Campaign will fund subtitling & distribution; stretch goal to extend anime to 60 minutes

Visual Art's launched the international crowdfunding campaign for the anime adaptation of the Little Busters! spinoff visual novel Kud Wafter on Tokyo Otaku Mode on Tuesday. This new international version has nearly the same backer rewards as the previous Japanese crowdfunding campaign. The project's initial 3 million yen (about US$26,000) goal is to fund the English subtitling and worldwide distribution for the anime. A 15 million yen (about US$132,000) stretch goal will increase the film's planned 40-50 minute length to 60 minutes.

The Japanese crowdfunding campaign launched on July 19 and ended successfully on September 30. 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.

The Japanese crowdfunding campaign revealed before it launched that a separate international campaign will take place for overseas backers.

The anime will be 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. Visual Art's' English Twitter account previously said that "Overseas plans will be announced later."

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.