Otakon 2014

AnimEigo

AnimEigo's Otakon panel opened on Friday afternoon with a discussion about the advantages of using Kickstarter to release the Bubblegum Crisis Ultimate Edition Blu-Ray sets, its largest recent venture. CEO Robert Woodhead talked about the value of connecting with the backers to see what fans of the anime would want most in their sets. The difference between simply licensing and releasing an anime and really creating an “Ultimate Edition”, he said, is equivalent to watching a Disney movie and going on a trip to Disneyland.

Woodhead announced that the initial Kickstarter goal of US$75,000 was quickly met and surpassed, ultimately ending at around US$154,000. The excess backing money was used to meet stretch goals, and new Premium rewards prompted more backers to upgrade their contribution to Premium level. Woodhead said that backers fell into one of two camps: those who wanted the best quality content possible and those who wanted the best packaging possible.

Two sets of the Bubblegum Crisis Ultimate Edition are available for what Woodhead called “waitlist” ordering post-Kickstarter. The Basic set, available for US$55, includes the Blu-Rays, postcards, digital copies of the omake, RPG book, Grand Mal comic, and a choice of Challenge Coin or keychain. The Premium set, available for US$105, includes the items found in the Basic set along with a the keychain, a larger version of the Challenge Coin, a patch, extra postcard, and chipboard packaging.

AnimEigo is using “playing card” sleeves for the Basic sets, which can be flipped to feature any Knight Saber on the front cover. They said that releasing the sets non-commercially offers a certain flexibility with packaging: they don't have to make compromises or include branding or barcodes. In addition, the Premium set sleeves will feature a backer list on the back.

Woodhead said that AnimEigo is looking into licensing future projects both new and obscure. Despite some resistance to this rather new system of custom-fitting the release to the backers' demands, he said AnimEigo will negotiate with Japanese companies to bring new content through.

The panel ended with a Q&A session as audience members passed around production samples of the patch, keychain, and Challenge Coins included in the Kickstarter backer and wait-list customer packages.