Interest
Crowdfund Launches to Gift Writer, Director Mari Okada Flower Bouquet at Anime Expo
posted on by Lynzee Loveridge
Mari Okada fan and Anime Supporters member Yoshihiro Watanabe is crowdfunding a special gift for scriptwriter and director Mari Okada's trip to Anime Expo next week. Watanabe is envisioning floral bouquets to welcome Okada and celebrate her directorial debut in her film Maquia - When the Promised Flower Blooms. The campaign is designed so each contributor offers one flower to the overall bouquet. A message board is also planned to include the individual well wishes of campaign participants.
The campaign is only running until July 1 to ensure the flowers are ordered in time for the convention. Okada will be present at Anime Expo on July 4-8 and hosting the U.S. premiere of Maquia on July 6.
Stretch goals include upgrading the bouquet to include spray flowers. The planned bouquet will be blue and white to match the theme colors of Maquia. The campaign's initial goal is US$300 for the 60-flower bouquet and message board. The campaign has raised US$312 as of this writing. The next stretch goal of US$400 will include the message board, a 40-flower bouquet and a 40-flower spray stand.
Anyone can contribute to the campaign regardless to whether they are able to attend Anime Expo in Los Angeles. Perks include having your message added to the large message board and receiving a postcard-size copy of the message board.
Watanabe is currently discussing the campaign with distributor Eleven Arts on how to pass the flowers to Mari Okada.
Maquia opened in Japan on February 24 and screened out of competition at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in France. The film will open in theaters in the U.S. and Canada on July 20. Anime News Network's Tokyo correspondent Kim Morrissy describes the story:
Maquia is from a clan where all the members stop aging in their mid teens. She has no parents and, although her days are peaceful, she feels lonely. Their peace is shattered when an army invades, seeking the secret to her people's immortality. Leilia, the most beautiful girl in her clan, is taken away, and the boy Maquia has secret feelings for disappears. Maquia is able to escape, but she loses her friends and her home. Wandering alone in the forest, she finds Erial, a baby boy who has lost his parents. The story follows the changing relationship between the two as Erial grows up and Maquia does not.
Morrissy reviewed the film and gave it the overall score of an "A."
Okada is also the writer behind Dragon Pilot: Hisone and Masotan, Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans, Kiznaiver, The Anthem of the Heart, A Lull in the Sea, and Lupin III: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine. A translation of her autobiography From Truant to Anime Screenwriter: My Path to “anohana” and “The Anthem of the Heart” (also translated by Morrissy) is available for purchase in English from J-Novel Club.
Source: Indiegogo campaign
