“Support the industry!”
All throughout the anime and manga community and beyond, fans and company workers have urged interested parties to, to put it bluntly, put up or shut up.
Want to see more of a certain type of work? Buy it.
Would you like to see more works done by this author? Check it out at the library.
Interested in a particular series? Subscribe.
One of the more common reasons that many still turn to illegal versions, though, is that they can’t afford it, that they’re broke or poor and can only crow about their favorite work on Twitter and YouTube. Others say that companies aren’t releasing the “right” type of series, and that there is nothing good they want to spend it on. Still others say that poor currency exchange rates and other walls prevent them from gaining access to the legal channels.
But what if there were a method to avoid all these issues? Would this solve all the problems? Or does it sound too good to be true?
Cryptocurrencies
By now, you’ve probably heard of cryptocurrencies: virtual monies that are bought and exchanged on the Internet. The most well-known of these is Bitcoin, which has had quite a fervor at points. Even Goldman Sachs is getting on the cryptocurrency bandwagon.
But, if the whole idea of money-that-isn’t-backed-by-a-bank is confusing, John Oliver did a lengthy piece on it.
WARNING: STRONG LANGUAGE. Rated TV-MA.
So, basically, anybody can start a coin offering, and the value can go up or down. So your initial $50 USD investment could balloon to $5,000 or drop to $.50. Proponents argue that it’s safer than a bank because of the decentralized nature, and it isn’t subject to whims of the government or corporate overlords.
While there are are over 1,500 different Bitcoin-esque monies, the number is still climbing. And soon, the newest may be Otaku Coin.
Otaku Coin
First announced in December 2017, the Japanese shop Tokyo Otaku Mode announced the formation of a committee to create Otaku Coin. Not much information was provided outside of the general idea: Otaku Coin could be earned from being a fan or bought from the issuer, and then Otaku Coin could be spent on merchandise or to be given to anime/manga/game creators. The Otaku Coin Committee’s partners and advisors listed high-powered figures like the president of Shogakukan, the head of anime studio GENCO, the CEO of Anime News Network, and, of course, several members of Tokyo Otaku Mode.
On May 9th, Otaku Coin released its first official proposal for the cryptocurrency, which can be read here. Among the key points:
- Otaku Coin’s target date is the Summer and Fall of 2018.
- 100 billion coins will be available with no additional coins outside of this all-at-once launch.
- About 39% of the coins will be used toward operating costs including the personnel, IT development, and marketing.
- Coinholders can vote on projects and ideas starting in 2019.
- Otaku Coin will have its own wallet feature.
Now, in many ways, the ideas of Otaku Coin sound promising. Fans can earn coins just for doing things they normally do (watch anime, spread news on social media), and they can redeem their coins on a marketplace to get goods or use them in a Kickstarter- and Go-Fund-Me-like fashion. Win/win, right?
Well…
The Value of Otaku Coin
Advocates of cryptocurrencies say that it’s safe. Just ride out the downs, and sell when it’s up. It’s still a risk, though. Even ANN founder Christopher Macdonald, who was on the advisory board before resigning, is unsure whether Otaku Coin will fulfill its intended mission:
I still believe the project's goals are salutary and that it is worth researching whether or not cryptocurrency can be used to achieve those goals. I remain skeptical as to whether or not it can be, but it's absolutely worth doing the research.
— Christopher Macdonald (@ANN_Ed) February 23, 2018
A Japanese article from Nikkei (Google Translate version here) provides additional information that wasn’t included in the Concept Paper. Of the 61% of Otaku Coin that will be used, only 5% will be allocated to anime and manga fans; the remaining 56% will be for production companies.
The initial value will be 1 Coin = 1 yen (about $.01 USD), but Tokyo Otaku Mode CEO Naomitsu Kodaka is optimistic that the 100 million yen worth of Otaku Coin could turn into 10 billion to 100 billion yen, thus boosting the industry.
That’s… certainly a lofty goal.
The Money Breakdown
Some skeptics have commented on that an almost 40% return to Tokyo Otaku Mode seems high. As this Forbes article reminds readers, that would be over $350 million for operating costs. A Japanese Tweet accusing Otaku Coin being a scam has gone viral with 11,000 retweets.
https://twitter.com/nyantarou_mona/status/994149142992568323
Anime News Network points out that a recent cryptocurrency based on the same platform and set amount of coins also kept 40%:
“At launch, 60% of the coins were given to users who purchased the Huobi Pro “Point Card” as a loyalty point system, while the remaining 40% was reserved for platform operation, team incentives, and user rewards.”
So while they kept the same percentage, more was available directly for cryptocurrency buyers instead of being reserved in a separate fund.
Why not just use Bitcoin or something else to avoid all these operating costs? As their FAQ explains:
“When we presented the concept paper in May 2018, we announced the voting platform SPIRIT VOTE (name subject to change), which will be one of Otaku Coin’s biggest characteristics. On SPIRIT VOTE, Otaku Coin holders will be given voting rights (voting tokens) that they can use to contribute on deciding which projects will be developed, making the voting platform also a fundraising platform.
There is no other cryptocurrency in existence with these sorts of special functions and platforms.”
There are a lot of questions about voting and using these reserved funds. Do projects have to be approved by Tokyo Otaku Mode? Or can any creator who will take Otaku Coin submit an idea? What happens if a proposal goes unfinished or runs into roadblocks? Is there any protection against someone organizing a brigade stuffing the as-yet-unknown vote for a series that the majority of the community is not interested in? For a game, for instance, do fans have to come up with the whole production costs?
Still, though, as long as fans can directly influence executives and support the creators, what else do they need?
Well, we don’t know who or what else will be accepting Otaku Coin. Obviously, Tokyo Otaku Mode will be, but the CEO said in March there are still no event or streaming companies that will be accepting Otaku Coin. So if you become an Otaku Billion Coin-aire, can someone really save the industry if the only use is buying statues and artbooks?
In fact, Tokyo Otaku Mode already runs divisions where fans can buy goods, specialty and/or exclusive items, request items, and crowdfund projects. That’s not to mention all the other outlets that cover one or more of these features. So a lot of Otaku Coin’s uses are far from unique, and they are strongly tied to Tokyo Otaku Mode’s established divisions.
The Canipa Effect points out that even if anime studios accept Otaku Coin, freelancers and underpaid low-level animators will likely to receive little to no benefit, and the video openly wonders about Tokyo Otaku Mode’s intentions:
However, popular creators and well-known figures will get more money in almost any industry, and of course Tokyo Otaku Mode executives are going to try to get their users involved in Otaku Coin and vise versa.
Spreading the Wealth and News
The Canipa Effect and Alicia Haddick (on her blog and Twitter) also point out that some Otaku Coin cheerleaders have been seen at Tokyo Otaku Mode headquarters. Well, review copies and samples have been around for ages, but YouTube in particular has more and more content that seems to be blurring the line between paid and unpaid promotion, official and unofficial sponsor. It’s up to you to judge whether the opinions of
But it also leads to another potential pitfall of Otaku Coin: mining and bots. It would be great if a typical Facebook user or blogger could gain some free cryptocurrency for talking about a series or linking the latest merchandise, but computer-savvy individuals can set up accounts that can share content far faster than any individual. If you’ve been following the news, corporations are fighting to remove fake accounts on social media and computer-assisted accounts on games.
Yes, 5 million Otaku Coins sounds like a lot, but think of it this way: Crunchyroll alone has over 1 million paid subscribers. Include regular members, and that rises to over 20 million members. With numbers like that, scarcity proclaims either one of two things is bound to happen: fans will either get a minimal number of Otaku Coin, or a few high-profile members will get their hands on most of them. Even if mining is somehow prevented, depending on how the fan coins are allocated, people with a lot of followers (real or not) may be able to scoop up a lot of Otaku Coin through referrals and stuff.
Since Otaku Coin has no plans on offering any more coins, it could prevent a lot of people from jumping in.
My Thoughts
Personally, I have never understood the appeal of cryptocurrencies. Then again, I think the ticket system Renta used to use was dumb, and loot and blind boxes are awful. Just tell me what it’s going to cost to get what I want!
Otaku Coin’s launch is still several months away, but considering this is the only real information to have come out of the committee since December, they should have had more details.
Think of it this way: someone came to you and pitched the idea of opening an anime-related store. No, they don’t know what specifically they’re going to sell. No, they haven’t gotten any solid commitment from distributors. They’re going to run it, but 40% of the initial investment is going to their related expenses even though they’re the one who is going to run it. Only 5% of sales are going to go to a pot you can access; the rest will be held for the store’s next investment which customers can vote on. Oh, but you can go promote the heck out of the store for some pennies that might be worth $1 one day if all goes well. Would you trust such a proposition?
Even if Tokyo Otaku Mode has the right idea that creators should be going outside of the traditional venues (anime production committees, magazine editors, large game studios), there are ways to do this without a cryptocurrency. If people don’t spend approximately $10 for an anime subscription or manga volume, are they really going to buy into a strange, risky currency system?
I doubt it.