News
Digital Manga's Kimagure Orange Road Kickstarter Funds 1st Omnibus Volume
posted on by Rafael Antonio Pineda
Digital Manga Inc.'s Kickstarter campaign to publish Izumi Matsumoto's romantic comedy manga Kimagure Orange Road reached its initial goal of US$34,900 on Monday evening. The initial goal will allow the company to publish the first 3-in-1 omnibus volume.
The other five omnibus volumes will be stretch goals at the following amounts:
- Omnibus volume 2: US$56,900
- Omnibus volume 3: US$74,900
- Omnibus volume 4: US$89,900
- Omnibus volume 5: US$105,900
- Omnibus volume 6: US$119,900
The campaign will end on May 10 at 6:00 p.m. EDT. As of press time the campaign has raised US$35,508.
Backer tiers range from US$1 to US$1,500, and rewards include: digital or print editions of the manga, bookmarker magnets, a pub glass, USB drives, beach towels, sunglasses, eco bags, wall scrolls, signed soundtrack CDs, stickers, reproduction prints, reproduction shikishi boards, posters, and an artbook. Several of the higher-end tiers are now all gone.
The original Kimagure Orange Road manga series ran in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine from 1984 to 1987. The 18-volume story followed a boy with supernatural powers as he dealt with a love triangle between two girls in his high school.
The manga inspired a popular 1987-1988 television anime series, two movies, and various anime videos. AnimEigo released the television anime series, the first movie, and the later video anime series, while ADV Films handled the second movie, Kimagure Orange Road: Summer's Beginning.
Matsumoto announced in 2012 that the company Hivelinx would distribute the series in English for NTT Solmare's Facebook app "ComicFriends," as well as for Kindle and Apple iBooks. The manga's first volume then arrived on Kindle in 2013. Digital Manga Inc. then listed plans to publish the manga on its eManga website in 2014, and announced later that year that it planned to release new volumes digitally on a weekly basis.
Thanks to Alan45 for the news tip.
