Animation studio GONZO is holding a story writing contest for its “SAMURAI cryptos” blockchain and NFT project. The winning submissions will be used as story concepts for the eventual NFT anime, and the writers will be credited under the role of “Proposal Assistance.”
GONZO is holding the contest in collaboration with the smartphone novel submission platform Teller Novel. The submission requirements are simple: they only need to be inspired by any of the six prompt illustrations associated with the project.
The contributing illustrators are Michinori Chiba (Basilisk, Sk8 the Infinity), Hiroya Iijima (Afro Samurai, Mazinger Z: Infinity), Junichi Takaoka (Calamity of a Zombie Girl, Majestic Prince), Ugetsu Hakua (The Tower of Druaga: The Aegis of Uruk, Burst Angel), Ai Yokoyama (Space Battleship Tiramisu, X-Men), and Range Murata (Last Exile, Solty Rei, BEM).
Submissions opened on Tuesday, and will be open until October 18. The results will be announced at the end of November.
The “SAMURAI cryptos” project released its first NFT last fall. Gonzo president Shinichiro Ichikawa said that the project will create “a new era of animation for the NFT era with Japanese samurai,” and will focus on the keywords “Cypher,” “Decentral,” and “Solidarity.” The project will feature designs by Makoto Kobayashi (Last Exile, Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ), Michinori Chiba (Basilisk, Sk8 the Infinity), and Hiroya Iijima (Afro Samurai, Mazinger Z: Infinity).
Former Gainax members founded the anime studio GONZO in 1992. The company merged with Shinichiro Ishikawa‘s Digimation company in 2000 and a new parent company, GDH (which stands for Gonzo Digimation Holdings), was formed. GDH absorbed GONZO in 2008 and adopted the name GONZO for itself. The Tokyo Stock Exchange listed GONZO in 2004, but it delisted the company in 2009. The company was restructured through investment funds, and Asatsu-DK acquired and made GONZO a consolidated subsidiary in 2016. The company executed an “absorption-type company split” in 2019, transferring a portion of its anime production, intellectual property, and rights management business to the then-newly formed Studio KAI company.
The studio launched a crowdfunding campaign in August for its 30th anniversary.
Source: Comic Natalie
