NEWS: URBANCE PROJECT
REACHES KICKSTARTER GOAL – AND THEN SOME

After an 11^th-hour rally by fans, Kickstarter
hopeful Urbance achieved its basic funding goal for the company’s animated
series just before today’s deadline, with enough added push-through to reach
its first stretch goal allowing the company to make the pilot episode available
in stereoscopic 3D. The show will be produced by Montreal-based creative agency
Steambot. Money raised through kickstarter will fund a pilot used to solicit
funding for the full project.

Described by creator Joël Dos Reis Viegas as “a mashup
between Jet Set Radio and The Warriors” and “mixing electronic and hip-hop
influences,” Urbance attempts to create a western-animated TV show aimed at an
adult audience.

Toward the end of the Kickstarter, it became questionable if
the project would ever reach its goal. However, fans banded together and
managed to raise about $50,000 in the span of 24 hours, surpassing the basic
goal of $189,000 with just a few days to spare. The project ended with a total
of $229,300, just $300 above the first stretch-goal: producing the pilot in stereoscopic-3D.

The finished product will feature animation direction by
Hiroshi Shimizu, who has previously worked on Japanese animation projects such
as Princess Mononoke, Monster, and Lupin III: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine. London-based
electronic music group Plaid will provide music.

The Urbance story is set in a world where sexual activity is
deadly thanks to a genetic virus carried by the entire population. Men and
women have grown into two separate societies that hate each other, until the
two main characters, Kenzell and Lesya, discover feelings for each other and
push toward a united world.

In addition to the TV Show, Steambot plans to release video
games, comics and clothing based on the Urbance world. The first of these
products will be a DLC pack featuring Urbance characters for the similarly-inspired
game Hover: Revolt of Gamers.

Learn more about the project at http://urbancetv.com/ or on
their Kickstarter page.-Edward (Left Knee of A7)

Picture via UrbanceTV.com