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Tree of Hope Anime's Crowdfunding Site Opens English Page
posted on by Rae First
The crowd-funding campaign for Studio Ghibli art director Nizo Yamamoto's anime film project Kibō no Ki (The Tree of Hope) has now opened an English-language website for the campaign. Yamamoto (Castle in the Sky, Princess Mononoke, Grave of the Fireflies) is aiming to make the film to support the areas hit by the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami disaster.
Currently the project has raised 147,950 "SEEDs" of the goal of 47,150,000 SEEDs (each SEED costs 1 yen or about US$0.01). WESYM is hosting the crowd-funding campaign for another 111 days. As with Kickstarter, with each level of donations, donors will receive special prizes. The website does not indicate if the prizes will be shipped internationally. The prizes are as follows (there is a $30 minimum donation):
3,000 SEEDs ($30): A set of plastic file holders with the design of The Tree of Hope
3,500 SEEDs ($35): A Handkerchief of The Tree of Hope
9,000 SEEDs ($90): An original T-shirt of The Tree of Hope
500,000 SEEDs ($5,000): Nizo Yamamoto's original art work of The Tree of Hope painted with his own brush
The film is projected to cost around US$5 million and the staff hopes to release the film in theaters in 2014. More information can be found on the English WESYM Donation Page.
The film is based on the Takata-Matsubara pine tree grove in Iwate Prefecture. The grove had lined a two-kilometer (1.24-mile) stretch of coastline in the prefecture and consisted of around 70,000 trees. After the earthquake and tsunami disaster in 2011, one pine tree remained standing. The tree became a national symbol of hope for Japan's recovery after the disaster. Although the tree itself later died due to the salty soil that remained after the sea water receded, the tree was molded into a monument that now stands at the site of the original tree.
The film will be specifically based on Man Arai's photo book of the same name. Arai, who is well known for writing the lyrics to Masafumi Akikawa's song "Sen no Kaze ni Natte," is working on the project as the scriptwriter, and he will also be in charge of the film's music. The film's website has concept art images by Yamamoto featuring a woman named Layla, who is the spirit of the lone pine tree, and a young man named Upashi.
Image © The Tree of Hope Production Committee
