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Clannad Kickstarter Project Adds English Translation for Side Stories
posted on by Kyle Cardine
North American visual novel distributor Sekai Project announced on Sunday that the Clannad crowdfunding campaign had reached its second stretch goal to release an English translation and PC port of the Clannad Hikari Mimamoru Sakamichi de side stories.
The side stories started out as a series of drama CDs that were eventually included in the PlayStation Portable edition of the game in 2008 and added as DLC to the PlayStation 3 edition in 2011.
Sekai Project added the additional stretch goals in November.
The first stretch goal at US$200,000 was for HD assets. VisualArt's/Key currently has assets as 1280x960, and now Sekai Project is asking them to process it at 1280x720 for widescreen support. The campaign had reached this first stretch goal before the company had announced it.
The third stretch goal, at US$380,000, will be for an all-new Clannad anthology manga that Sekai Project will release in the West before it is released in Japan. Those interested in pledging for the manga ahead of time can add US$12 to their pledge for a digital version and US$15 for a physical version. Sekai Project announced on Sunday that the Kickstarter project is less than $55,000 to reach the goal. Should the Kickstarter reach the third goal, Sekai Project will get Clannad one-shot and Black Gate manga author Yukiko Sumiyoshi (art seen below) to join Juri Misaki and ZEN to work on the anthology manga.
The campaign reached its US$140,000 goal after less than 24 hours, earning a digital and physical edition of the game. As of press time, the campaign has earned US$328,563 and has 17 days left to go.
Sekai Project stated that its English release will be "almost the same as the original 2004 release of CLANNAD first edition." The company plans to release a full-voiced edition with Mai Nakahara, Ai Nonaka, Mamiko Noto, Kikuko Inoue and others, but will not record an English dub.
The game inspired an anime movie and two television anime series. The series follows delinquent high school student Tomoya Okazaki, who one day meets a strange girl named Nagisa Furukawa who is a year older, but is repeating her last year of high school due to illness. Tomoya becomes involved with Nagisa and her hopes of restarting the school drama club.
The original game is celebrating its 10th anniversary and is receiving a PlayStation Vita port in Japan. The visual novel has already been ported to PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PSP, Xbox 360, and phones.
Key has produced such visual novel franchises as Little Busters!, Kanon, and Air — all of which inspired anime and manga adaptations.
[Via Siliconera]
