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Funimation's Escaflowne Kickstarter Goes Live
posted on by Kyle Hallmark
North American anime distributor FUNimation Entertainment launched its Kickstarter campaign on Saturday to gauge interest in and fund a new English dub for The Vision of Escaflowne anime series. The company plans to release the director's cut of the series in HD on Blu-ray Disc, including scenes that were not available when Bandai Entertainment's original English dub was released.
The campaign reveals that if successful, Funimation will also make a new matching dub for Escaflowne: The Movie.
The Kickstarter campaign has a goal of US$150,000 and has raised US$63,846 as of press time. If the goal is met, Funimation will release both a standard edition and a collector's edition for the series. The standard edition will be a Blu-ray Disc/DVD combo pack, and both discs will have the director's cut with the new dub. The collector's edition will have the new dub on Blu-ray Disc and the old dub on DVD. The release will also include an exclusive interview with director Kazuki Akane and creator Shōji Kawamori.
The company has not yet made plans to release the original dub if the Kickstarter is unsuccessful, but will instead release the HD director's cut in a subtitle-only release.
The rewards for the campaign include pre-orders of exclusive Kickstarter editions of both parts of the release, featuring 13 episodes each of the HD complete uncut version of the series in Japanese with English subtitles as well as the new English dub. The Kickstarter edition also includes exclusive art cards. Other rewards include digital wallpapers, on-disc credit listings, pre-orders of Escaflowne: The Movie, theatrical-sized posters, the series' soundtrack, and collector's edition box sets that feature an art book and an unannounced exclusive item, among others.
One backer who donates US$5,000 will receive a tour of the Funimation office, a bag of Funimation merchandise, and a chance to do voice work that will appear in the new English dub. This reward has already been claimed as of press time.
The campaign's stretch goals include behind-the-scenes footage and interviews of the English dub cast for US$200,000, art booklets and foil printing for the Kickstarter edition of the release for US$250,000, and an invitation to meet director Kazuki Akane at an exclusive VIP party at a major U.S. anime convention for US$500,000.
