Author: Vargason, Edwin, CGV FOF researcher

foreword

From rock paintings 30,000 years ago to NFTs in the Web3 era, humans have always liked works with visual impact. After the NFT market exploded in 2021, the current market is gradually rational, high-quality NFT projects are constantly accumulating, and the NFT ecosystem is also becoming an equal participant in finance, art, games and many other leading creative industries.

CGV believes that Japanese NFT works and markets have great potential. Japanese animation has become a connecting point of global culture, thanks to the rich and high-quality artists, animation game IP and mature user market, as well as the new window opened by the application of NFT for the development and innovation of digital IP, Japan's strength in the NFT field The right to speak will increase.

The explosive Azuki NFT shows that the market likes mixed works of Eastern and Western cultures; Takashi Murakami also began to change his creative strategy and try NFT creation; Japan NFT Cultural Association also released unique NFT works through Yayoi Kusama's "HANDBAG"; Japan's largest e-commerce The platform Rakuten also launched an NFT trading and distribution platform. All these show that the NFT market in Japan is booming. In order to understand these projects more specifically, CGV will talk about them.

Azuki: NFTs loved by web3 natives

Azuki is the representative of Japanese two-dimensional animation style NFT, coupled with American-style thick outlines, Azuki, a fusion of East and West, is deeply loved by web3 users because of its exquisite painting style and unique artistic style. Azuki contains four models: human, blue, red, and elf. They are different in hairstyle, eyes, mouth, neck, clothing accessories, background type, etc. Each of its NFTs is unique.

Azuki is building a strong IP that belongs to everyone. Azuki's vision is to build the largest community-owned decentralized brand in the Metaverse. Those who hold Azuki NFT hold a pass and become a member of the Azuki community. The Azuki community connects the physical and digital worlds through offline events, collaborations with streetwear brands, expanding physical collections, and collaborations with music artists. It plans to cooperate with platforms such as Sandbox VR, Decentraland, Cryptovoxels, Somnium Space, etc. to create an immersive Azuki metaverse, where Azuki will try to develop IP in a unique way, create metaverse games and create interactive experiences.

Source: NFTGo.io

The influence of Japanese animation on the world has made Azuki a success as soon as it went online. This huge cultural force has shaped Azuki's liquidity and ultra-high floor price pricing. When Azuki NFT was launched in January, the auction price was only 1 ETH. Although the current market has turned cold, its floor price is still higher than 10 ETH. According to NFTGo.io data, the total transaction volume of Azuki series NFT is also in the forefront.

Takashi Murakami: Express Japanese otaku culture through NFT

Takashi Murakami is not only a widely loved artist in Japan, but also the idol of the new generation of young people in Japan. In Takashi Murakami's view, Japanese culture before the 1990s was nothing more than a parody of Western trends, but the weirdness shown in otaku culture is something "unique to Japan".

Takashi Murakami's works are combined with contemporary Japanese pop culture. He became popular with the "Declaration of Childish Power", implanting flat characters, plants, and flowers into the context of trend culture centered on Japan. The images with strong cartoon colors allude to the connotation of Japanese contemporary culture.

At the end of March 2021, Takashi Murakami launched his personal NFT "MURAKAMI. FLOWERS", the number reached 108, but within 11 days, he decided to quit and not sell it. He thought he was not ready to really understand NFT. When trying new things, the most worrying thing is not to continue after the first setback, but in 2022, Takashi Murakami decided to restart his personal NFT plan and opened the INSTAGRAM of MURAKAMI.FLOWERS2022. Takashi Murakami also hopes to bring you a sunflower version of the classic black and white pixel game console "pet egg" at the end of the year, fully tapping the value of this cute image.

At the beginning of 2022, the NFT project CLONE X jointly launched by Takashi Murakami and RTFKT Studios has long been at the top of the sales list since its launch. According to opensea data, the current floor price still reaches 12.25 ETH.

Takashi Murakami's exploration of NFT is a more dimensional display of his works. As he said when he restarted his personal NFT "MURAKAMI.FLOWERS", "Until the cooperation with RTFKT, I felt that I learned a lot about the metaverse from these young people, and I was also surprised by the results and reactions of this cooperation."

Mechaverse war: The fusion of games and NFT

CGV believes that games have become an extension of our real world. As Japan, which has an absolute right to speak in the game field, how to let players participate in the NFT and blockchain-based Metaverse game world is the next direction.

Metaverse Mecha Conquest Game メカバースウォー (Mechaverse War) hopes to create a metaverse real-time strategy mecha conquest game platform. As a symbol of Japanese beauty, the spirit of the samurai is deeply imprinted in Japanese culture. The inspiration of メカバースウォー comes from the cultural background of modern Japanese anime mechanical armor and ancient samurai armor.

メカバースウォー (Mechaverse War) will develop NFT derivative scenarios based on the playable game environment, undertake the digital promotion and extension of Japanese high-quality animation IP, and use GameFi's value connection method to build an open metaverse platform for Japanese animation.

How do players participate? Players can use NFT-incubated mecha heroes to form combat teams, trade characters, and increase combat levels, so as to complete more game experiences such as fighting mecha monsters. The NFT in the game will carry the incubation generation and evolution of each mech hero IP character to ensure the uniqueness, growth, tradability and value-added attributes of the mecha.

According to the Newzoo report data, driven by nearly 3 billion players worldwide, the global game market will reap $175.8 billion in revenue from consumers in 2021, most of which will come from Japanese teams.メカバースウォー (Mechaverse War) is providing players with a Japanese-style immersive chain game experience and an interactive experience of NFT collections through the powerful Japanese local animation game industry resources, IP resources, and the new direction of the encrypted metaverse world.

Rakuten NFT: Rakuten's Road to NFTs

Rakuten, Japan's largest e-commerce platform, is a pioneer in Japan's web3 era. It established a blockchain laboratory in August 2016 and began to provide encrypted wallet services in August 2019.

After years of technology accumulation, on February 25 this year, Rakuten decided to launch the NFT trading and distribution platform Rakuten NFT. Although the platform is currently only open to people in Japan, it is the current NFT market centered on encrypted asset investors and technology communities. brought new changes.

Rakuten NFT not only provides users with peer-to-peer NFT transactions in fields such as sports and entertainment (including music and animation), but also provides a platform for IP copyright owners to sell NFT. Users can earn or spend Rakuten Points by using their Rakuten ID when making transactions. Any NFT purchased on the platform can be added to the collection on the buyer's own web page or sold on the marketplace.

According to CGV's understanding, Rakuten Co., Ltd. itself has many sports-related partners. In addition, Rakuten also operates many entertainment-based products, which are of great help to the development of Rakuten NFT. Rakuten NFT plans to release J.League NFT Collection Players Anthem, the official NFT collection of J.League, and develop the Rakuten NFT Art Gallery.

CGV believes that if a traditional giant like Rakuten, which has the advantages of user volume and resources, starts from its own genes and areas of expertise and cuts into the NFT field, it will be easier to capture a wide range of markets.

Summarize

The development of NFT has accelerated the direct economic connection between creators and fans, which confirms the prediction of Kevin Kelly in "1000 True Fans". As Japan with a large number of well-known big IPs, NFT will activate well-known but dormant creators and works, give them new life, and provide a playground for creating new media for the bridge between the physical world and the digital world.

CGV would like to use Yayoi Kusama's art manifesto to summarize the future of NFT in Japan, "I have always been avant-garde, and I am different from other old people. I have been an avant-garde artist since decades ago, and I am still an avant-garde artist now." NFT as web3 Part of the era that is welcoming the arrival of Japan.

Note: This article is a CGV FOF research report and does not constitute any investment advice, it is for reference only.

About CGV FOF: CGV FOF is a fund of funds from Asia, focusing on investing in Crypto Fund and Crypto Studio. CGV FOF is composed of family funds from Japan, South Korea, mainland China and Taiwan, headquartered in Japan, and also has branches in Singapore and Canada.

Website: https://www.cgv.fund/

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References:

1. https://www.azuki.com/
2. https://www.metamechawar.cc/
3. https://opensea.io/collection/clonex