Under The Dog Kickstarter sets new record for animated project

Date: 2014 September 09 09:30

Posted by Eeeper

Kickstarter anime project Under The Dog receives highest ever funding for an animated project on the crowd funding website.

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Under The Dog, which was successfully funded on the 7th of September 2014, has set a new Kickstarter record for most funds raised for an animation project. Smashing through the previous record set by Studio TRIGGER for Little Witch Academia 2, Creative Intelligence Arts raised over USD $878,000. In a press statement, Creative announced the new milestone and also gave details for how previous backers could further donate and get extra rewards and new backers could get the same perks as Kickstarter backers.

PRESS RELEASE FOLLOWS:

September 8, 2014


TOKYO, Japan: The groundbreaking Japanese indie sci-fi anime, Under the Dog, seeking crowdfunding through Kickstarter, has seen its campaign come to an end with a record breaking $878,028 for the Films/Animation category on Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/discover/advanced?category_id=29&sort=most_funded

"For a while there," says Producer Hiroaki Yura, "we did not think we were going to make it and were considering taking on certain investors so we could potentially relaunch the campaign with a lower budget. Thanks to Kickstarter and our awesome backers, we did not have to do this."

"We had so much promise in the concept and knew there were people out there itching to support us but I think our main setbacks were the intimidating budget first and the lack of exposure second."

"Once I hit Reddit with our AMA, which corresponded with the final couple of days for the campaign and some additional media outlet support, we saw pledges flying in. We managed to raise over $450,000 in just the last 4 days, including Saturday and Sunday which are NOT traditionally high pledge days!"

The UTD team has made a number of radical moves in this campaign (their initial desire to break away from traditional funding methods included) such as having one of the highest initial budget goals for an anime Kickstarter, revealing certain details about the project budget and providing certain introspective views on the Japanese anime production process, allowing backers to participate in voting for the VO cast, and offering backers digital access to all future Under the Dog animations.

For those that missed the Kickstarter portion of this campaign or simply were not able to pledge for any reason, a PayPal option will be available via www.under-the-dog.com starting from 09/11/14 PST. All funds raised through PayPal will combine with the Kickstarter total to contribute to the remaining stretch goals.

Under the Dog Official Home Page: www.under-the-dog.com

Under the Dog Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1300298569/under-the-dog

About Under the Dog

Under the Dog is a Kickstarter project for an independent anime being developed by anime veterans. Founded in Tokyo, Japan in 2013 and based on material written in 1994-1997, Under the Dog will bring the science fiction setting to life, releasing it to worldwide audiences by late-2015. Visit www.under-the-dog.com and Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/underthedogfilm and Twitter: @underthedogpr for more information.

About the Team

The original story comes from writer/producer Jiro Ishii, Character Designer Yusuke Kozaki (Fire Emblem: Awakening and No More Heroes), and Producer Hiroaki Yura (Steins; Gate and The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya) who is also involved with the successful Project Phoenix video game. In addition to these veterans, Under the Dog will be directed by Masahiro Ando, whose credits include Sword of the Stranger, Hanasaku Iroha, and Blast of Tempest and will involve the animation studio Kinema Citrus, which has worked on anime like Tokyo Magnitude 8.0, Black Bullet, Barakamon, and the Eureka Seven movie, and Orange Co. which handles the CGI for titles like Ghost in the Shell: Arise, Macross Frontier, Code Geass, and the Evangelion Rebuild movies.