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AnimEigo's Megazone 23 Blu-ray Kickstarter Reaches Goal in a Day

AnimEigo's Kickstarter campaign for Megazone 23 Omega Edition, a Blu-ray Disc release of the Megazone 23 anime, reached its US$100,000 goal on Sunday, only a day after launching on Saturday. The campaign will end on September 16.

The release will be an expanded version of the anime's Japanese Blu-ray Disc release, which includes both Megazone 23 and Megazone 23 Part II. AnimEigo's release will include English dubs for both anime, trailers, an English commentary track, and an art book that "will probably end up over 100 pages long." Animator Gaku Miyao and character designer Haruhiko Mikimoto have agreed to provide new material for the AnimEigo release.

Stretch goals include a commentary track by Miyao and producer Hiroki Satō, a new illustration of Eve by Mikimoto, and an eight-page manga by Miyao. Additionally, the project page states that AnimEigo would like to include a series of music videos by Kumi Miyasato that were included in the Japanese Blu-ray Disc release, as well as the English dubs by Streamline Pictures and Manga Entertainment, but it cannot guarantee their inclusion in the final product.

Megazone 23 began with a 1985 motorcycle robot anime that popularized the original video animation (OVA) market. The late anime director Noboru Ishiguro (Space Battleship Yamato, The Legend of the Galactic Heroes) collaborated with his Macross and Orguss character designer Haruhiko Mikimoto (Gunbuster, Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress), mechanical designer Shinji Aramaki (Genesis Climber Mospeada, Bubblegum Crisis, Appleseed films' director), and other veterans of robot mecha anime. There have since been two sequel OVA projects in 1986 and 1989.

The anime studio AIC ran a crowdfunding campaign for a new Megazone 23 XI sequel project in 2017, and it met its goal of 10 million yen (about US$92,000). The project's staff hopes to green-light production on a television anime, and the staff hopes that the crowdfunded promotional video will help in preparing for that production. AIC launched another crowdfunding campaign in August 2018 to supplement the previous one, but it ended in September having only met 25% of its 1 million yen (about US$8,980) goal.

AIC also ran a crowdfunding campaign for the Megazone 23 SIN remake project launched in 2017, and it also met its 10 million yen (US$89,000) goal. The staff for the project hopes to green-light production on another television anime, and the staff hopes that the crowdfunded promotional video will help in preparing for that production. AIC also plans to develop the franchise into multiple media, and Megazone 23 SIN will form the foundation of that franchise. The project will only remake the Megazone 23 and Megazone 23 Part II stories.

Thanks to Olavi Hokkanen and Daniel Zelter for the news tips.

Source: AnimEigo's Megazone 23 Kickstarter page