Animation studio GONZO revealed on Tuesday a new video for its "SAMURAI cryptos" blockchain and NFT project, titled "SAMURAI RELIGION."
Ai Yokoyama (character design and chief animation director for Space Battleship Tiramisu series, character design and animation for Bayonetta: Bloody Fate film) directed the video and was also in charge of storyboard.
The "SAMURAI RELIGION" video features the character song for Amakusa Shiro titled, "Gloria (feat. Nozomi Tanabe, Mikey, B Swamp & Mayuko Kubota)" by AI singer Topaz. The AI singer was created by the latest AI singing software from the GEMVOX project.
The "SAMURAI cryptos" project launched in 2021. 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 features designs by Makoto Kobayashi (Last Exile, Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ), Michinori Chiba (Basilisk, Sk8 the Infinity), Hiroya Iijima (Afro Samurai, Mazinger Z: Infinity), Range Murata (Last Exile, Solty Rei), Junichi Takaoka (The Tower of Druaga: The Aegis of Uruk), Ugetsu Hakua (Burst Angel), and Ai Yokoyama.
Former Gainax members founded the anime studio GONZO in 1992. The company merged with Shinichirō 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.