Yoshitaka Amano is a renowned Japanese artist responsible for world iconic artwork, including Speedracer, Sandman: The Dream Hunters cover art, and, most notably, Final Fantasy. A pioneer in creating impossible worlds that pull from his interests in Western culture, his unique style of Japanese art is admired across the globe. He chose a path that continued to venture into new territories; notably, in the 1980s, bringing remarkable character art to the undeveloped video game industry–inspiring a shift from simple arcade gaming to the immersive JRPG experience found in the Final Fantasy series.
Unafraid to explore new mediums, Mr. Amano has chosen to pursue an experimental collaboration with the team at Astar to create and release an NFT collection on Astar Network. In fact, he has already begun bringing his art to the digital world with Yoshitaka Amano’s VR Museum, where 100 pieces of art have been remodeled virtually and can be viewed from anywhere, by anyone; an attestation to his drive to create new immersive experiences:
“For people to see and appreciate my work is a bonus. It makes me want to draw even more. That was already the case when I was a child, and it hasn’t changed ever since,” Yoshitaka Amano.
Astar Network has already partnered with the company double jump.tokyo to launch and store exciting masterpieces, The Black Monster and Night in Chelsea from the comic series Eren of Southpaw. Together they auctioned for over $60,000 in April of 2022. Now, we have the opportunity to curate a new collection with Yoshitaka Amano. This anticipated art collection will differ from his previous digital works which were variants of already existing artwork. It will be the first time Mr. Amano’s fantasy worlds and characters will come to life on a blockchain, where his art can interact with the projects and communities of Astar.
This is also the beginning of our partnership with Twin Planet to help professionals in the fine arts use blockchain technology as the solution to bring their art to the public. We bring our experience with business communications and a network across the Web3 industry to support this joint venture. Partnering with Twin Planet accelerates their capability to help artists bring their art to the blockchain by minting their digital assets on a trusted, secure network.
“Without a doubt, Yoshitaka Amano is a legendary artist in the 21st century. I am very honored to be able to work with him and host his first NFT on Astar Network.” Sota Watanabe
Astar Network will manage Yoshitaka Amano’s Candy Girl artwork, extending a sensational collection that features 108 angels. The art is young and glamorous, yet sophisticated and appealing to media applications–already inspiring clothing design at “Tokyo Girls Collection 2017” and high fashion at the Mitsukoshi Ginza’s “Discover Tokyo” event. We will build a Web3 entertainment site for the Candy Girl collection to take root in our ecosystem and branch to new galleries, entertainment, or design. Candy Girl will lead the way for Japanese content creators to own their art, music, and stories, but engage with a global audience and business. A stage where digital art inspires new Japanese novels and American broadway shows. NFT ownership of fine art will have a direct connection to real-world value through our partnership.
Mr. Amano’s powerful art has led him to collaborate with over 20 authors, successfully creating illustrated books that have sold millions of copies. Now, our collaboration with both Mr. Amano and Twin Planet establishes Astar Network as the predominant choice of professional artists to create, auction, and exhibit their valuable artwork. Creating this limited edition NFT collection on Astar is not only important to Japan, but also to Astar’s vision to bring the East to the West, fine art to blockchain technology, and introduce international leaders to the Web3 world.
Follow the official Candy Girl Twitter for updates as we grow a creator economy on Astar.
About Astar
Astar Network — The Future of Smart Contracts for Multichain.
Astar Network supports the building of dApps with EVM and WASM smart contracts and offers developers true interoperability, with cross-consensus messaging (XCM). We are made by developers and for developers. Astar’s unique Build2Earn model empowers developers to get paid through a dApp staking mechanism for the code they write and dApps they build.
Astar’s vibrant ecosystem has become Polkadot’s leading Parachain globally, supported by all major exchanges and tier 1 VCs. Astar offers the flexibility of all Ethereum and WASM toolings for developers to start building their dApps. To accelerate growth on Polkadot and Kusama Networks, Astar SpaceLabs offers an Incubation Hub for top TVL dApps.
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Legendary artist Yoshitaka Amano curates his first NFT collection on Astar Network was originally published in Astar Network on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
