Anime is a growing industry, now believed to earn billions of dollars every year. But, while the industry might be thriving, the artists that create the well-known graphics are struggling to make ends meet. The sad reality is that working conditions in this industry are poor, leading many artists to burn out, give up their dreams or suffer from depression in extreme conditions.
Currently, as the industry sits, the majority of artists that work on these teams are freelancers or entry-level animators tasked to create individual drawings from top-level directors that come up with the storyboards. It is estimated that these animators earn less than $2 per drawing, or as little as $200 a month. Since each artwork requires careful attention to detail, only a few drawings can be made per day. Even as anime explodes in growth, the artists behind these works receive little to none of the profits. Rather, any growth has actually proved to widen the gap between the profits generated and the minuscule wages an artist receives, making it difficult to position a passion for anime and manga as a dream job.
Under normal circumstances, the industry demand should drive up prices in response to increased competition for talent. Currently, this is not the case for the creators of manga and anime.
For years, no solution was in sight. That is, until the creation of blockchain and nonfungible tokens (NFTs). Along with this technology arose the concept of Luffy, with the goal to build an NFT marketplace that would allow starving artists to reap the full benefits of their creations and earn a living wage. With NFTs, purchasers can verify the source and reliability of digital art, allowing profits to be attributed to the artist. As a result, many might have the opportunity to regain some of the value of their work as it is sold to collectors.
Running on the Ethereum (ETH) network, Luffy is a community-driven token, which exists as part of a greater metaverse that contains an NFT marketplace and the decentralized exchange (DEX) platform and several interactive games.
Built on the foundation of transparency
To summarize their efforts, a member of their team shares,
“LUFFY INU is an NFT protocol aimed to disrupt the anime and manga industry. Through the gamification of popular Japanese games, Luffy helps artists monetize their artwork through collectible NFTs on the blockchain.”
The dream began on Aug. 4, 2021, when the concept of Luffy was born on the foundation of transparency, community and open communication. With token burning occurring from day one, users can expect full control of the token to be in the holder’s hands.
The team has started their NFT releases with 10,000 digital assets being made available as of October 2021. Any profits incurred were then used towards burns, marketing and development of the platform.
Luffy is positioning its coin to one day achieve cult-like status, being used with anyone, anywhere, in the creation of a community of passionate manga and anime fans. This is a possibility due to the team’s carefully crafted tokenomics, which includes 3% reward distribution from each transaction, more than $100,000 per month being spent on marketing initiatives (2%), another 2% on liquidity to prevent manipulation and a 2% burn rate.
Poised for success
To date, the team has reported over 10,000 holders in the last three months, in addition to a growing community and host of prominent social groups. A quick look at the team’s roadmap indicates a series of releases, marketing initiatives and listings.
The team operates with an unmatched determination on their mission to become a serious token with real-world utility. Primarily this includes the NFT marketplace; however, future goals include enabling NFT farming and monthly airdrops depending on the holder’s level.
The team shares they will not stop in their efforts to achieve this, although their roadmap may shift to accommodate needs as they arise. Along with the NFT hype, the team shares their assurance of how the Luffy project can open doors into a new capital of cryptocurrencies.
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