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Kud Wafter Anime Delayed by 1 Year With Director Change
posted on by Egan Loo
Visual Art's and its Key brand announced on Tuesday that they are delaying shipments for the crowdfunded anime of the Little Busters! spinoff visual novel Kud Wafter from September 2019 to September 2020. They are also replacing Yoshiki Yamakawa with Kentarō Suzuki (Little Busters! franchise episode director) as the project's director. Visual Art's explained that the number of anime productions has increased recently, so it has been difficult to line up the schedules of the studios and staff members. After consulting with J.C. Staff, Visual Art's changed the anime's schedule to ensure the production quality.
The anime is planned as the first part of a celebration to mark the 10th anniversary of the release of Visual Art's' Little Busters! PC software. J.C. Staff will animate the project, and Key will have complete supervision over the anime.
The Japanese crowdfunding campaign launched on July 19, 2017 and ended successfully that September. The campaign reached its initial goal in three days and its first stretch goal in six days. The campaign was initially seeking to raise 30 million yen (about US$267,500) to fund a 20-minute original video anime (OVA). The campaign eventually reached its 60 million yen (about US$535,000) stretch goal to fund a theatrical anime four days before the campaign ended. Tokyo Otaku Mode then ran an international crowdfunding campaign for English subtitling and worldwide distribution.
Kud Wafter was Key's eighth adult visual novel and Key originally released the game in Japan in 2010 for Windows PC. The visual novel received a PlayStation Portable port in May 2013 and a PS Vita port in December 2013. The visual novel's story revolves around high school students Riki Naoe and Kudryavka Noumi ("Kud" for short) as their friendship evolves into a romantic relationship.
The 2007 PC software Little Busters! inspired a television anime that aired in Japan in 2012, followed by the Little Busters! Refrain television anime in 2013 and the Little Busters! EX original video anime project in 2014. Crunchyroll streamed the two television anime, and Sentai Filmworks released both and the OVA on home video in North America. A bilingual Japanese/English version of the original software is available for PC on the Steam platform.
