Crowd-Funding Puts Japanese Anime ‘Corners’ Into Production
TOKYO – “To All the Corners of This World,” a WWII-era anime feature that has raised a significant chunk of its budget from crowd-funding, is heading into production.
The number of contributors — 3,374—is a Japanese record, while the $290,000 raised on the Makuake crowd-funding site is 80% above the JPY20 million ($161,000 ) target.
Crowd-funding is becoming increasingly popular in Japan, but it is still uncommon for movies to raise major money from this source.
The film is based on Fumiyo Kono’s eponymous comic, serialized in Weekly Manga Action magazine in 2007, about a young woman who marries and moves from her home in Hiroshima to the bustling port of Kure during World War II.
Anime specialist Genco is producing and the Mappa animation house is making the film, with Sunao Katabuchi (“Mai Mai Miracle,” TV’s “Black Lagoon”) directing. The distributor is Tokyo Theater, with a 2016 nationwide release set.
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