Bean Bandit Episode 0 Anime Project Launches with English Subtitles

Kenichi Sonoda released an English subtitled version of his Bean Bandit episode 0 project on April 12. The version is available to backers that subscribed to Plan 2 and higher tiers.

The Kickstarter campaign for the project ran from May 2018 through June 2018 and raised 23,343,872 yen (about US$1,79,718 by today's conversion), surpassing the original 15 million yen goal. The initial goal of the project was to make a five-minute animation. The campaign had stretch goals to expand the runtime to 20 minutes (at US$380,000) or 45 minutes (at US$800,000), but did not reach those goals. Sonoda launched a Campfire crowdfunding campaign in Japan in January 2019.

Sonoda is credited with the original work, planning, and scenario, and is also credited as chief director and chief animation director. Yū Aoki (firearm animation director for Sword Art Online II, GATE both seasons) is directing the anime. Keizō Shimizu (Legend of the Galactic Heroes, Cobra The Animation) is the character designer, Shujirou Hamakawa is the animation supervisor, and Hisayoshi Hirasawa is the sound director.

The cast includes:

• Hidenori Takahashi as Bean Bandit
• Ayaka Asai as Rally Vincent
• Hiromi Igarashi as Minnie May
• Eri Kitamura as Becky

The animation got a Blu-ray Disc release that shipped in September. Sonoda also said on the Kickstarter page that he wants to "bring Bean Bandit to the big screen, and even an animations series and movie." Sonoda attended the Anime Central convention in Illinois in May 2019 to screen the world premiere of the episode.

Sonoda also created an art book with concept art, designs, and an original color comic. All releases from the Kickstarter campaign are available in Japanese and English.

The project melds elements of Riding Bean and Gunsmith Cats, and like these previous works it takes place in Chicago.

Sources: Bean Bandit's Kickstarter campaign (link 2)