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Sae Okamoto's Mecha-Ude Anime Kickstarter Campaign Reaches Goal

Animator Sae Okamoto's Kickstarter campaign for the Mecha-Ude (Mechanical Arms) anime project reached its initial US$25,000 goal on Saturday. The campaign launched on October 1 and will end on November 5. The campaign aims to build a bigger production team for the project, which will produce a 25-minute pilot episode. As of press time, the campaign has raised US$25,803.

The project's official Twitter account posted an image in commemoration of the achievement.

The project is streaming a teaser video, with a longer teaser movie "currently being prepared."

The campaign page describes the anime:

Hero was a high schooler living an ordinary life.

One day, he meets a very strong and intelligent mechanical arm named “Mecha-Ude”. After a strange turn of events, the “Mecha-Ude” started living inside Hero's hoodie and the two's life full of trouble begins.

As the boy and his “Mecha-Ude” fights together and strengthen their bonds, the two also meets new friends who also fights along with each of their own unique “Mecha-Ude” partners.

Out of those, one of the heroine has two “Mecha-Ude” which appears out of her skirt. An active girl with a totally opposite characteristics from hero himself, he gradually becomes attracted to her.

But the two are confronted with other “Mecha-Ude” users who are in search of the secret of “Mecha-Ude” relentlessly.

In this work, an anima-machine named “Mecha-Ude” with self-awareness appears. Even though they look inorganic in nature, they all show or express their own feelings and opinions. They can feel angry, sad, and even encouraged to fight against enemies.

The project plans to finish the anime by December 2017.

Okamoto and a "small group of production team members" are working on the project. Okamoto is directing the project at TriF Studio. She has worked as an animator on Sushi Police, Danchi Tomoo, and Tenkai Knights. The production team includes Tatsushi Momen (Sushi Police director) as the compositor, NARASAKI (Paradise Kiss, Penguindrum, Expelled from Paradise) as the composer, and Seiji Toda (Votoms Finder, Code Geass "Back to Zero") as recording and mixing engineer at S.O.L.I.D Sound Lab.

Backer rewards include digital wallpapers, special images, digital and physical (Blu-ray Disc and DVD) copies of the anime, a box set that includes a mini-book and original soundtrack, hoodies, figures, an invitation to a private screening party, posters, and dinner with Okamoto.