Animated Kickstarters and crowdfunded pilots thread

[Jman]

There’s a new trend in animation and it’s sweeping the internet - Crowdfunding money for pilots!

Anyone who’s following Western animation and even anime recently is starting to see something of a “good old boys” network forming where it’s very hard for people to get their ideas seen by the masses unless you know the right people and agree with their ideas.  In Japan that usually means having an in at a manga or light novel publishing house to pitch your show.  And there’s only so many times one can write about Joe Schmuck who’s good at vidya games going to a world and being the best ever (a premise Gundam’s creator Tomino deconstructed decades ago in Aura Battler Dunbine).

In America that means being a CalArts graduate or joining Women In Animation so your generic pro SocJus show can air as part of whatever agreement activists made a studio sign.  Just make sure to show up to the D&D game on Thursday.  Or else.

So we have people taking their cases to the masses with pilots like “Bean Bandit” - A fusion of Riding Bean and Gunsmith Cats that debuted yesterday at a convention to mostly positive word of mouth with a creator in Kenichi Sonada that seems to be on the outs with most of the big studios.  Here’s the trailer -

Or “The Mighty Grand Piton”, a 2 minute proof of concept made by British studio The Line after its writer looked up Caribbean anime...only to find nothing but Pirates of the Caribbean fan art...

And then we have Mecha Ude, a pitch from a Japanese student who hoped to bring her concept to series and get more experienced animators on board.  This one was successful enough to fund an English dub -

These are hardly the only examples.  A while back, the former studio AIC attempted to crowdfund money for pilots to old properties, and they got enough money for remakes of “Megazone 23” (an OVA widely considered to be a major influence on The Matrix) and Pretty Sammy (yes, the magical girl parody spinoff of Tenchi Muyo).

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2019-03-24/megazone-23-reboot-project-only-remakes-part-i-and-ii/.144973

So anyway, crowdfunded pilots.  Any interesting ones you want to share?  Comments on the ones here?  Thoughts on the phenomenon?

[The1gairon]

That last one was co-produced by Youtube personality and Crunchyroll collaborator Reina Scully, who coincidentally had a VOICE ROLE (In the Japanese version, not the dubbed version) of URAHARA.

These all look like they're gonna kick High Guardian Spice's ass.

Edited May 20, 2019 by elfie

[PokeNirvash]

If we're talking crowdfunded anime, why not mention Kick-Heart, the crowdfunded anime that started it all?

Uh, unless Under the Dog did it first, that is.

[Chapinator_X]

I got FLCL Progressive vibes from Mecha Ude. It definitely feels like a Roosterteeth show but with better CGI.

[Jman]

The guy who plays Rock Lock in the MHA dub got Powerhouse Animation (Castlevania, Seis Manos) to do his proof of concept for a super robot series called Star Child.

 

[The1gairon]

3 hours ago, Jman said:

The guy who plays Rock Lock in the MHA dub got Powerhouse Animation (Castlevania, Seis Manos) to do his proof of concept for a super robot series called Star Child.

 

I love diving into dub voice actors' own projects. Clint Bickman used to produce an OEL manga for Tokyopop before they cut its run short due to how Tokyopop wasn't easy to work with.

[Martinman]

I was part of the Kickstarter for Under the Dog and was severely underwhelmed.  IIRC, I waiting something like 2 years for that to finally come out.  I kept seeing emails with "updates" consisting of nothing but hype.  I finally get the Blu Ray, and it continues the pattern of things not living up to the desired ratio of wait time :  awesomeness unless the title contains the word "Evangelion".