News
Mecha-Ude Anime's Pilot Streamed With English Subtitles
posted on by Jennifer Sherman
YouTuber Reina Scully began streaming the 26-minute pilot for Sae Okamoto's Mecha-Ude anime project on Friday. The Japanese video, which will be available until June 10, includes English subtitles. The English dub version of the video will debut on Saturday.
The anime's official Facebook account also revealed that Scully will voice Aki in the anime's English dub. Scully is serving as assistant global producer for the project. Scully explained in a separate video on her YouTube channel that the anime's pilot is not episode 1, and the anime's staff is aiming to get a series green-lit.
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 raised 4,849,500 yen (about US$44,000) toward an initial goal of 2 million yen (about US$18,700) before ending on March 10, 2018. 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. Rewards began shipping for Campfire patrons in December and for Kickstarter backers in February after delays. The anime was originally planned for a release in December 2017.
The Kickstarter 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 to November 2016.
Thanks to Vince Shortino for the news tip.
Sources: Reina Scully's YouTube channel; Mecha-Ude's Facebook account, Campfire page, and Kickstarter page
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