Otaku : a Japanese term describing a young person with an intense, borderline obsessive, interest in a particular hobby or aspect of pop culture. For instance, train otakus are a common sight next to the train tracks.
That said, internationally, the term Otaku is more associated with Anime and Manga. Could these areas be a potential catalyst to grow Web3 to the often-cited mass adoption?
Time to explore.
Anime is International
Anime has long passed the borders of Japan and has become an international phenomenon. In 2021, over 2.88 billion people viewed Anime, and over 100 million households watched at least one anime title on Netflix in 2020.
Demon Slayer, which contains a story revolving around a boy whose family is murdered by demons, is so popular that it was the first anime in a decade to hit №1 at the US box office on release with its Mugen train movie. Its latest release still brought in $10 million despite the movie consisting of 70% of remastered previous episodes.
All of this illustrates that the anime market is big. In fact, research suggests the market could hit $50 billion in size by 2029. To put this into perspective, that is roughly 25 times the FDV of NEAR at the moment.
Otakus Buy More Than Books & Movie Tickets
Any popular anime quickly grows a loyal fanbase. And that fanbase is willing to spend. Just recently, intern went to a Jujutsu Kaisen exhibition where Tickets were around $15 USD, and they’d guide 300 visitors through each hour.
Let’s do some quick maths: 300 * 15 * 8 = $36,000 USD; rather good daily earnings. Now consider that this exhibition runs for months, moving across the country, with tickets being quickly booked. What’s more, people will spend on exclusive fan articles such as fans, posters, cards, and stickers.
Add to that cosplayers spending over $200 million on looking like their favorite characters in Japan alone, and you can grasp the potential of anime to grab people’s hearts (and wallets).
The Potential of Blockchain for Weebs
There are various angles from which the blockchain and Open Web can benefit the anime industry. That said, what won’t be discussed here in detail are anime-themed pfp collections that don’t go beyond being a simple jpeg (such as Azuki).
1—Empower artists
Like in any creative industry, manga artists and animators are often not paid fairly for their work. It’s pretty common that they have to sell their work cheaply to make ends meet and can only fully maintain themselves if they get published by a big publisher like Shonen Jump.
The biggest studio at the moment is likely Studio Mappa. The animation studio is behind Chainsaw Man, One Punch Man, Attack on Titan, Jujutsu Kaisen, Vinland Saga, and many more. However, it’s probably just as often in the media for overworking and underpaying their staff as for their animations.
In this regard, blockchain technology can introduce more transparent ways of tracking individual animators’ contributions and facilitate payments. It can also serve to connect artists with their fans opening up new monetisation opportunities.
2—Manga as Art
Digital assets allow manga artists to transcend borders. Not just internationally, but also by turning their work into art. An example of that was the One Piece illustration lottery. The story behind _One Piec_e follows the pirate Luffy, and has been published weekly in Shonen Jump since 1997—selling over 490 million copies. To celebrate their continued success, the publishers decided to turn some scenes from the manga into luxury prints. Each print was priced around $4500 and contained an IC tag connecting it with an NFT enabling anyone to check the provenance and authenticity of the pieces.
The lottery distributing the rights to purchase attracted over 3,000 entries in just two days from collectors worldwide, showcasing the purchasing power and passion of Otakus to own a piece of their favorite manga.
3—Collaborative Creation
Otakus can benefit beyond ownership from web3. Blockchain and NFTs provide the infrastructure to facilitate the collaborative production of stories and animation. The current process is time-consuming, requires a vast amount of resources, and has led to centralisation, with a few big studios dominating the market.
With web3 fundraising and DAO tooling, Otakus can contribute not only to providing financial resources for their favourite artists to produc, but they can also play an active role in how the story develops. Plus, if they own an NFT that is part of the anime, there is a big incentive to continue positively contributing to the projects’ success.
‘Japanese intellectual property includes a wealth of high-quality and appealing content.’
— Yat Siu, co-founder and chairman, Animoca Brands
A few projects already exploring collaborative creation in a web3 context include StoryCo, Metalabels, and Galverse, an NFT project making an anime. However, there are still challenges which remain.
Copyright, Royalties, and Questions
In the Summer of 2022, a Singaporean-based startup created NFTs themed around the beloved manga soccer star Captain Tsubasa without owning any rights to the actual IP. Obviously illegal activity, yet not uncommon. Other Japanese brands like Nintendo and the creator of Ultraman fought similar battles over the use of their intellectual property by ruthless web3 projects.
Web3 native tools to protect and better address IP infringements seem like a no-brainer but are still not far-spread.
Royalties are another area of concern if creators care about recurring revenue from secondary market sales, as royalty payments are mostly enforced socially and not on the protocol layer. An extension to the NFT token standard on NEAR developed by the Few & Far team aims to provide better royalties controls to creators but has yet to be adopted by the broader web3 ecosystem.
Lastly, questions remain around how to connect potential physical goods with on-chain data, what the value provided through a digital asset to the fans is, and how to market these types of launches right (there are legitimate AOT NFTs, but no one knows) without alienating your existing fanbase.
Nao | NEAR is nao on Twitter: "Meguro River on a sunny day that's basic.Nao went to Kawagoe in the rain to enjoy sakura. 🌸 pic.twitter.com/inNUgGu3Df / Twitter"
Meguro River on a sunny day that's basic.Nao went to Kawagoe in the rain to enjoy sakura. 🌸 pic.twitter.com/inNUgGu3Df
Final Thoughts
Big studios might be held back by friction in onboarding and potential challenges with copyright infringements, but the Web3 space is evolving fast and offers a wide set of benefits for creators and fans alike. On NEAR, meta transactions and flexible key management are already facilitating the onboarding experience, bringing us closer to achieving a seamless onboarding UX.
To say it in the words of first-class detective Shinichi Kudo: by looking at what’s blocking our way with an open mind, a wall can be turned into a wide-open door.
Web3 would do well embracing Otakus. Why? Because they are very loyal fans that will go to great lengths to get closer to their favourite works. Otakus are everywhere. Just ask on the next meetup you go to for people’s favorite anime. You’ll be surprised.
That’s why Otakus are the Web3 catalyst you didn’t know you needed.
— -
NEAR Intern recommends
In case you feel like watching anime now, here are some favourites:
- Polar Bear Cafe: for when you need some wholesomeness and cute animals
- Steins;gate: for a fix of time traveling, gripping fiction
- Violet Evergarden: might make you cry, but it most definitely will amaze you with its artistry
- Gurren Lagan: watch for the vibes, forget logic for a bit
- Nodame Cantabile: when you love classical music, and romantic comedy
- Madoka Magica: full of fascinating twists, definitely not your average Shojo anime
- Mononoke: no, not princess Mononoke; 12 episodes full of colourful, trippy horror in a style you won’t forget
- Way of the Househusband: a yakuza turned loving househusband, comedy gold
Written by @NEAR_intern
Edited by @achildhoodhero
About NEAR Protocol
NEAR is on a mission to onboard a billion users to the infinite possibilities of Web3 with the Blockchain Operating System (bOS). Leveraging its high-performance, carbon-neutral protocol, which is fast, secure, and scalable, bOS provides a common layer for browsing and discovering the Open Web.
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OTAKUS, THE WEB3 CATALYST YOU DIDN’T KNOW YOU NEEDED was originally published in NEAR Protocol on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.