The Vision of Escaflowne is coming out this year and could get a new dub! Find details here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...b-for-the-clas

About this project

For $150,000, help create a new 20th anniversary experience of The Vision of Escaflowne in its perfect form with a Blu-ray release of a brand-new English dub that finally matches every second of the complete uncut Japanese HD materials!

The Vision of Escaflowne is one of the most prolific classic anime to date—and a pivotal title in opening the door to anime fandom in North America. From its riveting fantasy storyline, gorgeous visuals, a stirring score, romance, and of course, awesome gigantic robots, it's clear that this is a series that has stood the test of time.

The series is beloved worldwide, but there has never been a complete English dub for fans. The uncut HD Japanese version of the show includes scenes that have never been seen in North America, meaning that English speakers have never experienced the show fully in dubbed format. Also, despite the fantastic visuals, the series has not been released in its HD glory on Blu-ray here either. Across forums, social media, conventions, and more, fans like you have voiced endless requests for a new full-series dub that gives this series the treatment it deserves. Team up with us to make this a reality!

We’ve been working hand-in-hand with Sunrise—and legendary director Kazuki Akane and creator Shoji Kawamori—to explore the possibility of creating this new dub for months. We aren’t attempting to raise the entire production costs of a new dub, but rather to demonstrate the extent of fan interest—is it enough to warrant the creation of this dub? If the demand is truly there, then you can think of this Kickstarter more as a pre-order campaign rather than a fundraiser.

If the project meets the goal of $150,000, we’ll be releasing The Vision of Escaflowne television series on Blu-ray and DVD with both the original uncut Japanese HD with English subtitles, and a brand-new English dub matching those materials. This release will also include an exclusive interview with Kazuki Akane and Shoji Kawamori specifically recorded for English-speaking fans, and the Escaflowne movie will receive a new matching dub. Certain tiers of this Kickstarter include Escaflowne Blu-ray/DVD releases as rewards, including a special pre-order of a one-of-a-kind version of Part 1 that includes a beautiful chipboard housing box and art cards featuring illustrations from the series. This Kickstarter Edition of Part 1 is ONLY available to Kickstarter backers.

Pledge $5 or more
THE HERMIT
You’re helping make this a reality! Enjoy a one-of-a-kind digital wallpaper featuring Escaflowne art.
Estimated delivery: Apr 2016

Pledge $15 or more
THE MAGICIAN
You'll receive the digital wallpaper plus an on-disc credit listing, AND a certificate of participation with reprinted signatures from original director Kazuki Akane and Funimation CEO Gen Fukunaga.
Estimated delivery: Nov 2016
Ships to: Only certain countries

Pledge $30 or more
Limited to 500 backers
THE SUN
You are a true Escaflowne fan. Receive everything in the $15 tier, plus a pre-order of the Escaflowne movie. (Early bird tier, limited to 500 units)
Estimated delivery: Nov 2016
Ships to: Only certain countries

Pledge $35 or more
THE CHARIOT
You are a true Escaflowne fan. Receive everything in the $15 tier, plus a pre-order of the Escaflowne movie.
Estimated delivery: Nov 2016
Ships to: Only certain countries

Pledge $65 or more
Limited to 1000 backers
THE TOWER
For supporting this endeavor, you get: Everything in the $15 tier, plus a pre-order of the Escaflowne TV Series Part 1 Kickstarter Edition, featuring episodes 1-13 of the HD complete uncut version of the series in Japanese with English subtitles AND the brand new English dub, all housed with exclusive art cards in a handsome chipboard box not available outside of this Kickstarter.
Estimated delivery: Nov 2016
Ships to: Only certain countries

Pledge $125 or more
Limited to 500 backers
THE HIGH PRIESTESS
Good things are coming your way! For $125, receive everything in the $15 tier, a pre-order of Escaflowne TV Series Part 1 Kickstarter Edition AND Part 2 (which completes the rest of the series and fits in snugly in the Part 1 Kickstarter Edition box), plus a theatrical-sized poster of Escaflowne art.
Estimated delivery: Nov 2016
Ships to: Only certain countries

Pledge $155 or more
Limited to 500 backers
THE MOON
We can see you are just as excited as we are. Please enjoy everything in the $125 tier, plus a pre-order of the Escaflowne Movie.
Estimated delivery: Nov 2016
Ships to: Only certain countries

Pledge $175 or more
THE WORLD
This is the true collector tier. For your generosity, you’ll receive a pre-order of the Escaflowne Complete Series + Movie Collector’s Edition Box Set, the ultimate collection. This includes the complete series and movie with Japanese audio and English subtitles PLUS the new dub, as well as:
- a chipboard box (different from the Kickstarter edition) featuring new art from the Japanese release
- a perfect-bound art book
- a special exclusive item--to be announced!
- AND bonus DVDs of the original dub version--the only release that includes this version!
Estimated delivery: Nov 2016
Ships to: Only certain countries

Pledge $200 or more
Limited to 250 backers
THE LOVERS
This tier is for fans of the gorgeous Escaflowne music, from legendary composers Yoko Kanno and Hajime Mizoguchi. Contribute $200 and you’ll get everything in the $175 tier plus the imported soundtrack from Japan (Lovers Only).
Estimated delivery: Nov 2016
Ships to: Only certain countries

Pledge $300 or more
Limited to 50 backers
THE EMPRESS
You get everything in the $200 tier and a theatrical-sized poster of Escaflowne art, signed by the U.S. principal cast of the new dub.
Estimated delivery: Nov 2016
Ships to: Only certain countries

Pledge $400 or more
Limited to 50 backers
THE EMPEROR
This tier is the mark of an ultimate anime fan! You’ll get everything in the $300 tier plus your poster will also signed by three legendary Japanese talents: director Kazuki Akane, original creator Shoji Kawamori, and character designer Nobuteru Yuki.
Estimated delivery: Nov 2016
Ships to: Only certain countries

Pledge $5,000 or more
Limited to 1 backer
THE STAR
FOR CONTINENTAL U.S. ONLY – A one-of-a-kind Escaflowne experience. We’ll fly you out to the Funimation office where you’ll get a tour, a bag of Funimation goodies, and you’ll even get to do voice work that will appear in the new Escaflowne dub! And of course, you’ll also receive the Escaflowne Collector’s Edition Box Set and everything else in the $400 tier.
Tour and recording will be conducted before the end of May; all other rewards will ship in late fall. Flight, transportation to and from airport, and a one-night hotel stay will be provided for one person. You must be available to participate during this time to fulfill this reward!
No specific role is guaranteed. For this experience you must be 18 years of age or have permission from a legal guardian to travel and have a legal guardian who will travel with you. Prizes subject to signing an agreement with Funimation.
Estimated delivery: May 2016
Ships to: Only United States

In the event that this project exceeds its $150,000 goal, here's how this release gets even better:

$200,000 – In addition to the series' new dub, The Vision of Escaflowne Part 1 will be upgraded to include a special feature of the new English cast, including behind-the-scenes footage and interviews. This will be added to the Kickstarter Edition of Part 1, the standard edition available outside of this Kickstarter, and the Collector's Edition.

$250,000 – The Part 1 Kickstarter Edition release will receive a second upgrade—the art cards will be upgraded to a saddle-stitched art booklet, and the chipboard box that houses the release will get special foil printing. Remember that this is only on the Kickstarter-specific release!

$500,000 – You're invited to a VIP backer-only Escaflowne party! We’ll arrange a U.S. visit for original director Kazuki Akane at a major U.S. anime convention, and provide an exclusive VIP party for Kickstarter backers only. (Transport and lodging are not provided.)

What happens if this Kickstarter does not meet its goal?
As you already know, this Kickstarter is a mandate to gauge how much widespread demand exists for a new dub—it’s not just a fundraiser. If the project doesn’t meet its goal, Funimation will still create a release based on the materials we have access to. We still want to showcase the HD, but because the HD materials don’t match up with the current English dub, this will likely be a subtitled-only Blu-ray uncut version. A separate release of the original English dub on DVD may follow.

Who are the voice actors for this new dub?
We won’t start casting until we get a sense that there’s a demand for the new dub. If and when we hit our goal, we’ll start casting and will reveal the actors soon after.

Will I have access to this dub on Funimation.com if I’m not a contributor?
Of course! If the project meets its goal, you’ll be able to buy the Escaflowne series and movie on Blu-ray or DVD once it’s released, or stream it with a FunimationNow subscription. The Collector’s Edition in the $175 and up tiers will also be available for purchase. There will also be digital video download options as well. However, the special Kickstarter version of Part 1, with the exclusive chipboard box and art cards, is only available to backers only.

Will you release the original dub separately?
The original dub episodes will be available as bonus DVDs in the Collector’s Edition on the $175 and up tiers (using the original SD materials rather than the uncut HD materials). As for a potential separate release, the answer is: possibly. All of our focus is on the new dub right now, so there are no plans to release the original dub. However, it may come at a future point.

Zac Bertschy, ANN: So, tell us about this project.

Lauren: So we have the HD materials for Escaflowne and they do not match the current dub. We've been hearing for a long time that people want to see Escaflowne dubbed. We hear it on forums or we hear it in person, but really what we want to do is gauge if there is a very real want for that. So what we decided to do is launch a Kickstarter and if we meet our goal of $150 thousand, which is not funding the entire production, that's just a part of it, that's just our benchmark number for making sure that there's a want for it, then we will have a full HD dub of The Vision of Escaflowne to kind of give fans that complete, definitive dub experience.

Do you know the technical details of why exactly the old dub doesn't match up with the new one? With the new transfer?

Lauren: For that—hang on, let me bring in brand manager Jennifer Fu.

Jennifer Fu: Hi Zac. So basically there was the original dub that came out and it's based on SD materials that, as you're aware, the director's cut, the HD Japanese version that was released on Bluray more recently, has scenes that were not in the original materials that the original English dub was based on. So because of that it's not possible for us to put the subtitled HD material which is what we've just received from Japan, on the same disc as the original dub, because otherwise it doesn't line up correctly and there are some points where the dub just won't have any dialogue or anything in it and it'd just be kind of strange.

Right.

Jennifer: So that, coupled with all of the forum comments and social media comments we've seen asking for those particular scenes to be dubbed, are the main reasons that we're looking to do this Kickstarter. So to clarify a little bit on the difference between this standard edition and the collector's edition, that standard edition—so first of all: if we do not hit the goal of $150k dollars on this Kickstarter to be able to actually create this new dub, then we're just going to be releasing the new HD material, so the new stuff based on the Japanese Bluray, subtitled only. In terms of what's going to happen with the dub release: right now we don't have any plans—by dub here I mean the original dub—right now we don't have any plans for that, we want to see what happens with the Kickstarter first before making a decision there.

So the standard edition is a Bluray/DVD combo pack. The DVD version in the standard edition will match the new dub and the HD materials just because we know there are still some people who prefer DVD to Bluray, that's something we've always done with the combo pack. With this collector's edition, what we're planning on doing is having the Bluray only, so the Bluray of the new dub and the new Japanese materials, and the original dub will be available on DVD discs that are in that release. At this time, and again this is only if we get this project budget, at this time we don't have any plans for a release of the original dub just on DVD yet and again that's because we do want to gauge a little bit of interest before just churning things out. So I hope that clears up a little bit of what the goals are, what we're trying to do here, so let us know if that's still a little bit confusing.

That was all the sort of nitty-gritty that I needed. The other big question is, of course, is the intention to get back and rerecord that dub with those actors, or are we gonna get a fresh cast?

Lauren: So we don't have a cast at this point, we're still obviously looking into that. That's something we'd really have to wait until it's funded before we start really sort of casting and testing that part out.

So here's the question that's going to be a little uncomfortable, but I feel needs to be asked. It wouldn't cost $150,000 to dub Escaflowne and nobody would consider the show a serious sales risk; Funimation is a big company that releases shows like this all the time. Why can't you just produce the new dub without needing to have the fans raise this money for you?

Jennifer: One thing is that we've been seeing a lot of forum comments saying, "oh I really want a new dub of this." And twitter and people coming up at conventions and stuff and they give their reasons and it makes sense to us, but with a lot of this stuff, you know, we don't know, let's say a hundred forum comments really translates to in true demand. So that's something that—I mean that's really the case with any company, right? We want to make sure that it's—I guess that's pretty much it. We want to make sure there actually is the demand for this in the first place.

Lauren: So it's not really looking at fans to help us do something that we couldn't do or couldn't achieve, it's more "hey! If you really want this, almost consider this a preorder." It's not that we see it as a risk, this is more we wanted to create something neat where fans could be a part of bringing it back to life, this thing they've asked us for, and we've heard, like Jennifer mentioned, through forums or in person, it's more kind of creating a platform where they can be a part of bringing it back.

It's more saying "I helped Kickstart this to make this happen, I was part of this tier or part of that tier," it's allowing a little more ownership, and maybe not going the traditional route and just redubbing something and putting it out, that works great for certain titles. We're basically going a bit of a different route that just allows fans a little bit more ownership.

Right. So presumably the Kickstarter launch will feature financial transparency that will give fans the full rundown of everything, like why you need $150k for this, and what that entails. This could be a look inside the cost of producing a Funimation Bluray, you know, sort of the industry standard. This could be a really informative look at that. So do you intend on opening the process, showing the fans, "hey, here's what this costs, here's why it costs this much, and we're going to show you the process in action?"

Jennifer: Unfortunately a lot of the cost of things like dubbing related or putting things out on Bluray or things like that, a lot of those are locked down via contract, so there's really no way for us to reveal this, the only thing we're saying is that the 150k is not actually the production costs. So I think that if we were in a world where that was not a concern, then it would be pretty interesting to look at it and get some more transparency, but unfortunately we're not at liberty to do that.

So it's just: that's the number, and that's what it's going to cost us to do and that's it?

Jennifer: Really, the 150k is not what it costs us to make it, it's more we benchmarked to get to that number and we think that's pretty reasonable. We're going to be funding the rest of it. We just can't really say how much more or less it is.

Lauren: Yeah, that's sort of our benchmark to show interest.

Jennifer: Unfortunately it's the case where we're not really at liberty to disclose that.

Understood. So if this is a success, will we see more of "well we licensed this show and now we're going to have a Kickstarter to redub it, or get a nicer package, or whatever" to plus up this release? Is this a test? Will we see this more?

Lauren: Honestly, that's something that we don't really know. It's a first for us and it's kind of an anomaly in the industry. It's something we'll have to test and see how fans feel about it. If it's something they really love and they enjoy being a part of it, then the experience for them, that's definitely something we'd take into consideration going forward, but right now we honestly don't have a forward projection for whether or not this will be part of our, I guess our MO.

Well it's an interesting experiment. I'm very curious to see how it turns out. Best of luck to you.

Lauren: Thank you.

ESCAFLOWNE: COMPLETE COLLECTION (Anime Legends/Bandai) (1996) eps. 1-26/8 discs/$20