News

Kickstarter Asks Grisaia Project to Remove Hugging Pillow Rewards

Sekai Project announced on Friday that Kickstarter requested it to remove reward tiers with hugging pillow (dakimakura) covers from its Grisaia game trilogy crowdfunding campaign. The Kickstarter campaign has hugging pillow covers listed as rewards for pledges of US$420 or more, and the cover is also listed as an add-on for US$110.

The hugging pillow rewards were deemed inappropriate according to Kickstarter guidelines. As of press time, 89 backers have made pledges in one of six tiers that include the pillow cover as a reward. The tiers and attached pledges will be canceled 48 hours after Kickstarter notified Sekai Project.

Sekai Project is appealing Kickstarter's decision during the 48-hour period. The company noted that other campaigns have offered similar rewards, and Kickstarter did not ask for their removal.

If the tiers and attached pledges are canceled, Sekai Project will offer revised pledge tiers. Sekai Project plans to announce when the limited US$1,000, US$3,000, and US$5,000 pledges will again be made available so that backers can schedule their pledges.

The campaign to bring Frontwing's Grisaia game trilogy to the West on PC met its goal on Wednesday, less than a day after it launched.

As of press time, the campaign has raised US$254,891 for its US$160,000 goal. The total goal covers the costs of translation, licensing, development, and voices. Sekai Project is working with the creators of a fan translation of The Fruit of Grisaia.

The Kickstarter will close in 43 days. The project's stretch goals include the spinoff game Idol Mahō Shōjo Chiruchiru ☆ Michiru at US$200,000, and platform ports at US$240,000. Sekai Project has not yet released details on which platforms the games can be ported to, but the company's initial Kickstarter outline mentioned PlayStation Vita and mobile devices as possibilities.

Sekai Project describes the story of The Fruit of Grisaia:

Mihama Academy - on the surface, a closed learning environment established to nurture students who find themselves at odds with the world around them; in actuality, an orchard-turned-prison built to preserve fruit that has fallen too far from its tree.

Whatever the circumstances behind its establishment, Mihama Academy is at present home to five female students, all with their own reasons for "enrollment." For better or worse, each girl has established a routine obliging of her current situation; life moves at an idle, yet accommodating pace within the walls of Mihama.

Yet with the arrival of the institute's first male student, the nearly preposterously opaque Kazami Yuuji, the students at Mihama begin to fall out of step with their predetermined rhythms. Will Yuuji prove to be the element the girls around him needed to take hold of their lives once more, or will the weight of their pasts prove too steep a wall to overcome?

And in the first place, just who is Kazami Yuuji? While the true nature of the "job" he is wont to alight to at the most haphazard of moments remains shrouded in secrecy, one thing is for certain - his encroachment upon the quiet orchard known as Mihama Academy will prove itself momentous in one way or another. And of course, one cannot discount the possibility that perhaps Yuuji himself carries the weightiest past of any of the students...

The Labyrinth of Grisaia is a collection of sequels for the all of the game's heroines, and also includes a prequel story for the hero and dozens of short stories. The Eden of Grisaia continues The Labyrinth of Grisaia's main route and concludes the trilogy. The game also includes a prologue following the five heroines as they arrive at Mihama Academy.

A television anime of the first game premiered this month. Sentai Filmworks licensed the anime for North America, and Crunchyroll is streaming the anime as it airs in Japan.