When Chaos reported on a Kickstarter project for an anime named Kick-Heart, a 10 minute anime short which is being helmed by director Masaaki Yuasa (Mind Game, The Tatami Galaxy) and backed by Production I.G., the forum burst into more life than is usual. Here's what inspired the conversation:

On Sunday, the staff updated the Kickstarter page with a background image and announced a live Q&A session with Masaaki Yuasa who took questions posted in a Reddit thread. Here is a sample:

Hi, I'm Masaaki Yuasa and I'll be here to answer your questions live at Production I.G’s office in Tokyo, Japan from 9 - 10pm EST (Eastern Standard Time) on October 21, 2012.

Thehybridfrog: Does the industry in Japan consider the foreign audience important to the success of anime? What about in the future?

Kickheart: I make my animation for the whole world, not necessarily concentrating on the the Japanese market only. I make anime that I think is interesting to me. And I will probably not change that idea.

691175002: How do you think the success of kick-heart will affect the industry? Will crowdfunding become a common way of funding animation? Will anime studios begin to take western fans more seriously as customers? Are other studios/directors interested in, or even aware of kick-heart?

Kickheart: There will probably be more anime creators using this type of crowd funding in the future. And it is a great thing to be able to communicate with the fans directly.

Yuyucow: Hi, thanks for giving us all this chance to ask some stuff. As a fan I really appreciate it. How is it to work with a group of people with very distinct styles? TV anime productions where individuals are allowed to handle single episodes and go crazy with them aren't very common, but that seems to happen in most of your series - especially in the markedly episodic Kaiba. Is there a reason you prefer this way of doing things?

Kickheart: That's how I grew up as an animator and director, so I want everybody to enjoy it like that. Good animation comes from happy environment and if that makes everybody happy, that's all I want.

Kickheart: From Eunyoung-san: It's sooo much fun working with Yuasa-san. I've worked with many people before but I enjoy working with him the most

For more from the Q&A, visit the Reddit page. Of further interest are the new images from the project which Anime News Network revealed yesterday. The project is the first time that an anime studio has raised funds in this manner and despite the nature of the anime, there are some heavy hitters from Production I.G. on board including Mamoru Oshii who is a project consultant and Michio Mihara, an animator who is designing the characters. Other names include Eunyoung Choi who is the colour key artist and Kevin Aymeric who is handling the backgrounds. The project aims to raise US$150,000 by the 31st of October. Why not continue the conversation in this thread.

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