Cardano NFT: Kabuki Tokyo – The Cryptonomist

This week’s guest on the Cardano NFT Column is an anime project with most team members from Japan who have been successful in the Ethereum NFT world: Kabuki Tokyo.

Last week’s guest was a project that is building the most epic fantasy universe to experience our love for fantasy and share meaningful experiences.

This initiative is a point of reference for NFTs on Cardano and every week or two we will invite someone to answer some questions and give us an update directly from within the Cardano community.

Considering that many of our readers are new to the crypto space, we will have a mix of simple and technical questions.

Cardano NFT project: Kabuki Tokyo

Hey, welcome. Please introduce your team, where are you from, what are your backgrounds?

The team is composed of almost all members from Japan. I am Yuri and I’m a CNFT enthusiast and an active member of the Japan Cardano Community. I have been a producer of Pokémon events, and our CTO Hayatti is one of the famous NFT influencers in Japan. 

Shima Enaga is our creator and has been a character designer of Konami Digital Entertainment and she is a successful artist in the Ethereum space. ADA NinjaZ is helping us market our project to the West. 

We are thus composed of Japanese who have succeeded in Ethereum and who have a deep connection to Cardano and CNFT.

What is Kabuki Tokyo? How are you utilizing NFTs and why have you chosen Cardano?

Kabuki Tokyo is an anime NFT project that aims to create a solid IP (Intellectual Property) with the strong international community of Cardano, the Japanese NFT community, and a proven Japanese artist and production team. 

At the core of this IP are our five characters from completely different backgrounds. Each of them was born in a different place, but ended up in Tokyo Roppongi, where they are bounty hunters as hackers called Kabuki Mono. By becoming Kabuki Mono, they are trying to do what they think is right. They are trying to make a place for themselves by pursuing justice, while cooperating with and deceiving each other.

We will provide our NFT holders with governance to determine the content of the project and to participate in events. We will also onboard many Japanese artists in the future so that our NFT holders will have access to the work of Japanese artists who migrate to Cardano.

We chose Cardano because of its solidity, safety, and good environmental performance. And also because of the community that Cardano has, an atmosphere that is inclusive of people of all races and that can develop in cooperation with other projects, which is exactly what we thought would be appropriate for creating IP by an international community.

How do Japanese people view crypto and blockchain? How are you planning to bring more Japanese NFT fans to Cardano?

In Japan, many people still view crypto and blockchain as something dubious. However, with the recent announcement that a large Japanese company has decided to adopt Cardano’s Atala PRISM technology to conduct a Japanese government-led DID demonstration, I believe that people’s attitudes will gradually change.

NFT fans in Japan are growing, with many projects that have recently been minted coming in the top 100 of OpenSea in terms of daily trading volume. This is surprising considering that almost exclusively Japanese NFT projects in Japan are purchased by almost only Japanese people.

And through this project, we hope that many creators will also publish NFT on Cardano. We would also like to partner with successful Japanese projects in Ethereum and with other organizations and companies in promotion and other activities to encourage them to enter the CNFT through our projects. So now we’re working to make big news in Japan by doing social activities with our partners and organizing events with our partner projects.

What excites you the most about bringing NFT technology into the manga and anime world? In what ways will this innovation involve the viewers and fans?

Our NFTs serves as a function of governance. Until now, manga and anime have been created by a limited number of talented people and minds, such as editors and mangaka at publishing companies. By using the governance function of NFTs, we will create a new form of international IP that incorporates the input of many people’s brains and cultural backgrounds.

It is especially expensive to produce animation. But with the new funding method using NFTs, and as our community grows, there will be many sponsors for the community. As community members enjoy each NFT collection and community-driven IP development, it would be truly wonderful if we could create something that the community could consider their own anime by a proven Japanese anime company.

Great contribution. Any final thoughts? Where can people stay in touch?

We are very much looking forward to working with the wonderful members of the CNFT community to spread the word about CNFT and our project in Japan, and to create an international IP with you through this project.

Our Genesis direction with the governance function of the project is scheduled to Mint at the end of September or beginning of October.

If you want to know more about us, you can get information by visiting us on Twitter and Discord.

We are still distributing WL in various places, so please join our community.

Disclaimer: The opinions and views of the people interviewed are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Cardano Foundation or IOG. Moreover, this content is for educational purposes, it doesn’t constitute financial advice.