AnimEigo’s Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign, which aims to release a Blu-ray disc version of the anime film “Kamui’s Dagger,” called “Kamui’s Dagger Treasure Vault Edition,” reached its goal on the campaign’s first day. At the time of writing, the campaign has raised $74,125 from 812 backers. The campaign’s original goal was $50,000. The campaign launched on Saturday and will end on September 24th.
Confirmed set contents for the project include an HD transfer of the original film with English subtitles, SDH subtitles and captions, color and line art gallery, an all-new full-length commentary track by director Rintaro and anime historian Masahiro Haraguchi, backers’ names listed on the disc, and a reversible cover slip. The release will not be region-locked. AnimEigo will also produce a digital archive of additional production materials such as a full-sized 8.5×11″ artbook, timing sheets, scripts, camera directions, press clips, and research notes.
Bonuses include a BD-50 Blu-ray disc, an artbook, and a chipboard case.
AnimEigo describes the story this way:
On the eve of the Meiji Restoration, Japan wakes up from its sleep and looks westward, where an innkeeper finds a baby named Jiro on a drifting ship. His only companion is a shining sword, a Kamui dagger. When Jiro is 13 years old, his adoptive parents are murdered and Jiro is framed for the crime, but is saved by a monk named Tenkai, who teaches him the mystical skills of the ninja. In a bid to avenge the loss of his adoptive parents, Jiro kills the mysterious one-armed ninja who is believed to have killed his family.
Years later, with information from Tenkai, Jiro tracks down his real mother, only to discover that Tenkai had ordered his father to search for clues to Captain Kidd’s lost treasure. Obtaining the treasure would keep the Shogun in power and Japan would be isolated from the world again. But his father fell in love, abandoned the search, and gave birth to a child. And for this failure, Tenkai exacted terrible revenge!
Now the chase begins. Armed only with Kamui’s dagger, Jiro sets out on a quest for the great treasure, a search that takes him all the way to the American Old West, with Tenkai’s minions constantly on his tail.
If Jiro could find the treasure and return to Japan, perhaps he could exact revenge and plunge Kamui’s dagger into Tenkai’s black heart!
Rintaro directed the film for Madhouse. The film was first released in Japan in 1985. AnimEigo released the film on VHS and LaserDisc in the 1990s, and on DVD in 2003.
Source: Kickstarter, via Justin Sevakis’ X/Twitter account
