So! I've had a couple people mention to me that if told how, they'd be interested in donating to our silly little animu site!! This is not, for those of you who have been around for a while, a thing that happens much. But with the SKU Renaissance that's been going on, there's a wealth of new stuff that I'd love to have up and available for you all to noms on. No, this isn't how I'm going to pay for getting my very own SKU high ball glasses. In fact, most of this content will happen whether I get donations or not. It'll just really really really suck for me.

Just to give you an idea of the expenses I'm talking about:

1. A server migration that will take me off a nice nommy 10 dollar a month host to a 30 dollar a month one that hopefully my god damn gallery works on so I can also put up the ridiculous amount of doujinshi I have here, between the collection amassed online and the epicness Dallbun gave me at RoseCon. PS. the domain comes up for renewal in February and that's at about 65/yr.
2. A scanner. Because you know what doesn't work when you have literally thousands of pages of content to scan? An all-in-one printer, scanner, copier, fax machine, and Apollo 13 service module. I spent 150bux on it.
3. This book, released earlier this year, which is of SKU sheet music. It is different content from the movie sheet music Rushita has on her website. Obviously, it'll be butchered, scanned, and put up in the gallery. 40bux.
4. The Hardcore of Utena, which has some stuff not in the gallery, including god damn gorgeous copies of some of the smexier shots of the series, and tons of line art and such. ...150bux. Hopefully.
5. A clearfile from the exhibition that's an artwork that I haven't seen elsewhere god dammit 20bux
6. A poster with art that I haven't seen elsewhere god dammit 15bux
7. This. Which as far as I can tell is an official product, as it's also listed, out of stock, on some bookstores, but it's the Ohtori Academy Student Handbook. To be scanned, obviously. Like everything else. Except hopefully this includes important student information like directions to Akio's planetarium and how to obtain birth control. 45bux

I think that's everything for the moment? Oh yeah, also potentially this. As far as I can tell, what this has that I haven't seen elsewhere is concept art Saito did for the series, as well as some of the original color concepts for the characters. Like Anthy in white and Utena in red. I should probably make up my mind on this one, since elsewhere it's going for 60bux+.

I also bought the CD Box set. This was 130bux and was a completely selfish purchase that, while will be used for site content, totally wasn't for you jerks it was for me okay.

But yeah. So, I sink a lot of money into this site. If I were to do the math, and I really don't want to, between hosting, the domain, artbooks, scanners, cds, and software, I'm probably at least at the 4,000 mark. You know, excluding all this stuff I just bought. So, I'm going to start accepting donations toward the content I'm producing. Yes, the vast majority of it is going to happen whether you guys give me money or not, but the money would certainly help, and mean I can spend more time making the content and less time doing OT to pay for it. It's been a labor of love all along, and that won't change. But if you're inclined to offer me an epidural, I'll accept it.

This thread is closed because I'm not sure whether it would be appropriate for open discussion or whether it'd seem rude to people or become a pissing contest or something. So for now, PM me, and unless you choose otherwise, you'll be credited in time on the site.

The Paypal account for donations is emptymovement @ gmail . com.

Note: I said I won't hold the content for the site over anyone's head. That's true. However, if there is interest out there for other Ikuhara related monstrosities, and you are willing to selectively purchase or put money toward them, I'd be happy to scan things like the apparently gorgeous Penguindrum artbook, the novels, his recent manga project Nokemono to Hanayome*, or his Schell Bullet novels, written shortly after SKU. Keep in mind, however, I am not a translator, and translating resources are limited on the site. PLZ PLZ PLZ PLZ I WANT THE SAIONJI NOVEL FINISHED PLZPLZPLZPLZ ahem. If you're super bent on any of these things though, I will happily scan the content for you to get it to a translator, or be the intermediary for obtaining pay translations. EM has been, for a long time, the best, at times only, place on the net for SKU info and imported content. That's going to continue. It's not an Ikuhara site though, and with limited funds I will focus on SKU. With donation however, I'll happily get his content, in some form, to the English speaking internets. (I wonder if GODDAMMITIKUHARA.com is taken...)

*What the fuck is this thing seriously what the fuck Ikuhara