Sekai Project launched their Kickstarter campaign to bring a translated version of Frontwing’s Grisaia Trilogy games to PCs in the West on December 16, 2014. The campaign has been very successful so far; they raised their $160K goal less than a day after launching, and at this time have raised upwards of $277K. However this week Kickstarter contacted the team asking them to remove rewards tiers with hug pillow cases because they were inappropriate and not in line with the Kickstarter guidelines.
Hug pillow cases (or dakimakura) are basically body pillow cases with anime characters on them. While they might have a slightly sexual connotation, the team behind the project updated backers saying that they plan to appeal the decision:
“What happens now is that those tiers, and the pledges attached to them will be canceled in the next 48 hours. There is no way to adjust the tiers as Kickstarter has made it clear they must be removed. During this 48 hour window we will appeal their decision on this as other Kickstarters have offered similar products and never had an issue.”
Backers are assured that since no money has been transacted yet, nothing needs to be done. Sekai Project will be keeping fans updated and will let them know the outcome and a release date for new reward tiers if their appeal doesn’t work.
Kickstarter has a reputation for heavily moderating the projects that are launched on its site. Although they recently relaxed their rules, they still enforce their guidelines and suspend, cancel, or ask that adjustments be made to projects that don’t fit with their values.
One example of Kickstarter stepping in during a campaign this year was Blood Sport, a project that attached a blood collection device to a video game console and drew blood when you were hurt in the game, which was suspended. Another project called Anonabox, an anonymous router, was also suspended after accusations of it being a scam.
It is Kickstarter’s policy not to comment on suspensions like these, making their decisions seem somewhat arbitrary at times while the media tries to speculate what it was about the project that violated the rules (which was the case with CNET trying to find out why Blood Sport was suspended).
For those who are curious the Grisaia Trilogy is centered on:
“‘Mihama Academy.’ At a glance, it might seem a normal school; but this isolated learning environment is home to a mere five students, all female … This changes with the arrival of Kazami Yuuji, a transfer student with an uncertain past and a highly idiosyncratic personality …”
At the moment Sekai Project is seeing this development as a slight hiccup in their plans. It is still early in their campaign with 40 days to go, so this decision by Kickstarter is unlikely to have a huge impact on their result.
