Give Under the Dog some Love

I seem to be doing this a lot lately, but I’ll make it quick this time :) Juuuust in case you haven’t actually seen them, a bunch of veteran dudes are trying to fund a high quality anime episode – in its entirety – via Kickstarter. That’s basically it: fully crowd funded anime, where creator retains artistic rights and freedom and is answerable only to the audience.

There’s only three days left to the campaign at this writing, so here are some quick pointers to what I consider the important bits:

Step 1: Watch the trailer

Step 2: Read the last paragraphs of the Kickstarter page. Just look for “In closing, we will say again and again” and read from there.

Step 3: Read Hideo Kojima’s endorsement of the endeavor.

Step 4: Read some of the responses in their AMA.

Step 5: If any of that spoke to you, throw some money at them. (ASAP! Campaign ends in three days as of this writing)

Pace of funding has been accelerating, with about 70k being pledged in the last 24 hours, so it’s actually looking like they may yet make it to the goal. Which is kind of crazy. It’s a tired rhetoric in this blog by now perhaps, but a success here will be quite unprecedented, and perhaps be part of the catalyst for an inevitable change in workings of the anime industry. We want anime to become more transparent, more accessible, more sensitive to the fans (globally!) and less to investor whims, so that’s where our money should go. Into the projects and ideas that are nudging the industry in a direction we like.

So how about it? Do consider giving them some love (ASAP!).