Trying To Fund Your Webtoon Or Manga? Here’s How Okamoto Kitchen Did It!

Kickstarter can help make dreams come true - including dreams of creating an anime. Okamoto Kitchen, a Los Angeles based food truck, is currently campaigning to release a 10-episode English language anime. The anime follows a cheerful Japanese girl named Haru Umesaki who follows her childhood friend to America after her gaming "beast mode" gets her fired from a job in a video game cafe. Once there, she gets a job at Okamoto Kitchen - a fast-paced job that involves plenty of competition with rival food trucks! Episode 0 is already available to view, and the first ten episodes, which will be five minutes long, will definitely be airing. The creators are hoping to earn enough money to produce a Japanese dub, produce up to 24 extended length episodes, and create a 22 minute, fully animated OVA. As of March 4th, 2019, there are three days left in the campaign, so if you like what you see, you can donate here.

Who are the people behind this ambitious project? The real folks behind the actual food truck are Chef Chizuru Okamoto Abraham, her husband Gerald Abraham, and Shidosha Hodge. Chef Chizuru Okamoto Abraham studied cooking under Chef Nobu Matsuhisa, and is a graduate of Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts. The staff responsible for the webtoon consists of a mix of anime fans and know industry professionals. This includes Cristina Vee as the voice of Haru, Takuya Saito, Azusa "ASA" Saito, and PN 'Kotobukisuzu' as the character designers, Mykal Williams and Rafael Hernán as series writers, and Layla Lane is handling the music. If you want to start your own anime webtoon, it's a daunting task - but it is possible. Let Okamoto Kitchen inspire you!