RE:Cycle Of The PENGUINDRUM Crowdfunding and Rewards Breakdown
Beginning March 26th this year, the official Mawaru Penguindrum twitter began posting daily illustrations featuring the penguin mascots of the show, each with a descending number, implying they were counting down to something. Come March 31st, the account released a series of tweets revealing that they were creating a 10th anniversary project that would start crowdfunding on April 8th. The crowdfunding would take place on a website called Ubugoe, a Japanese crowdfunding platform akin to Kickstarter.
The project would be a film, titled RE:cycle of the PENGUINDRUM, and it would recreate the Mawaru Penguindrum anime series that aired in July 2011. With a goal of 10,000,000 yen (approximately $90,000), the funds would go towards the production costs of the film, subsequent previews and products related to the film, and promotional materials. If the target amount was exceeded, the additional funds would go towards the aforementioned costs as well as improving the film’s quality and creating additional new scenes.
Ikunichowder, the team name for the staff behind Penguindrum, are all returning to work on the film. Kunihiko Ikuhara (Revolutionary Girl Utena, Sailor Moon) is returning as Supervisor. Lily Hoshino (Otome Yokai Zakuro, A Certain Magical Index: The Movie – The Miracle of Endymion) will work on Character Drafts and Terumi Nishii (JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure – Diamond is Unbreakable, Heartcatch Precure!) will be the Character Designer.
Concept Design will be done by both Shoko Nakamura (The Promised Neverland, Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo) and Katsunori Shibata (Gintama, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood). Kentaro Akiyama (Revue Starlight, Flowers of Evil) and Chieko Nakamura (Kids on the Slope, Doukyuusei -Classmates-) will return as Art Directors as well.
Music will once again be created by Yukari Hashimoto (Osomatsu-san, Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun). BRAIN’S BASE (Lupin III vs. Detective Conan, Baccano!) will produce the animation again. Lastly, Lapin Track (Sarazanmai, Wotakoi: Love is hard For Otaku OVA) will animate the film. I’m so excited for this stacked, all-star cast to return!
Like Kickstarter, the crowdfund had different tiers of rewards you could pledge towards. The lowest tier for 5,000 yen (approximately $45) was titled the “Survival Strategy Curry Course”, and included a downloadable PC and smartphone wallpaper featuring art by Lily Hoshino of the three siblings Kanba, Shouma, and Himari with their respective penguins, with the text “Thank you for your support”. There was also a set of stickers in the pack, the A set can badges and lastly, access to audio recordings of Ikuhara and another individual talking about the crowdfund, Penguindrum itself, his other works, and more. Unfortunately the audio doesn’t have English subtitles, and since it’s “secret” it’s hard for me to find who the other individual is.
The next tier, translated to Grinded Curry Course, was 10,000 yen ( approximately $90) and included the latter rewards as well as access to a secret online community (possibly a forum?) called “Sneak Ping Drum (Reiwa), and a limited edition booklet which is still in production. The booklet is likely have information about the behind the scenes of making the anniversary film and interviews.
Another 10,000 yen tier was available, the Civil Curry Course, which gave the same rewards as the Grinded tier minus the booklet, but with the limited edition Penguindrum Anniversary Support T-shirt available. The next tier, the Fabulous Max Curry Course, was for 15,000 yen (approximately $136) and had the same rewards as the Civil tier but included the limited edition booklet.
The Destiny Curry Course at 30,000 yen (approximately $273) took all the rewards from the last tier but upgraded the can badges to the B set and added an invitation to an early screening of the film. This tier also gave you credit in the film’s theater pamphlet. This tier was the first of the “limited” tiers where only a certain amount of people could pledge, while all the others mentioned above were unlimited. For example, the Destiny tier maxed out at 300 people. For 70,000 yen (approximately $636), the Scorpion Flame Curry Course would give you all the previous rewards and a credit in the end of the actual film but in a small font. That tier was only available to 200 people.
In the Fate Transfer Curry Course for a pledge of 150,000 yen (approximately $1363.00) you could get all the aforementioned rewards with an upgrade to the C can badge set but this tier would let you be credited in the film at the size as the staff. This tier was limited to 90 people. Lastly, the Fateful Fruit Curry Course, limited to 10 people and for a pledge of 200,00 yen (approximately $1817), would get you every previous reward as well as the privilege to receive an exclusive, autographed gift set that would be presented to you at the premiere of the film. If I could’ve I would sprung for this set in a heartbeat.
Because the limited tiers ran out so quicky, on May 22nd it was announced that the Mercy Little Addition Curry Course would be added, which only rewarded a small name credit in the film and a name credit in the theater pamphlet.
To no one’s surprise, the crowdfund hit its goal in about 150 seconds. By the end of the crowdfunding period on May 28th, they had received 105,192,960 yen (approximately $955,618.00), which amounted to being 1051% funded. Ikuhara is a beloved creator, having created so many influential queer series and he has worked with the best of the best (It is rumored/highly suggested that Hideaki Anno based his character Kaworu on Ikuhara after a talk at a hot springs). If the other people who pledged are like me, we all wanted to help Ikuhara (re)realize this series and thank him for all the work he has done creating the works that we love.
I actually should not have been able to participate in the crowdfund, as the payment system required you to pay with a Japanese credit card. Thankfully I have a gracious friend who was willing to pay for me on his card and have me reimburse him (Thank you Quanah!!!!!!!!!). Since the rewards could only be shipped domestically, I also had to use a forwarding service to get my rewards. I used Blackship to give myself an address in Japan to send to and then paid to have them ship it over to me. Unfortunately due to Covid the shipping was a lot higher than expected at $25 dollars but I am pleased with the extra packing I paid for and how easy the process was. After a long wait (part) of my rewards have arrived!
I pledged the Fabulous Max Curry Course, so my physical rewards package included the A set of can badges, the sticker set, the t-shirt, and a special message from the team behind the film. Here’s a probably very poor translation of the message aided by Google translate and Quanah:
“Thank you very much for your support through crowdfunding. We send to you these tokens of our appreciation. Depending on the course, some rewards are still being prepared, so please wait a bit longer.
We wish for your good health during these difficult times. Thank you for your continued support until the release of the film in 2022!”
You might say “Wait?! Isn’t the limited edition booklet missing?” Yes, I also thought the same too, but after looking back at the Ubugoe page it is stated to come out later. I love the pins and stickers and especially the shirt! I specifically pledged this tier because I wanted the shirt so bad. I limited edition clothing, I’m such a sucker for it. I almost dropped around $70 for a shirt from the My Hero Academia Drawing Smash exhibition. My biggest hope is that they take the opportunity to redub or at least resub the original Penguindrum series. I can’t wait for it to be safe to go to cons again so I can wear my shirt and brag I got to crowdfund the project B)
Are you looking forward to the film too? Make sure to follow the Penguindrum twitter to get all the updates! If you want to talk about anime, food, music, and more with me and the rest of the BAYOG crew, come join our discord! We would love to talk to you! You can also find us on Twitter, Facebook, (our brand new!!) Instagram, Spotify and Youtube for our podcast, and Twitch!
Have you had water today? Have you eaten? Please take care of yourself. See you soon!
2 Replies to “RE:Cycle Of The PENGUINDRUM Crowdfunding and Rewards Breakdown”
Very cool! I heard about this and was disappointed it was Japan-only. Makes you wonder how much it would have raised if it had been international-friendly.
Straight up!!! I think it would’ve gotten close to two billion if it was worldwide.