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Skip Beat! English Dub Kickstarter Campaign Reaches Blu-ray Disc Release Goal

Pied Piper, Inc.'s Kickstarter campaign to fund an English dub for the North American release of the Skip Beat! television anime series reached its US$185,000 stretch goal to offer a Blu-ray Disc release in addition to the DVD release on Thursday. The campaign also revealed Taliesin Jaffe as the project's supervising director.

The Kickstarter campaign had set an initial goal of US$155,000 to fund a DVD release. As of press time, the campaign has raised US$192,556. The campaign will end on Saturday, April 16.

The English cast that has been announced thus far includes:

• Christine Marie Cabanos (K-ON!'s Azusa Nakano, Puella Magi Madoka Magica's Madoka Kaname, Kill la Kill's Mako) as Mimori Nanokura,
• Caitlin Glass (Ouran High School Host Club's Haruhi, Fullmetal Alchemist's Winry, new Escaflowne dub's Hitomi) as Kyoko Mogami,
• Cristina Vee (Blazblue's Noel Vermillion, K-ON!'s Mio Akiyama, Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Crystal's Sailor Mars) as Erika Koenji
• Mela Lee (Blazblue's Rachel, Fate/stay night's Rin, Durarara!!'s Erika) as Maria Takarada
• Richard Epcar (Durarara!!×2's Sloan, Lupin the Third's Daisuke Jigen) as Lory Takarada
• Vic Mignogna (Dragon Ball Z's Broly, Ouran High School Host Club's Tamaki) as Yukihito Yashiro
• Robbie Daymond (Sailor Moon's Tuxedo Mask, The Seven Deadly Sins' Gilthunder) as Ren Tsuruga
• Grant George (Fate/Zero's Lancer, Kill la Kill's Uzu Sanageyama) as Sho Fuwa
• Erica Lindbeck (Coppelion's Ibara Naruse, Magi's Gyokuen Ren) as Kanae Kotonami (Moko)

Vee, Lee, and Jason C. Miller will produce the English dub. Deborah Crane (Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Crystal, Ikki Tousen: Xtreme Xecutor) will handle the ADR scripts.

Pied Piper had originally launched an Indiegogo campaign for the franchise on March 1, but then relaunched the campaign on Kickstarter on March 17. The Indiegogo campaign had a goal of US$210,000, including a Blu-ray Disc release. The Kickstarter campaign's base goal no longer includes a Blu-ray Disc release.

Pied Piper acquired the license from TV Tokyo, and TV Tokyo is requiring the English dub as a condition of release. The company will not be able to release the series on a subtitle-only format. The license covers the United States and Canada only.

The television version of Yoshiki Nakamura's Skip Beat! shōjo manga premiered in Japan in October 2008. The series is available streaming on Crunchyroll. Viz Media publishes the original manga in North America.

Thanks to Nina Davis, Hello World, ravegrl, and Daniel Zelter for the news tips.