Campaign hits US$100,000 of US$155,000 goal; will announce Sho Fuwa cast at US$110,000

Pied Piper, Inc. announced on Saturday that voice actress Erica Lindbeck (Coppelion's Ibara Naruse, Magi's Gyokuen Ren) will play Kanae Kotonami (Moko, pictured right in image at right) in the planned English dub of the Skip Beat! television anime series. The Kickstarter campaign for the show's North American release revealed the voice actress once the campaign hit US$100,000. The campaign will next reveal the voice actor for Sho Fuwa once the campaign hits US$110,000.

Voice actors Mela Lee, Cristina Vee, and Jason C. Miller are producing the English dub.

The Kickstarter campaign will end on April 16 and has an initial goal of US$155,000. Pied Piper had originally launched an Indiegogo campaign for the franchise on March 1, but then relaunched the campaign on Kickstarter on March 17. The Indiegogo campaign had a goal of US$210,000. The Kickstarter campaign's base goal no longer includes a Blu-ray Disc release, although the Blu-ray Disc is still a stretch goal at US$185,000. The Japanese release was DVD-only.

Pied Piper acquired the license from TV Tokyo, and TV Tokyo is requiring the English dub as a condition of release. The company will not be able to release the series on a subtitle-only format. The license covers the United States and Canada only.

The television version of Yoshiki Nakamura's Skip Beat! shōjo manga premiered in Japan in October 2008. The series is available streaming on Crunchyroll. Viz Media publishes the original manga in North America.

Thanks to Peter J. LaPrade and Nina Davis for the news tips.