Kick-Heart
The Kick-Heart Kickstarter project has been fun to watch from the start and now it’s moving on to its next phase where the Blu-ray release is getting its distribution through amazon Japan from Production I.G.. The company is set to bring the 12 minute feature on Deecmber 27th for 1575 yen, which also includes a fair bit of extras and some good worldwide accessibility to it as we saw with the Kickstarter side of it.
BD main feature (12-min.)
- Audio: Japanese / English
- Subtitles: English / French / Spanish
- Making of Kick Heart (26-min.; removable English & Japanese subs)
DVD special features (no mentions of subs)
- CM (4 versions; 2-min. each)
- Vampiyan Kids (20-min. pilot film directed by Masaaki Yuasa)
“Although Yuasa is recognized within the anime industry, it is difficult to finance his more innovative films due to the recent economic conditions in Japan. Realizing that this would have a negative impact on creativity the industry, Mitsuhisa Ishikawa, the CEO of Production I.G, felt compelled to give crowd-funding a chance to help rekindle the original creative vision that I.G should be a director focused studio. The crowd-funding campaign was kicked off on October 1st, 2012 and ended successfully on the 31st of October achieving 138% of its funding target of $150,000. The Kick-Heart team is also very proud to announce that the film has been selected for official competition at the world renowned Annecy International Animated Film Festival in France, Annecy.
The critically acclaimed director who created Mind Game in 2004 (Winner of Best Film, Best Director, Best Script and Best Animation Film for Fantasia Festival in Canada, 2005) Kemonozume (2006), Kaiba (2008) and The Tatami Galaxy (2010). He is known in the Japanese animation industry as a cutting edge director who dares to push the boundaries of conventional storytelling and cinematography.”
Plot Concept: Kick-Heart is a love story between Romeo, a successful pro-wrestler, and Juliet, a nun who lives a secret double-life as a female pro-wrestler. Romeo’s secret is that he enjoys taking a beating in the ring, while Juliet feels invigorated when facing her opponents as a wrestler. When the two meet in the ring, the fireworks fly. Their story is set in the colorful backdrop of the professional wrestling world. Will Juliet reveal her true identity to the one she loves? Will Romeo be able to share his secret to the world?
[Source: Kick-Heart [EngSub] [EngDub]]