pussies anime project was cancelled by the project creator. I wish the creators the best of luck and that they'll eventually get their pet project up and running in the future.

Signal Boost: 9DKP Anime Project Kickstarter

"An ancient stone randomly gives shape shifting powers to 9 different people to battle against a zombie army. Cats vs Zombies!"

The tag for the latest anime Kickstarter project sounds like a winner. With sixteen days to go, 9DKP Anime Project by Erick Scarecrow is the Kickstarter currently burning up the Internet. 9DKP stands for 9 Deadly Killer Pussies; there are even character blurbs/sketches for the nine characters with the shape shifting abilities as well as the rest of the supporting cast. The goal is an episode that is twenty minutes long, that will be hand animated by Asahi Production and dubbed in English - and this will all cost $160,000 in the end.

This crew clearly has a good idea of what they want to do. They have a plan, a cast of characters, concept art, and an accomplished production team behind them. And having Asahi Production on board is nothing to sneeze at, being the studio behind titles such as Fairy Tale and Attack On Titan.

I've seen bloggers wonder if Kickstarter will be the savior of anime. I don't know about that, but crowdsourcing directly from the wallets of otaku, as well as projects that are not directly tied to a major studio, is leading to innovation in anime. Projects being funded are the new and unorthodox, from Kick-Heart to Little Witch Academia. 9 Deadly Killer Pussies looks like a fun, colorful anime and I hope it reach its funding goals.