Animoca Brands, Animoca Brands Japan, San FranTokyo, and MyAnimeList have announced today that they will be the founding partners of Anime Foundation. Anime Foundation is a cross Web2 and Web3 community-owned protocol for anime and manga culture. This partnership will create new opportunities and experiences for global fans, creators, studios, IP holders, and projects and brands originating from anime.
This strategic collaboration follows Animoca Brands Japan’s strategic investment of 300 million yen in MyAnimeList, a community website and database for anime and manga with 16 million registered members.
At the same time, Anime Foundation will establish a strategic alliance with Mocaverse, a growing network with an interoperable infrastructure layer of accounts, identities, reputations, and the PointFi system established by Animoca Brands. The strategic alliance will leverage the recently announced Realm Network interoperability SDK by Mocaverse to launch Anime ID. Anime ID is a decentralized identity (DID) and reputation layer designed to facilitate greater user adoption in the Web3 ecosystem.
Anime Foundation will serve as a bridge between the traditional anime industry and the Web3 native community, enhancing fan experiences and empowering global anime culture. Anime ID will be at the core of Anime Foundation, offering new monetization models and community-building plans.
The vision of Anime Foundation is to provide anime and manga creators with more opportunities for creation and reward, and to distribute exclusive content more conveniently. The four strategic partners will leverage their unique strengths to realize this vision: MyAnimeList and Animoca Brands Japan will tap into industry and community networks to attract talent from the traditional anime industry, while Animoca Brands and San FranTokyo will utilize their extensive Web3 ecosystem and blockchain technology and infrastructure to unlock new opportunities for fan engagement.
Through the collaboration with Mocaverse, Anime Foundation will launch Anime ID, enabling fans to have unique on-chain Anime IDs to explore, contribute to, and plan their anime archives and reputations, with more features to be unlocked in the future. Based on the interoperable infrastructure SDK of Mocaverse’s Realm Network account system, Anime ID will share the same login name with other Realm IDs, such as Moca ID, and allow community members to customize their unique digital identity domains (e.g., david.anime).
Anime ID users will be able to access various Web3 applications, including GameFi, SocialFi, IP content supported by Moca Network, which includes Mocaverse partners as well as various Web3 projects in Animoca Brands’ large portfolio. Anime ID users can also earn loyalty points, called Realm Points, by participating in the usage.
Management Comments
Yat Siu, Co-founder of Animoca Brands, commented, “We are excited to be a founding partner of Anime Foundation, which we envision to be at the forefront of global anime culture. Anime Foundation has strong potential to establish itself as a universal network for on-chain identity, experiences, and economy. Unlike projects that focus on a few IPs or brands, the foundation will drive the development of a comprehensive and inclusive anime metaverse, becoming a Web3-powered ecosystem with strong network effects and digital property rights.”
Daisuke Iwase, CEO of Animoca Brands Japan, commented, “We are excited to be a founding partner of Anime Foundation and support it from the perspectives of Web2 and Web3 leveraging our industry networks. Animoca Brands Japan leverages Web3 technology to provide better fan experiences for Japanese IPs and content, and our collaboration with Anime Foundation aims to enrich the global anime community. We look forward to creating outstanding anime content and deepening connections with global fans.”
Atsushi Mizoguchi, CEO of MyAnimeList, commented, “We are thrilled to be one of the founding partners of Anime Foundation. The project has diverse goals, but we believe that all of them will support the future of Japanese content. Through our collaboration with Anime Foundation, MyAnimeList aims to distribute more manga works globally and discover the next high-potential anime works. We believe this project will contribute to nurturing existing works and new original works. We will share more details with the community.”
David Taing, CEO of San FranTokyo, commented, “Anime Foundation goes beyond the boundaries of Web3. Our vision is to cultivate a vibrant ecosystem that transcends technological boundaries and empowers global anime and manga culture. We also recognize the immense value of the traditional realm, from passionate creators to publishers and distributors facilitating global distribution, to fan communities of works. Today, anime culture goes beyond the medium itself – our love for works, characters, stories, and collaborative brands shape our identities.”
Kenneth Shek, Head of Mocaverse, commented, “We are excited to launch Anime ID together with Anime Foundation as the first Realm Network partner. I believe Anime Foundation has the opportunity to attract millions of anime fans worldwide. By leveraging the simplicity and interoperability of Realm Network, it will greatly facilitate cross-pollination of users, cultures, and utilities throughout the Moca Network. In the near future, Anime ID users can fully explore the worlds of gaming, sports, and more, and Moca ID users can access a wide range of anime applications and IP networks.”
