Takashi Murakami publishes NFT from Azuki: Japanese NFT market is expected to develop and grow explosively in the future

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From cave paintings 30,000 years ago to NFTs in the Web3 era, humans have been fascinated by visually impactful works. After the explosive boom of 2021, the NFT market is now shifting to a calm boom. Large-scale NFT projects have been launched one after another, and the NFT ecosystem has incorporated finance, art, games, and many other creative areas.

We at CGV conclude that Japanese NFT works have great potential. Japanese animation has long been a crossroads of subcultures around the world. Thanks to an extremely thick group of artists, a mature market for anime, games, and IP (intellectual property), financial engineering necessary for the practical application of NFT, and the existence of a window for IP use, the NFT area in Japan. The right to speak is getting stronger day by day.

The big hit of Azuki NFT confirmed the popularity of hybrid works of East-West culture in the market. Takashi Murakami also turned to a new creative route and started producing NFT works. The inspiration from NFTs extends to the field of robot animation, which is a Japanese specialty. The robot game “Mechaverse War” is a good example. Rakuten, Japan’s largest e-commerce platform, has also opened an NFT trading platform. These are just proof that the Japanese NFT market is growing rapidly. In this article, I would like to introduce the details of some of these projects and ask for future investment opportunities.

Azuki: Web3 Native Generation and NFT

Azuki is characterized by a fusion style of East-West culture that combines the taste of the royal road of Japanimation with the thick outline of the American comics style. With a style of painting that combines excitement and precision, he firmly grasps the heart of the Web3 native generation. Azuki’s characters consist of four types: “human,” “blue,” “red,” and “spirit.” Her hairstyle, eyes, mouth, neck, clothes and BGM are all unique and no one is the same. This of NFT is in perfect agreement with the non-substitution characteristics of NFT.

At Azuki, each character has its own IP (copyright). Azuki’s immediate goal is to create the largest community in the Metaverse industry. The Azuki NFT will be your admission permit. Owning an NFT is a testament to being a member of the Azuki community. The Azuki community is collaborating with various street brands offline, selling real collections and collaborating with music artists to integrate the physical and digital worlds. In the future, we plan to create an immersive Azuki Metaverse by partnering with platforms such as Sandbox VR, Decentraland, Cryptovoxels, and Somnium Space. Azuki is also developing IP in a unique way, exploring the possibilities of metaverse games and interactive experiences.

Source: NFTGo.io

Thanks to the worldwide popularity of Japanese anime, Azuki was a success as soon as it was released. It can be said that Azuki’s artistry has realized the high fluidity of the NFT and the surprisingly high minimum price. The lowest price at Azuki NFT’s January auction was 1 ETH, but the current lowest price has reached 22.5 ETH. It doesn’t seem to be the cold of the crypto area these days. By April 9, the total NFT transaction value for the Azuki series had reached $ 559 million, according to NFTGo.io data.

Takashi Murakami: Expressing Japanese otaku culture with NFT

Takashi Murakami is a contemporary pop artist who has gained overwhelming support from the younger generation. According to Takashi Murakami, Japanese culture before the 1990s is just a parody of European art. On the contrary, it is said that the “otaku culture” since the 1990s is unique to Japan.

Takashi Murakami’s work is a live copy of modern Japanese customs, and was in the limelight with the sensational “Declaration of Childhood”. Flat people, plants, and flowers are pop culture that reflects the aesthetic sense of the Japanese people. He tries to capture the essence of Japanese culture with expressions reminiscent of cartoons for young children.

By the end of March 2021, Takashi Murakami had released 108 NFT “MURAKAMI.FLOWERS” works. However, on the 11th day after its release, sales were stopped. The reason is, “I thought I didn’t really understand NFT yet.” Once you feel frustrated, you often lose your progress. Takashi Murakami was also worried about the fear, but he disappointed and declared that he would “restart the NFT project by the end of 2022.” I opened an account for murakami.flowers2022 on Instagram and made a wonderful comeback. By the end of the year, a sunflower version of the mini-game inspired by the legendary mini-game machine “Tamagotchi” will be released, and reunion with adorable characters is awaited.

At the beginning of 2022, Takashi Murakami partnered with RTFKT Studios to launch the NFT project CLONE X. Since then, he has been running alone at the top of the sales ranking. The current lowest price has reached 12.25 ETH, according to Opensea sales data. When Takashi Murakami resumed his solo exhibition NFT “MURAKAMI.FLOWERS”, he said, “By partnering with RTFKT, I learned a lot about Metaverse. The results far exceeded my expectations. “. Takashi Murakami’s quest for NFT is also characterized by a media-mixed exhibition of his work.

Mecha Bath War: Fusion of games and NFTs

The game is an extension of the real world. What strategy does Japan, which has an overwhelming advantage in the game world, intend to enter the NFT Metaverse game? CGV predicted the next move.

The Metaverse robot game “Mechaverse War” incorporates the spirit of Bushido as a symbol of Japanese beauty. There are two sources of inspiration for Mecha Bath War: Japanese robot anime and Bushido spirit.

Mecha Bath War has pioneered NFT use cases by expanding the play environment. To live up to the name of Japan’s high-quality anime IP, we will contribute to the expansion of digital promotion and build a metaverse platform unique to Japanese animation by using the GameFi value chain.

Let’s see how players can participate. Players can control NFT-ized mecha heroes, form battle teams, exchange characters, improve battle levels, and experience games such as battles with mecha monsters. During the game, NFT will record the creation and growth process of robot heroes in detail, ensuring the distribution and price increase of IP characters.

Newzoo reports that 3 billion players worldwide are expected to drop $ 175.8 billion into the gaming market in 2021. Most of it is the income of the Japanese team. Mechaverse War will provide players around the world with an interactive experience of Japanese-style immersive blockchain games and NFT collections, armed with Japan’s authentic anime and game industry, IP resources and cryptographic technology. ..

Rakuten NFT: The Road to Rakuten-style NFT

Rakuten, Japan’s largest e-commerce platform, established a blockchain lab in August 2016 and started offering virtual currency wallet services in August 2019.

After three years of accumulated technology, Rakuten launched the NFT transaction issuing platform “Rakuten NFT” on February 25, this year. Currently, the platform is only available to individuals residing in Japan, but it has brought a new trend to the NFT market centered on crypto investors and the technology community.

Rakuten NFT provides users with P2P (personal) trading opportunities for NFTs in the sports and entertainment fields (including music animation). In addition, it will provide an NFT sales platform for IP copyright holders. Users can use Rakuten IDs and can also use Rakuten points. NFTs purchased on the platform can be added as a collection to the buyer’s My Page and can be sold in the market.

According to CGV, Rakuten has a number of sports-related partners. It also operates a number of entertainment-related products, making a significant contribution to the development of Rakuten NFT. Rakuten NFT is currently planning the official j.league NFT collection “j.league NFT Collection Players Anthem”, and is considering opening the Rakuten NFT Art Gallery in the future.

CGV believes that large companies with huge users and management resources, such as Rakuten, can relatively easily acquire a wide range of markets by cutting into NFTs from their own DNA and areas of expertise.

summary

NFTs accelerate new economic relationships between creators and fans, realizing the future depicted in Kevin Kelly’s 2008 prophetic essay, The 1000 True Fans. bottom. In Japan, which has a large number of IPs, former creators who were inactive due to NFTs are in the limelight again, and past works are breathing new life. As a bridge between the physical world and the digital world, it provides a place for intellectual play.

We at CGV want to summarize the future of NFTs in Japan, in the words of Yayoi Kusama, a well-known Japanese artist. “I’m always avant-garde. I’m not like any other old man. I’ve been an avant-garde artist for decades. I’m still.”
As a child of the Web3 era, NFT is announcing the arrival of a new era in Japan.

Note: This article is CGV FOF’s own research report and does not constitute investment advice. Please be aware in advance.

About CGV FOF: CGV FOF is an Asian mother fund that invests in Crypto Fund and Crypto Studio. It consists of private funds from Japan, South Korea, China, Taiwan, etc., with its headquarters in Japan and branches in Singapore and Canada.

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

Written by: Vargason, Edwin, CGV FOF Researcher