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Cannon Busters Animation Kickstarter Launches With International Team

Producer LeSean Thomas (The Boondocks, The Legend of Korra) launched a Kickstarter project on Monday for an animated adaptation of his Cannon Busters comic book series. Thomas Romain (Space Dandy, co-director on Oban Star-Racers) will serve as the mechanical designer, Joe Madureira (Uncanny X-Men) will contribute to the character designs, and Bahi JD (Kids on the Slope, Space Dandy, Ping Pong) is on board as an animator. Tim Yoon (Batman: Under The Red Hood, The Legend of Korra) will serve as a consulting producer. Anime studio Satelight and retailer ANIMEBOOKS are supporting the project.

The Kickstarter seeks to raise US$120,000 for an eight to ten minute pilot episode, and stretch goals will expand the run time to 16 minutes or 24 minutes. As of press time, the Kickstarter has raised US$16,866 with 229 backers.

The creators say they are using Kickstarter because American television studios, with respect to animation, have "become more risk-averse towards new ideas that don't already have a built-in following," and so have "catered more towards comedy." Cannon Busters, if funded, will be an action series with a dramatic story as well as comedy.

Thomas (pictured in image, left) published the first issue of the original Cannon Busters comic in 2005 with Udon Entertainment and Devil's Due Publishing. He also served as co-director and lead character designer on The Boondocks animated series before moving to South Korea and working on The Legend of Korra as a supervising character designer. He returned to the United States and began working as creative producer and supervising director on Black Dynamite: The Animated Series.

Studio Trigger and SANZIGEN Animation Studio created the opening sequence for the second season of Black Dynamite with Kill la Kill director Hiroyuki Imaishi (pictured in image, right).

The Kickstarter page describes the story:

Cannon Busters is an animated adventure about the value of friendship and just how far one is willing to go to maintain it. If The Wizard of Oz met the Hidden Fortress with influences derived from Escaflowne, hip-hop, and classic RPGs -- you get Cannon Busters, one wild ride of fun, suspense, action, and wackiness. It's a roadshow-style adventure of epic proportions!

Follow the adventures and exploits of S.A.M, a high-end, royal-class friendship droid who's joined by a quirky, discarded maintenance robot and a brash, deadly fugitive. Together, the unlikely trio embarks on an unforgettable journey in a fantastic and dangerous world in search of S.A.M's best friend, the heir to a powerful kingdom under siege.

The story takes place hundreds of years ago in the vast and magical world of Gearbolt. As the centuries passed, the practice of magic became extinct, and many have forgotten its power, regulating it to mere superstition…

The characters include:

Thanks to ConfigSpace and ico251 for the news tips.

Update: Added link to Kickstarter page in article. Thanks, ConfigSpace and enurtsol.