Interest
AniCool Crowdfunding Platform Launches with 'Serendipity' Project
posted on by Lynzee Loveridge
Stone Free, Inc. and CEO Akira Ishiguro launched their AniCool crowdfunding platform with its first anime project. The website is currently accepting backers to raise 1,000,000 yen (about US$9,867) to fund "Serendipity," a 30-40 minute anime. Takuto Nakano is directing the project at Studio Azure.
"Serendipity" follows Shu Aihara, a college senior who fails at finding a job and turns to suicide. When Haru, emissary from the underworld, comes to take Shu's soul to the beyond, he finds that his body isn't dead yet. Instead of patiently waiting for Shu to die, Haru decides to convince his soul to live instead by showing him what the world would like once he is gone.
Projects successfully funded on AniCool will be available to watch online for free, via both the AniCool website as well as other online video distribution avenues. The projects will also be available to upload to other online video distributors with non-commercial captions, so that fans from around the world can watch the works for free. The company is only accepting full-scale animation production proposals from production companies as potential projects for crowdfunding.
Other independent crowdfunding platforms have cropped up since the success of Kickstarter. Anipop attempted to fund three different anime projects, including Kenji Itoso's Santa Company film but they failed. Itoso relaunched his campaign on Kickstarter and succeeded last year.
