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Okamoto Kitchen Food Truck Webtoon OVA Series' Trailer Reveals Thanksgiving Premiere (Updated)
posted on by Alex Mateo
Los Angeles based food truck announced on Wednesday that Okamoto Kitchen, a 10-episode English-dubbed "webtoon" original video anime (OVA), will premiere on YouTube for free this Thanksgiving. The Thanksgiving holiday begins this year on November 23. The company unveiled a trailer and cast:
The anime will also screen at Anime NYC before Thanksgiving on November 18 at 2:30 p.m. EST.
Okamoto Kitchen describes the story:
The food truck industry is a brutal world! Savage races for parking spots, epic shonen food battles, and lots and lots of VIDEO GAMES! The naive Okamoto Kitchen food truck team of Haru, Chizuru, Mickey and Honey try their best to navigate their way around the unforgiving landscape of the Los Angeles food truck scene. Our heroes will have to push through the growing pains not only to figure out how to thrive in the food truck business, but to also discover who really has their best interests at heart. The culinary arts can sometimes be hard to digest.
The anime stars:
- Cristina Vee as Haru Umesaki
- Allegra Clark as Chef Chizuru
- Patrick Seymour as Mickey
- Faye Mata as Ling
- Kimlinh Tran as Honey
Studio Magic Bus is handling the series' layout and key animation. Studio Nine Lives is in charge of paint and in-between animation. Industry Visual Effects is credited for previsualization, CGI, and composition. Hidehito Ikumo is composing the music.
The project has raised US$65,614 of its initial US$48,000 goal in March 2018. The campaign reached a stretch goal of US$57,000, so the company plans to create a Japanese dub with English subtitles.
Takuya Saitō, Azusa "ASA" Saito, and PN 'Kotobukisuzu' are drawing the character designs. Takuya Saitō previously designed the food truck's mascot character Haru-chan, who is the lead character in the proposed series. Musical duo Layla Lane are in charge of the music and also performed the theme song featured in episode 0. Mykal Williams and Rafael Hernán are penning the story.
Each episode of the planned series will be three to five minutes in length, and will have limited animation. The campaign's other stretch goals included extending the series to 24 episodes at US$98,000, extended episode length to eight to 10 minutes at US$149,000, and a 22-minute fully animated OVA at US$340,000.
Okamoto Kitchen is operated by Chef Chizuru Okamoto Abraham, her husband Gerald Abraham, and Shidosha Hodges. Chef Chizuru Okamoto Abraham graduated from Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Los Angeles and has studied under celebrity chef Nobu Matsuhisa. According to Gerald Abraham, the staff "consists of hardcore anime fans and pro gamers." Gerald Abraham and Hodges met in the professional gaming community.
Okamoto Kitchen frequently attends anime conventions and events in the Los Angeles area, including the Anime Expo convention.
Update: Added Anime NYC screening. Source: Anime NYC
Source: Press release
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