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Comcept, Studio 4°C Unveil 'Red Ash' Game, Anime Kickstarter Projects

Comcept founder Keiji Inafune (Mega Man) and Studio 4°C founder Eiko Tanaka unveiled the companies' joint project "Red Ash" at their panel at Anime Expo on Saturday. The project is in two parts—an anime film from Studio 4°C and a action-adventure RPG from Comcept—and both are being funded with Kickstarter.

Red Ash: The Indelible Legend (Red Ash: Kiganjō KalKanon no Majo, or "Red Ash: The Witch of Mechanical Armor Castle Calcannon") is Comcept's game, and is under development with the goal of creating a "true anime in a game." The Kickstarter is seeking to raise US$800,000 by August 3.

The Kickstarter will fund the prologue, "The KalKanon Incident," which will then launch development of the full game.

In addition to Inafune, the game staff will include other members of the Mega Man Legends team, such as art director Kazushi Ito, game director Masahiro Yasuma, and lead background artist Miki Kijima. Manami Matsumae (Mighty No. 9, Mega Man) is handling the background music and Shusaku Uchiyama (Mega Man 8, Resident Evil 2) is in charge of sound.

Inafune emphasized that the project has nothing to do with Mega Man Legends, as that would require CAPCOM's permission.

Red Ash: Magiciada is Studio 4°C's anime film, and if funded will seek to combine the first-person perspective of games with anime. The Kickstarter is aiming to raise US$150,000 by August 3, though the initial goal is for a five-minute episode. Each stretch goal will "unlock" a new minute of the story, with the ultimate goal of US$2,480,000.

Yuta Sano (Berserk: The Golden Age Arc III - The Advent storyboard) is on board to direct. The anime will not use cel-shading, instead using 2D painting in conjunction with 3D animation models.

The story of both follow treasure hunters who also seek out lost technology in order to help rebuild humanity in the wake of the "Robot World War." Feral robots still hunt humans in this world. The Kickstarter page for the game states that the goal is to create a story with a "grand scale," and that the ending is already planned.

Comcept streamed a teaser on Thursday.