With a set basic goal of $75,000, Robert Woodhead is looking at using Kickstarter as a way to bring some anime to the market in a way that works for him and AnimEigo. The first attempt to do this is to take one of their longstanding classics with Bubblegum Crisis and to create a series of stretch goals to help achieve it.
Doing this project as a Kickstarter means that we can increase the production budget based on how much is pledged — the exact opposite of the traditional process, where we have to decide what the budget is before we really know how popular the title is going to be. And because we’re going direct to the people who want the product, a bigger proportion of the total income can go into the production budget — which in turn means more goodies, more extras, and more value for our supporters.
Check out the goals before and what they offer and note that the lowest level of pledge, $25, gets you the final product, though it’s limited at the moment to just 100 people.
Basic Goal: $75,000. Each supporter will receive a Box Set containing Bubblegum Crisis (both subtitled and dubbed in English) and basic extra materials (liner notes, some music videos, plus galleries of artwork and settei, in both Blu-Ray and DVD formats! We estimate this will contain 2 BD50s and 4 DVD9s, so we are talking a 6-disc set here!
Data Dump: $85,000. In addition to the Box Set, you’ll get access to an online data archive you can download. It will contain all the static content on the disc (images, liner notes, plus just about anything else we can make available), in the highest resolution we can provide, and the current plan is to format it both in HTML and PDF (so you can put it on an eBook reader)
Français sous-titres: $95,000. Once upon a time, we created French subtitles for Bubblegum Crisis. If we hit this level, we’ll add them to the Blu-Ray.
Hurricane: $110,000. All of the Hurricane Live 2032/2033 BGC animated music videos (duplicates of the originals, but recut in HD) will be restored and included.
Holiday: $120,000. The Holiday in Bali live-action music video is old-style SD video, but it will be upconverted to HD for the Blu-Ray.
However, we want to take things a step further, and involve our supporters in the actual production decisions. After all, who better to decide what goes into the Ultimate Otaku Edition of Bubblegum Crisis than the Otaku who are supporting the project? For this reason, we have another stretch goal:
Crowd Production: $150,000. If this goal is met, then supporters will be able to participate in the production decisions, submitting packaging art, menu designs, fan artwork, music videos and more, and voting on what gets included (subject to final approval by AnimEigo and the Licensor).
If we hit this goal, then supporters will get exclusive access to a private forum where these decisions will be debated and decided. This means that the production budget will get spent in ways that provides the most bang-for-buck for you, the supporters. For example, you could decide to get all the static extras online, and use the money saved to get fancier packaging.
Or maybe you want to do something crazy, like subtitle an episode in Klingon! Convince enough people that it’s a good use of our production resources and space on the disc, and it just might happen!
What’s more, you’ll get to participate in the selection and design of a small commemorative item that will be included with each Blu-Ray, and which will identify you as an Ultimate Otaku. We’ve got some great ideas about what this might be, but we’re pretty sure one of you will have a better one.
And finally, we have one last stretch goal:
MegaTokyo: $200,000. The Bubblegum Crisis prequel series, AD Police Files 1-3 (and the associated music videos) will be added to the set. Since these films have not been released on Blu-Ray before, new HD telecine transfers will be commissioned if this goal is reached.
Important Geographical Restriction: due to license restrictions, we cannot ship this product to Japan, the People’s Republic of China, or Taiwan.
Series concept: Like a Phoenix, the city of MegaTokyo is rising from the ashes of a devastating earthquake. In the twisted canyons of the megalopolis, the Knight Sabers, a small band of high-tech mercenaries, fight a lonely battle against the evil GENOM corporation and its sinister android “Boomers”.
