Jason Moses
May 28, 2013 
After Production I.G.’s foray into Kickstarter with Kick-Heart last October, we’ve been seeing anime crowdfunding projects come out of the woodwork one after the other.
There was the Kickstarter to help fund Mirai Mizue’s WONDER project, the recent announcement of Anime Sols to crowdfund DVD boxsets of old anime titles, and last Thursday saw the announcement of Anipipo, a crowdfunding platform for animators.
Originally announced last October, Anipipo is the brainchild of GOOPA, Inc., and is looking to allow creators located in Japan and Thailand to fund their animation projects through donations via the internet, much like Kickstarter.
So far, three initial projects have been publicly announced. First up is Santa Company, a 30-minute short by Miyazaki protege Kenji Itoso that will finally provide the canon answer to how Santa can deliver all those presents on Christmas, assuming backers chip in the roughly $10,000 necessary to finish production.
The second project is ABC of Akari, a 10-minute 3D-animated short being put together by Spain-based AnigoAnimation. A revenge story promising “high quality action, with gunfire, combats, vehicles and explosions,” ABC of Akari is also notable for being made entirely with free software and tools. AnigoAnimation is looking for $30,000 to complete funding on the project.
Last up is Ponpon Pipopo, a kid’s storybook from Tokyo-based author Moo, who says he wants “people, not only from Japan but also all over the world to cross cultures and languages, to enjoy my picture books and spread concept of kawaii world,” which is either heartwarming and wonderful or some kind of Cool Japan-inspired Japanese nationalist propaganda. I kid, I kid! It sounds wonderful.
The English version of the site is still a little rough around the edges, with a few delightfully stilted translations and other odds and ends. Still, the promise is there.
Source: Anipipo
This story originally ran in the 5/28/13 issue of the Otaku USA e-News
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