Yasuhiro YOSHIURA/Sakasama Film Committee 2013

UK anime fans fund domestic release of Yasuhiro Yoshiura's award-winning movie in under five hours.

Start-up label All the Anime has scored an early success, crowdfunding its UK release of sci-fi film Patema Inverted in under five hours. With the project launching at 5pm on Friday (2 May), the £16,000 target was reached by 10pm, with 28 days left on the campaign. "I'm very happy at people's support for the business model we're putting forward, for the film and it's director and for us as a company," Andrew Partridge, President of All the Anime, told Wired.co.uk. "We are already negotiating for the soundtrack and expect that to be our second goal (which will run about the same amount as dubbing a movie, as it's a surprisingly expensive thing to do)," said Partridge. "We also more immediately have had the character and setting designers step forwards to do world-exclusive illustrations for the Definitive Edition's box!"


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Patema Inverted is set in an uncertain future, where civilisation has been rebuilt after a gravity experiment went devastatingly wrong. On the surface, people live under an autocratic rule, while a new sub-species of humans for whom gravity works in opposite effect inhabit an endless network of subterranean tunnels. Each society has become the other's bogeyman, until the underground princess Patema finds herself trapped on the surface, befriended by a boy named Age. Director Yasuhiro Yoshiura uses the simple concept of opposing gravities to create some breathtakingly beautiful imagery, while focussing the narrative on a Romeo and Juliet-style romance between Patema and Age. The film has been nominated for the

Asia Pacific Screen Award for Best Animated Feature Film, and won both audience and judges awards at the Scotland Loves Animation festival.


Yoshiura is notable for being one of the rising stars amongst Japanese animators, despite having avoided the country's rigid studio structure. His independent 2002 short, Aquatic Language, won awards at the Tokyo Anime Fair and lead to development of 2006's Pale Cocoon, a 26-minute slice of psychological horror. He premiered his 2009 series Time of Eve online, before adapting it into a full length feature, and repeated the tactic for Patema Inverted, testing the waters for the movie release with a series of 'original net animations'.

The success of the Patema Inverted Kickstarter marks something of a shift for anime releases in the west. Streaming services such as Crunchyroll have become the default point of access for fans eager to see new episodic anime, while online piracy through fan-subtitled rips of Japanese broadcasts continue to affect the industry. Home releases have had to change to compensate, and crowd-funding for collector's editions seems to be one way the market has adapted. Yoshiura is one of the few Japanese creators to have embraced the financing model. "Right now Kickstarter-style funding is technically illegal in Japan, although that is changing slowly," said Partridge, "but Mr.

Yoshiura is one of the most exciting directors I've had the pleasure of meeting. He's understanding of what it takes to get a film out there internationally."