Gender is War in Hip Hop-Influenced Animated Series Urbance

[roseofbattle]

Gender is War in Hip Hop-Influenced Animated Series Urbance

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Steambot asks Urbance fans to back the Kickstarter for a project that will start off the transmedia project with a pilot episode.

Steambot Studios has begun its Kickstarter campaign for a transmedia project called Urbance. [https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2088672139/urbance] The studio plans to make the TV series, video games, artbook posters, comics, and original outfits of characters; the Kickstarter campaign, if successful, will enable the production of an animated pilot for the TV show.

Urbance [http://www.steambot.ca/urbance/] is intended for mature audiences due to its subject matter. In a crumbling city, sex has been prohibited because of the danger of a genetic virus. Men and women grow up separated from each other and form gangs. The youth subculture gathers in an underground nightclub called URBANCE to dance and drink. One man and woman become close to one another despite the gender wars.

Steambot Studios, which is a collective of artists who have collaborated on TRON Legacy, Godzilla, X-MEN: Days of Future Past, Thief, and Batman games from Warner Brothers, hopes to raise a minimum of $189,000 for the completion of the pilot episode. At that amount, the team will make a six-minute pilot. At $299,000, it will produce part one of the first episode (at 13 minutes in length), and at $499,000 it will produce the full first episode at 26 minutes.

Urbance will show a variety of characters' sexualities, and much of the cast is people of color.

Should the Kickstarter campaign be successful, Steambot will bring on Hiroshi Shimizu to work on Urbance. Shimizu, an animation director and character designer, has worked on Princess Mononoke, Porco Rosso, Michiko & Hatchin, and Space Dandy.

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"The character designs and the colors of Urbance are incredible," Shimizu said. "There is a charm that I don't have in my designs and I would love to develop."

The Kickstarter campaign launched yesterday is nearing $35,000 as of publication. In 43 days on November 6, the campaign will come to a close.

Source: Urbance [https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2088672139/urbance]


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[shirkbot]

Without the context of this article, that trailer would be totally meaningless. The art is gorgeous, though the animation quality could use some work (it was pretty stiff), but it looks interesting, and it might be fun to get a new take on gender-segregated sci-fi, even if the plot sounds terribly Romeo & Juliette... I might actually back this, but I'll certainly have to sleep on it first. The trailer has me worried about the ration of style to substance.

 

[Frezzato]

Beautiful! I had no idea it would cost that much for a full pilot, but I have to wonder just what the endgame is. Is the intention to try and get it picked up by a major network or on cable? And at the same time, I can see the appeal of making something beautiful "just because". And having just one guy on animation makes me wonder just how soon they could get this project completed.

I do have an issue with the name though, or rather the font used for the title. I could barely read it even after knowing what the project was called.

 

[Casual Shinji]

That looked and sounded undeniably cool, and I'm not really into hip hop at all. I don't know how an entire series would fare with such an art style, but I wouldn't mind seeing more of this.

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

This looks too ambitious.

Okay, if it were just an animated series, sure, that would make sense, and it'd be okay.

But these guys are trying to launch a brand. An entire brand of clothing, media and merchandise.

I'm sorry, but there weren't enough naysayers in whatever meetings took place to just make this a tv series, because this looks doomed to either fail or end up severely lacking.

 

[Weaver]

It looks like something I'd really dig but I'm broke as hell right now.

 

[Scarim Coral]

While I liked the artstyle and choice of culture but I'm not keen on the plot. Sure it may sound like Romeo and Juilet but I getting a sinking feeling it will be taken the wrong way...

 

[Dango]

I like the concept, hopefully it's executed well and not too... well... French.

 

[Alex1508]

Not so keen on the plot since it has the potential to go off rails very easily if it's not treated carefully....however...everything else looks so awesome

 

[Baresark]

This is a very interesting concept. But it always makes me think about something: I can sit there and be fully invested in the unbelievable aspects of comics and movies. But as soon as they seek to do something that is so completely alien to being human (ie. Complete social segregation of the sexes), it loses me a bit because it's almost more unbelievable than someone being strong enough to throw a car.

That is part of who we are. It's like saying one can exist without the other, when we all know that is impossible. But sometimes extreme things like this can be informative and interesting.

 

[Hectix777]

I like the concept, hopefully it's executed well and not too... well... French.

Not sure which what you mean? From some of the comics I've seen from France (mostly French tumblr cartoonists and Wakfu), they're more influenced by manga and anime then we are, and most of the characters from the Golden Age of Disney were based aesthetically from anime (in terms of style at least).

It' probably I don't know much about France, I seriously do not. This is what I assume all French people to look like, even the prime minister.

 

[TsunamiWombat]

I hate the art style, but like the animation. How is this a thing? I have no idea. In motion it has a JoJo like charm. But the art itself is just a hair over-stylized.

And as much as I love the fact it's going to play with themes of urban life, sexuality and gender politics, the plot conceit is just too goddamn stupid for me to get over.

Why not just have a show set in 'normal' futuristic cyberpunk dysotopia and tackle issues of gender, sexuality, race, religion and economics? Or hell, set it in the modern age - why do we need to hide from our issues?