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Director Kenichi Sonoda Raises 10 Million Yen in 48 Hours After Launching Kickstarter for New Original Bean Bandit Anime

New anime to screen at Seattle's Anime Central 2019

okyo, Japan- March 23, 2018-
At Seattle-based convention Anime Central on May 18, 2018, manga artist Kenichi Sonoda announced the launch of his Kickstarter to produced a new Bean Bandit original animation. Within the first 48 of the campaign, Sonoda raised over 10 million yen.

Animators organizing to create independently funded anime is rare, and Sonoda aims to embark on an ambitious project to produce a non-commercial work. The Kickstarter's goal is 15 million yen for production which they hope to use for subsequent development.

Publicity for this campaign will not use any of the Kickstarter funds and marketing will be conducted among friends and fans.

Should the campaign be successful, Sonoda will produce an original color comic along with a character design art book in both English and Japanese and send it as thanks to the investors in the project. The Kickstarter is open to several countries including the United States of America, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Russia, and Portugal. The animation will have both English and Japanese versions.

A screening of the completed Bean Bandit animation is scheduled for Anime Central 2019, and Sonoda plans on distributing both a Blu-ray and digital download for fans all over the world.

Bean Bandit (real age and name unknown) is the title carrier of this project and well known as a carrier. He will transport anything for a price and is called the “Road Buster.” When he faces enemies and traitors, he thoroughly eliminates them with his strength and size. Rather than using guns, he only fights in hand-to-hand combat and with knives. The underworld trusts him, and he receives many requests from this world. Committed to his cars, especially his custom-made monster machine Buff” and 69 Chevrolet Corvette, Bean Bandit will never turn down a race.

Official Kickstarter Page: https://www.Kickstarter.com/projects/beanbandit/kenichi-sonodas-bean-bandit-new-anime-project?ref=project_tweet

Official Twitter Account: twitter:​https://twitter.com/Anime_ProjectBB

About Kenichi Sonoda
Born in 1962 in Kumamoto Japan, Sonoda started his career as a doujin artist while attending vocational design school. He gained notoriety for his illustrations of beautiful women characters and mechanics and obtained work as a commercial illustrator for goods, posters, and magazine ads. While doing this work, he caught the attention of Hideki Kakinuma at ARTMIC and had the opportunity to work on Gall Force, a series published in emerging model magazine Model Graphics. Sonoda decided to become an animator after his character designs and sophisticated mechanics became famous through this work. Around this time, Sonoda moved to Tokyo and started working as a character designer in Gall Force, Bubblegum Crisis, and Wanna-Be's. In Riding Bean, Sonoda worked extensively as the original writer, supervisor, character designer, mechanic setter, and storyboarder. Manga artists rarely handle the storyboards for the anime adaptation that lasts more than 30 minutes as Sonoda did in Riding Bean. Katsuhiro Ōtomo for AKIRA and Masamune Shiro for Black Magic M-66 are other examples. Sonoda also has appeared as a guest designer for Gainax's Royal Space Force - The Wings of Honnêamise.

Following his career in animation, Sonoda focused on writing manga. His notable manga titles include Riding Bean, Gunsmith Cats, Cannon God Exaxxion, Gunsmith Cats Burst, and Bullet the Wizard.

Sonoda is the owner of a Japanese-style sweets shop called “Sonoda-ya” in Kumamoto that has run since the 19th century. The name of his doujin series, “Chousen Ame” comes from a sign in the shop.


About Kickstarter
Kickstarter is a funding platform for creative projects. Everything from films, games, and music to art, design, and technology. Kickstarter is full of ambitious, innovative, and imaginative ideas that are brought to life through the direct support of others. [1]

Every project creator sets their project's funding goal and deadline. If people like the project, they can pledge money to make it happen. If the project succeeds in reaching its funding goal, all backers' credit cards are charged when time expires. If the project falls short, no one is charged. Funding on Kickstarter is all-or-nothing. [2]

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