Hey, everyone! Welcome to the Hobby Haven: Anime News edition!
I don't chat about my love of anime as much as I do with dolls or other toys, but I thought this was something that I'd like to bring some exposure to. It's pretty rare for the U.S. anime and manga industry to become involved with Kickstarter, but given the explosion of high-profile campaigns (like the MST3K campaign not too long ago), there are now some cropping up!)
Full disclosure: I have donated to both campaigns, albeit with differing amounts.
Funimation: The Vision of Escaflowne Director's Cut English dub
Escaflowne is a classic gem of fantasy anime. It's the story of a young girl named Hitomi who finds herself inexplicably transported to a strange world called Gaea and finds herself embroiled in a political conflict that could determine the fate of not just Gaea...but also Earth! Oh, and there are giant robots, too. :)
This is a licence rescue; Bandai USA, who held the home video rights, went out of business years ago. Funimation managed to secure the rights to the brand spanking new HD-quality Director's Cut version of the show, which was released not too long ago. But because this Director's Cut version contains new material that wasn't in the original, the original English dub track won't match up with the new video. Hence why Funimation is making a new dub from scratch. It's already met its goal (and is ending soon), but if you want to get in on some of the Kickstarter-exclusive bonus material, this is your chance! (And for the curious, the original series and its original English dub from Bandai will be made available as "bonus materials" on the Collector's Edition of the Director's Cut.
Pied Piper: Skip Beat! Home video release and English dub
For those curious about the show, you can watch it here on Crunchyroll for free; it's the story of Kyoko, a hard-working young girl supporting her egotistical love interest as he becomes a star in the music industry. But he cruelly betrays her, and she seeks to beat him at his own game by becoming the biggest star in show biz. She's a strong, plucky heroine, and it's enormously satisfying to watch her grow as an actress and a person.
This show has never before been released on home video outside of Japan. This Kickstarter campaign is aiming to finally make that happen! The requirement, per the Japanese licensor TV Tokyo, is that it must have an English dub...which is of course, very expensive. Hence the crowdfunding! The stretch goal is to make this available on Blu-ray as well as DVD.
If you're interested in anime, I hope you'll consider checking out either of these campaigns, especially Skip Beat (given how niche it is).
