THE BRIDGE

Teppei Wai

Teppei Wai

Freelance writer. Focused on covering gadgets and gizmos.

Articles

Japanese anime project ‘Santa Company’ raises over $50,000 on Kickstarter

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See the original story in Japanese. Santa Company, an anime production team led by Japanese filmmaker Kenji Itoso, recently met its funding goal of $50,000 goal on Kickstarter. This fundraising effort comes after the team attempted to raise money on Japanese crowdfunding site Anipipo earlier this year, falling short of its target. Itoso has produced animations, films and music videos, and his works have been featured at many international film festivals and won prominent awards from them. With this new project, he hopes to complete a 30 minute anime and present it for children and families in affected areas of the 2011 earthquake. The video below gives a more detailed introduction. Here are a few other Japanese projects that have leverage Kickstarter to raise funds. October 2012 – ‘Kick-Heart’ raised $201,164. Directed by Masaaki Yuasa of Product I.G. June 2013 – ‘Are you enjoying the time of EVE?’ raised $215,433. Directed by Yasuhiro Yoshiura of Studio Rikka and Directions. This project aimed to produce an English-subtitled version of the anime. It raised more than 10 times than its target goal of $18,000. August 2013 – ‘Little Witch Academia’ raised $625,518. Directed by Yo Yoshinari of Trigger. This project reached its…

santa-company

See the original story in Japanese.

Santa Company, an anime production team led by Japanese filmmaker Kenji Itoso, recently met its funding goal of $50,000 goal on Kickstarter. This fundraising effort comes after the team attempted to raise money on Japanese crowdfunding site Anipipo earlier this year, falling short of its target.

Itoso has produced animations, films and music videos, and his works have been featured at many international film festivals and won prominent awards from them. With this new project, he hopes to complete a 30 minute anime and present it for children and families in affected areas of the 2011 earthquake. The video below gives a more detailed introduction.

Here are a few other Japanese projects that have leverage Kickstarter to raise funds.

  • October 2012 – ‘Kick-Heart’ raised $201,164. Directed by Masaaki Yuasa of Product I.G.
  • June 2013 – ‘Are you enjoying the time of EVE?’ raised $215,433. Directed by Yasuhiro Yoshiura of Studio Rikka and Directions. This project aimed to produce an English-subtitled version of the anime. It raised more than 10 times than its target goal of $18,000.
  • August 2013 – ‘Little Witch Academia’ raised $625,518. Directed by Yo Yoshinari of Trigger. This project reached its target goal of $150,000 in just five or six hours after launching its project on Kickstarter.

Summing up the three projects above, and this most recent Santa Company project, Kickstarter has helped Japanese filmmakers raise over $110 million in total. We’ll see more Japanese anime projects raising money on Kickstarter, but I still wonder if it’s impossible for them to do so on Japanese crowdfunding sites.

Santa Company is looking for partners to work with them on collaborative businesses. If you are interested, we can encourage you to contact them.

santa-company_screenshot

HALOband: The wrist band that helps you control your smartphone

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See the original story in Japanese. How much time is needed to launch a function on our smartphone? You will typically need to unlock it with a password or fingerprint, and then tap the screen two or three times. That takes five to 10 seconds at least. But now there’s a wearable device that proposes to cut this time significantly using NFC technology. It is called HALOband, and it was invented by the Shanghai-based startup of the same name. The wrist band is made of silicone and has three NFC chips. Two chips can read patterns of how you touch your smartphone to the band, for example, touch once to chip A, and then twice to chip B. In this way, it provides an alternative to actions like unlocking your phone, instead of the conventional identification methods using a password or fingerprint. You can also set other actions to launch other function, using different patterns. On Kickstarter, the company has already raised $1 million, reaching their first goal, but they’re still trying to raise another $1 million to add new functions. The video below shows you how it works. This would be especially useful for daily joggers and cyclists who…

haloband-tapping

See the original story in Japanese.

How much time is needed to launch a function on our smartphone? You will typically need to unlock it with a password or fingerprint, and then tap the screen two or three times. That takes five to 10 seconds at least. But now there’s a wearable device that proposes to cut this time significantly using NFC technology. It is called HALOband, and it was invented by the Shanghai-based startup of the same name.

The wrist band is made of silicone and has three NFC chips. Two chips can read patterns of how you touch your smartphone to the band, for example, touch once to chip A, and then twice to chip B. In this way, it provides an alternative to actions like unlocking your phone, instead of the conventional identification methods using a password or fingerprint. You can also set other actions to launch other function, using different patterns.

haloband-app

On Kickstarter, the company has already raised $1 million, reaching their first goal, but they’re still trying to raise another $1 million to add new functions. The video below shows you how it works. This would be especially useful for daily joggers and cyclists who have difficulty controlling a smartphone when on move.