The Kyoto International Manga Anime Fair Executive Committee has launched a new crowdfunding project on the READYFOR website on July 12. This is the third time for the largest manga and anime event in Western Japan to run a crowdfunding campaign, and this year’s theme is “Supporting young creators from Kyoto to build the future.”The message from the committee is as follows:
Kyoto International Manga Anime Fair, aka KYOMAF, is one of the largest manga and anime events in western Japan, and has been held since 2012. With the strong desire to “continue to provide the Kansai region with the experience of touching manga and anime directly” and “to transmit manga and anime culture from the ancient capital of Kyoto to the rest of the world,” we will again this year deliver content for everyone to enjoy.This year, we will focus more than ever on “supporting young creators” and will have a booth displaying their works. We at KYOMAF would like to support creators from Kyoto so that talented creators, who are the future of Japan’s content industry, will not be buried. With this in mind, we would like to support young creators through KYOMAF and keep the culture that Japan is proud of alive.Please join us in supporting the development of future creators and the creation of employment opportunities through crowdfunding.
Crowdfunding efforts over the past two years to raise funds to operate the event have each succeeded in raising well over their goals. The target amount of this year’s campaign is four million yen (25,340 USD), an increase of another one million yen from last year’s three million. Since last years’ campaign collected 4,114,000 yen (26,000 USD) from 231 supporters, this goal may never be unattainable. The collected support money will be used to set up a “creators’ booth” to exhibit the works of young creators, and to subsidize operating expenses affected by the recent price hikes in materials and utilities. As of this writing, this year’s campaign has already collected 2,974 000 yen (18,829 USD) from 67 supporters, 74 percent of its goal, in just 14 hours since its launch. The Kyoto International Manga Anime Fair 2024 is scheduled to be held in three locations (Miyako Messe/Rome Theater Kyoto, Kyoto International Manga Museum) on September 21 and 22, 2024.
Sources: READYFOR, Kyoto International Manga Anime Fair 2024 official website
