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SOLD! ｜ $36,245 (13.3 ETH) The auction on @manifoldxyz for the first Majin NFT closed on September 18 with the final bid of $36,245 (13.3 ETH). Huge congratulations to the winner and new owner of our 1/1 Fallen Angel artwork! We're sure you will enjoy the matching grail in our PFP collection and the large physical edition which comes with this masterpiece. I also want to express a huge THANK YOU｜感謝 to all our supporters and bidders. It has been exciting to see the price increase beyond what I had expected. We will continue to build and work on delivering one of the most beautiful collections on-chain. It's the best motivation anyone could wish for to see such overwhelming demand and appreciation by serious collectors. It also makes me incredibly bullish on the choice of our mint price. As you might know, we're aiming to mint for around 0.15 ETH. Considering that even at this very early stage we already have an NFT selling for over 13 ETH is absolutely crazy. I think this tells us a lot about the opportunity which we have for creating value for holders. I'm very much looking forward to reveal new characters and artwork, and to continue creating an incredibly aesthetic and unique IP. — Sōtō｜ソウトウ

When you watch the video below you will see exclusive leaks of the Majin companions. They are strategically designed to excite collectors in a similar way as Pudgy Penguins and Pokémon did. Once we release them as PFPs, the entire collection will be in strong demand across a broad audience, because the "cute factor" is an incredibly powerful marketing lever. You can see in the video that we specifically position our IP to cater to the biggest audience possible. That is exactly what made Pudgy Penguins so successful. But our approach is a bit closer to Pokémon, where we offer not only one shape or creature, but multiple different characters which have the potential of becoming as iconic as Pikachu or Charizard. If you look at the concept of our "Mushroom Dog" in the video below, or the companion of the "Goth Girl", you'll get the idea and understand that these characters are made to go viral and designed as very attractive digital collectibles. We have professional character designers and artists from legendary Japanese anime and video game IPs work on the Majin companions. We apply their experience and follow principles which already led to many world renowned characters. An incredible amount of precision go into our approach, and we pay close attention to not only develop new characters but to engineer iconic designs and traits for the entire collection. This is how I plan for Majin to go way beyond web3 and create serious hype and revenue in the traditional entertainment industry.

My favorite bluechips have been created in 2021. Let me show you with the example of @doodles why the passion of the creator is vital to the long-term success of the IP. You’ll see from these early sketched by @burnttoast that there’s an extraordinary amount of creativity flowing into the collection. The characters and traits were drawn with purpose and love for the craft. I believe the point was not to create a product but to create something unique and beautiful. And that intent can be felt so strongly by holders that their art remains relevant and in demand even 5 years later. Doodles, Azuki, BAYC, Cool Cats... it almost looks like we as an industry lost the ability to create evergreen art like this. It's just my personal opinion, but in recent months and years nothing really comes close to the artwork and IPs which were created during the 2021/2022 era. And I think the reason for that is the commercialization of something which primarily should be beautiful. Most new collections focus on selling themselves as a way to make money or as a product. I don’t feel the spirit of passionate artists anymore. As a collector and someone who appreciates beauty I think we lost our way and are headed in the wrong direction where we put the product above the purpose. And as a result most products fail, because they serve no purpose. Or in other words: how can you expect people to love your art if you didn’t love creating it? My work with Majin is focused on bringing that passion, creativity and love for the craft back to digital collectibles. The highest priority is creating something beautiful. Everything else comes second. Because I know if I succeed at that, if the IP truly is something people enjoy looking at, the success will come naturally. And I believe that’s how it happened for all bluechips. Someone put an incredible amount of love into their work, other people could feel and appreciate it, and as a result of that, passionate communities were formed. This is what I aim for and what I hope to achieve by giving our art all the creativity and love I have.

It has been very interesting to me to study the creative process of @cloncast, who is the artist behind @coolcats. Especially the exploration of different character concepts and the pursuit of simplicity, before eventually developing the iconic blue cat that launched such a popular and fun IP.

I want to bring anime on-chain because it influenced me heavily throughout my childhood. But you can’t build a business on romanticizing reality. The numbers also have to make sense. And they do. In fact, they highlight even more strongly why anime and Japan in particular have such a creative influence on the rest of the world.

The early concepts of BAYC reveal an important secret: it's not only the traits which made them iconic, but the expressions which gave each character its own personality. It's very interesting to see how @allseeingseneca found the visual identity of the apes and created one of the most important contributions to digital collectibles with @BoredApeYC. Still to this day I have not seen any IP do it better when it comes to quality, variety and diversity, and to making each PFP feel alive.

An original IP needs a coherent world, but great artists also require creative freedom to fully realize their talent. In this clip I explain how I balance both while building Majin.

Big things are ahead.

The spine katana might be one of the rarest traits in our collection.

This is Wolfy, one of the companions in our collection. But the real alpha is the rare weapon which you see on display: the shrimp gun 🦐

“THE FALL” is an important event in MAJIN referring to the moment when an angel is cast down from Heaven to Earth, and it is also the title of the artwork depicting that event. The wings are lost or torn apart, and the golden halo shatters and turns black.

Once we hit 1,000 followers you're no longer early.

Starting today it's no longer "gm" or "GFM". We use the Japanese equivalents "Oha" or "Ohayo" instead. Ohayooo (˶ᵔᗜᵔ˶)ﾉﾞ Give it a try 👇

To achieve originality and authenticity, there's no way around effort. And I think that's exactly what digital collectibles have been missing since 2021. Bored Apes, Azuki, Cool Cats, Doodles... they are all original, made with passion — but they were also all created 5 years ago. Since then, the amount of effort and creativity that goes into collections has severely declined. That's why we haven't seen any innovation in our industry and why the market constantly punishes new projects that take shortcuts. Especially when it comes to art; buyers, holders, and collectors value effort. Because only genuine passion and love for the craft can lead to beauty and novelty.

Missed today's stream? \(”˚☐˚)/ We got you covered. Stay tuned for the alpha packed clips!

3 AZUKI BEANZ UP FOR CLAIM 🫘 Simply answer this: Which two anime or video game characters inspired this Majin illustration? Comment below (including wallet) + tag 3 friends 👇

Which perspective do you prefer for your PFP? 1) Side angle, but not fully from the side 2) Full side profile (Azuki-style)

The approach for traits which I describe in this clip is risky and has never been done before. But I also believe it's necessary. Especially with respect to your holder's personalities, I don't think it's wise to expect everyone to identify with the exact same base template. The next logical step after the groundwork laid by the current bluechips is to introduce more uniqueness, diversity, stronger identities, different body types etc. We cannot continue to repeat the same recipe over and over and over again. It's time for something new to push digital collectibles further.