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Kurukuru Kurumi-chan Shōjo Manga Raises Funds for Anime Project
posted on by Rafael Antonio Pineda
The Kurumi Friends Project group launched a Fundiy crowdfunding campaign on Thursday, seeking funds to produce a 10-minute pilot animation to adapt Katsuji Matsumoto's Kurukuru Kurumi-chan manga. The project seeks to raise 1.3 million yen (around US$10,844) by July 6. The group aims to release the pilot in 2016, to commemorate the 30 years since Matsumoto passed away in 1986.
As of press time, the crowdfunding campaign has raised 656,500 yen (about US$5,473).
Pioneering Shōwa-era artist and manga creator Katsuji Matsumoto launched his Kurukuru Kurumi-chan manga in the Shōjo no Tomo magazine in 1938, and serialized it in the magazine until 1940. After the Second World War ended, he revived the comic under the title Kurumi-chan in the magazine Shōjo, where it ran from 1949 to 1954. The manga centers around a girl named Kurumi and her everyday life. Each chapter usually ran for four pages with 22 panels, and told a self-contained story.
Toshiyuki Honda (Doraemon: Nobita's Dinosaur animation director, Soreike! Anpanman: Tobe! Tobe! Chibigon key animation) will direct the animated pilot at the studio Ekura Animal (Doraemon, Soreike! Anpanman films, Folktales from Japan).
Backer rewards include a DVD copy of the animated pilot, the backer's name on the pilot credits, storyboards, a goods bag, and illustrations by Katsuji Matsumoto reproduced by the Kyoto Seika University International Manga Research Center.
Source: Comic Natalie
