The crowdfunding campaign for the Berserk exhibition (and how to participate)

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
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As you know, a Berserk exhibition is planned in Tokyo early next year. One of the planned exhibits is a 1:1 scale statue of Zodd in his apostle form, reproducing the famous scene from volume 22.
In order to produce that statue, Hakusensha is organizing a crowdfunding campaign on a Japanese platform called Greenfunding. The goal is to obtain 10 million yen, or about 100,000 US dollars.

It's fairly classic as far as crowdfunding goes: backers get rewards depending on how much money they're pledging through a system of tiers.

Here are the rewards being offered (each successive tier gets all items from the ones that precede it):

¥1,000: A generic thank you card from Miura.
¥7,000: An original "character fine board". It's an illustration printed on canvas. The size is F3, meaning 273 x 220 x 20 mm.
¥12,000: A booklet containing the storyboards of two episodes (A4 size).
¥18,000: A framed "character fine graph" depicting Zodd, chosen at random among a set of three. A5 size (210 x 148 mm). These are high quality reproductions. In addition, a name of your choosing will appear on a panel inside the venue.
¥35,000: All three framed "character fine graphs".
¥70,000: A set of pin badges depicing Zodd, Irvine, Locus, Grunbeld and Griffith. They come with a display frame. Limited to 99 backers, 95 still available.
¥150,000: A Shikishi (autograph board) depicting an original illustration of Guts, signed by Miura. Limited to 10 backers, and was gone in less than 30 minutes after the campaign launched.
¥1,000,000: A 1:1 scale replica of the Dragon Slayer in Fibre-reinforced plastic. 2.3 meters long, weighing 10 kg. Limited to 3 backers, two still available.

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As of now, 194 backers have pledged just over 6 million yen to the campaign, so it's 60% complete. It has 11 days left. It has been progressing steadily but slowly, after a quick start that brought it to 32% as the hardcore fans rushed to the pricier tiers.

There might have been some uncertainty as to whether or not it would reach its goal, however the campaign announced on Friday that 20 more signed Shikishi would be made available on Wednesday 21, 12:00 JST. They will be offered at the same price (¥150,000), but will have a different illustration. To apologize to the backers of the first Shikishi tier, they will get an additional Zodd character fine board.

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Assuming this new tier is met with the same success as the first one, the campaign will be brought to 90% completion, and with episode 362 coming out this week, there's little doubt it will see an influx of fans that will push it past 100%. This matters because money will be charged (and rewards sent) only if the campaign succeeds. Rewards shipment is planned for between February and March 2021.

And now we're getting to the interesting part: how can international fans contribute to the campaign and get the rewards? Because that's where it gets tricky. Greenfunding.jp only accepts credit cards that were issued in Japan, and the rewards will only be shipped to Japanese addresses. That means we need to use a third party. I contacted around ten specialized companies to ask whether they would provide this service. So far these have told me that they would do it:

http://www.m-world-service.com/
https://japonicamarket.com/
http://www.fromjapan.co.jp
https://www.japangoodsfinder.com/
https://baggageforward.jp/

There may be more, as not all of them have replied, but these seem reliable to me. Do note however that I can't personally vouch for each of them.

Many of our members have experience with Japanese brokering services, but for those who don't, you basically send them money in advance along with your purchase request, and they will execute the purchase (or in this case pledge) on your behalf and then forward you the goods when they get them. They take a commission in the process. Between that and shipping (domestic + international), the total price is sometimes well above that of the original item, so please keep that in mind. Still, this is a way to participate in the crowdfunding campaign and receive those rewards for those who are interested.
 
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FromJapan added the requested pledge to my shopping cart so I just had to pay that amount upfront ($176.77 US). Their fee for the service is 500Y that they add on to the second charge after they receive the order and it's ready to ship. I've used FromJapan several times for Yahoo!Japan Auctions and Rakuten without issues. They packed my items really well.

Login, select "Other Sites" from the list of stores, paste the URL for the crowdfunding site, and then copy/paste the teir you want.

The campaign has jumped to 79% so it looks like it's going to succeed.
 
Oh snap, it jumped 20% today so far with the inclusion of the second wave of autographed Shikishi. I was actually getting a bit worried it wouldn't get funded after slowing down round the 60% mark.

I'm locked in at the 18,000 tier. Also happy to see Zodd will be making an appearance ....I convinced my girlfriend to a trip to Tokyo as a late birthday present.

Out of curiosity, how does the funding work if it exceeds 100%? Beyond funding the tier reward, where will the excess funds go? To improve the exhibit?
 
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Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Yeah it stands at 82% right now with six autographed Shikishi left. Like the first time, 10 of them were gone within 20 minutes. I expect that we'll be past the finish line (or close to it) by the end of the week.

I'm locked in at the 18,000 tier. Also happy to see Zodd will be making an appearance ....I convinced my girlfriend to a trip to Tokyo as a late birthday present.

Great that at least one of us will be able to go! I look forward to hearing your impressions!

Out of curiosity, how does the funding work if it exceeds 100%? Beyond funding the tier reward, where will the excess funds go? To improve the exhibit?

Good question! They haven't mentioned it, and I guess they haven't really thought about it. I don't want to slam them too hard, but I've never been too impressed by Young Animal's handling of Berserk events and products. I imagine that if it reached far enough beyond the goal (like 150% or something) they would make a gesture (e.g. add another character fine board for everyone for example). It doesn't look like it's going to go that far though, and I'm not sure they'll do something if it "just" gets to 120%. We'll see, maybe they'll add stretch goals after the main objective is reached. I do think getting to 120% is doable depending on the influx of backers when the episode comes out.
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Thanks to your post Aaz I recalled using M-World service 10 years ago, for Yahoo-Japan to get Headlong busts. I managed to snag the last Shikishi available, yay \o/ !! M-World service has been super helpful & fast. Really nice!!

Nice! Glad you could get the last one! International fans will not be ignored! :guts:
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Good for y'all. I briefly considered it, but I need to prioritize other purchases right now.

Understandable... To be honest I think they overpriced it, especially since the pin badge set really isn't impressive to me. But I guess it makes sense for a crowdfunding campaign. We're not just buying these but helping finance the Zodd statue. The two best tiers in terms of price-to-value ratio are the ¥18,000 and ¥35,000 ones. That's why most people went for them, they're no brainers!
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Nice! I wonder if someone will spring for the third one. Admittedly that tier is outrageously expensive. In any case, any fan interested now has 9 days left to participate and get the rewards. With the campaign funded, they're guaranteed to be sent out.
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
I just received an e-mail from the crowd-funding campaign saying they are looking into a stretch goal and will post more information once it has been decided.

Literally just as expected... Now let's hope they give us something at 120% and not 150%...
So far the new episode hasn't brought in too many new backers (standing at 105% as of this post). There's usually more people pledging on the weekends, so I guess we'll see what happens during the next couple of days.

:ganishka: Indicative of how well planned this whole endeavor has been.

I swear, these guys...
 
They have just announced the stretch goal. It's only stretching the goal to 12 million yen, so extremely doable.

As for the purpose, they confirmed that the storyboard booklet will contain episodes 360 and 361, but if the stretch goal is reached, will also include the latest episode 362.

This is fucking awesome news considering the latest episode... But I'm a bit confused (and new to the whole crowd funding thing). While the rewards are great, what exactly is this extra cash going towards? I guess just the publishers or something? Would be nice if thry said it was going towards the exhibit or something...
 
Man, if only the publishers tried to take advantage of the potential and existing international interest in Berserk the series would be even bigger and such events would be much more successful. I think it's impossible to not love berserk, the hardest thing is to find out about it (and the wait for episodes :sad:).
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
They have just announced the stretch goal. It's only stretching the goal to 12 million yen, so extremely doable.

As for the purpose, they confirmed that the storyboard booklet will contain episodes 360 and 361, but if the stretch goal is reached, will also include the latest episode 362.

Ahhhh, very nice indeed, and completely attainable... All is proceeding according to the plan... :idea: Thanks for posting the news!

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Teasers of the storyboards

This is fucking awesome news considering the latest episode... But I'm a bit confused (and new to the whole crowd funding thing). While the rewards are great, what exactly is this extra cash going towards? I guess just the publishers or something? Would be nice if thry said it was going towards the exhibit or something...

I'm pretty sure it's going to Hakusensha's bank account my friend. :casca: Well, Miura's probably getting a share of it (hopefully a big one), so I'm fine with it.

Man, if only the publishers tried to take advantage of the potential and existing international interest in Berserk the series would be even bigger and such events would be much more successful. I think it's impossible to not love berserk, the hardest thing is to find out about it (and the wait for episodes :sad:).

Well I agree with you John, but look at the top post in this thread! I've listed ways international fans like us can participate! It's not hard! I have already done so myself and many others did as well. You can too!
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Great, thank you =). Wonder which of the above stated will be the best and easiest page to order it from the EU ....

They all deliver to the European Union, the differences are mostly in the service fees. They all indicate theirs so I encourage you to check their websites directly.
 
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