The actual project now taken over by Kinema Citrus (They being the ones who worked on Code: Breaker, Black Bullet, and Barakamon) and a host of other people can still turn out to be fantastic and worth throwing down KS money. But with Hiroaki Yura and Creative Intelligence Arts walking away from the project, the original vision — probably too bold — is now gone, and now I’ve handed my money to people who weren’t even involved when this started last year.
This is where I probably won’t care about what happens to the anime from this point forward.
The only thing I care about at this point is seeing what the finished product will be like. But what happens to the actual designs of the product (which I don’t expect to change drastically or anything), story direction, etc, as UTD will try and tease us with updates on its progress is of no concern to me. This ultimately is me being stubborn: this is the third KS I have backed, with Time of Eve and Mighty No. 9 so far being done with the original creators still on the ship, even if delays and questionable choices plagued each product.
But you know what? To me, that’s ok. It’s not exactly enviable, especially since these guys are professionals, but considering what they’re using to back their projects, mistakes and failures can occur, and since I played a miniscule part in it, might as well ride and die with those who had the idea to do it in the first place.
In this particular case, the team that started it essentially was forced to depart from it. You then have a stream of tweets from the former producer tweeting about a ton of things that suggest pretty terrible things happened between the time the KS was completed to the time he stepped down officially at the end of Jan. A few samples:
Kickstarter is not a source to gain risk-free money and treat backers with disrespect by not giving full disclosure.
— Hiroaki Yura (@HiroakiYura) January 27, 2015
Absolutely horrified. How much of my staff do they have to disrespect, how much do you have to lie to your supporters?
— Hiroaki Yura (@HiroakiYura) January 30, 2015
Obviously, it’s a select few tweets, but you then see the rest of what he tweeted, the final tweet, and the last article he wrote in the press release, and…yeah. I think generally you have to let a creator try and finish what he started no matter what and let the people, or in this case backers, see the product towards its finish line. Instead, I’ve been deprived of that opportunity, and it only makes me sad.
I don’t speak for everyone else who backed it, and they may not care about the change. The actual anime can still turn out to be great. And hell, maybe the CIA team did bite off more than they can chew. Personally though, I wish I could have found out myself.
Instead, we just won’t know. That makes this current charade regrettable, and allows me to wonder what’s the point of KS if the same crap that occurs in the anime industry can still occur here.