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Sae Okamoto's Mecha-Ude Short Anime's 2nd Promo Video Previews Narasaki's Background Music

The official YouTube channel for Sae Okamoto's Mecha-Ude short anime project began streaming a second promotional video on Friday. The video previews NARASAKI's (Paradise Kiss, Penguindrum, Expelled from Paradise) background music.

The anime stars:

Toshiyuki Toyonaga as Hikaru Amatsuga, with Tomokazu Sugita as Arma

Yu Shimamura as Aki Murasame, with Kaito Ishikawa as Shinisu and Dekisu

Romi Park as Jun Kagami

Amatsuki as Tohdoh with Alacran

Eve as Yoh Shirono (guest role)

Okamoto and a "small group of production team members" are working on the project. Okamoto is directing the project at TriF Studio. She has worked as an animator on Sushi Police, Danchi Tomoo, and Tenkai Knights. Hiroshi Matsuyama (director of .hack//G.U. Trilogy, .hack//The Movie) is serving as the general supervisor in charge of planning, script, setting, and direction supervision. The production team also includes Tatsushi Momen (Sushi Police director) as the compositor, NARASAKI (Paradise Kiss, Penguindrum, Expelled from Paradise) as the composer, and Seiji Toda (Votoms Finder, Code Geass "Back to Zero") as recording and mixing engineer at S.O.L.I.D Sound Lab.

Additional staff members include:

• Sound Director: Takeshi Takadera
• Supervision (Planning, Script, Setting, Direction Supervision): Hiroto Niizato
• Script Cooperation: Yasuhiro Nakanishi
• Art Director, Mecha-Ude Design: Nurikabe
• Animation Team: Chiaki Kanno, Mitsunori Murata
• CGI and Composite Director: Shōta Kawamura
• Production Manager: Kenji Satō
• Sound Production: HALF H·P STUDIO
• Planning: Shūichi Asō

Eve is performing the opening theme song "Ambivalent," and AZLiGHTZ is performing the ending theme song "Alone."

A Japanese Campfire crowdfunding campaign is aiming to raise 2 million yen (about US$18,700) by March 10. As of press time, the campaign has raised 2,432,300 yen (about US$22,766). Backer rewards include physical or digital copies of the anime as well as merchandise such as T-shirts, layout materials collections, mini booklets, and event tickets.

Okamoto had revealed on the project's Kickstarter page in December that the anime is now planned for a July release for physical rewards such as discs and merchandise. The anime was originally planned for a release in December.

The campaign page describes the anime:

Hero was a high schooler living an ordinary life.

One day, he meets a very strong and intelligent mechanical arm named “Mecha-Ude”. After a strange turn of events, the “Mecha-Ude” started living inside Hero's hoodie and the two's life full of trouble begins.

As the boy and his “Mecha-Ude” fights together and strengthen their bonds, the two also meets new friends who also fights along with each of their own unique “Mecha-Ude” partners.

Out of those, one of the heroine has two “Mecha-Ude” which appears out of her skirt. An active girl with a totally opposite characteristics from hero himself, he gradually becomes attracted to her.

But the two are confronted with other “Mecha-Ude” users who are in search of the secret of “Mecha-Ude” relentlessly.

In this work, an anima-machine named “Mecha-Ude” with self-awareness appears. Even though they look inorganic in nature, they all show or express their own feelings and opinions. They can feel angry, sad, and even encouraged to fight against enemies.

The original Kickstarter campaign raised US$67,918 from October-November 2016. The campaign aims to build a bigger production team for the project, which will produce a 25-minute pilot episode. A stretch goal will produce an additional short episode for the Heroine with Japanese voice-over with English subtitles.