Astro Boy NFTs announced: usable in Play-to-Earn NFT card game

NOBORDER.z, Tezuka Productions, and J&J Business Development Corp. have announced Astro Boy Japan NFT that are usable in NOBORDER.z’s NFT marketplace XANALIA, the NFT based metaverse XANA, and the NFT Play-to-Earn trading card game NFTDUEL. They are being made to collaborate with and promote local cities in Japan to attract tourism and support the local economies affected by the ongoing COVID-19 situation.

Basically, they are using the popular Japanese manga/anime IPAstro Boy to sell NFTs (Non-fungible token) usable in their metaverse and NFT game while giving part of the profits to local businesses. Perhaps coincidentally, the announcement was made on the anniversary of Astro Boy manga artist Osamu Tezuka’s death (February 9).

They also aim to stimulate inbound tourism demand in preparation for a post-COVID-19 world. According to their press release, these NFTs are filled with the cultural appeal of each locale, and users can monetize by selling or combining them with other cards to generate new ones.

The first batch from the collaboration is being done with Tottori Prefecture and its cities/towns such as Tottori City, Kurayoshi City, Misasa Town, Kofu Town, and Chizu Town. The newly announced NFTs will supposedly promote Tottori’s various scenic spots, culture, and local cuisine.

NOBORDER.z is an AR/VR entertainment company known for services that utilize blockchain technology, notably the NFT marketplace XANALIA and NFT based metaverse XANA. Their NFT trading card game NFTDUEL is scheduled to launch within the XANA metaverse in Q1 2022. And Astro Boy isn’t the first IP NFTDUEL is collaborating with. NOBORDER.z announced last year that they are making NFT based on the Ultraman manga series.

The reply section of XANA’s announcement tweet is filled with suspiciously samey congratulatory comments like the other tweets before it. I can’t shake off the feeling of doubt when seeing promotional activities like these. But to be fair, the Astro Boy collaboration itself seems legitimate. Not some stolen art.

Speaking of Astro Boy and trading card games, there once was a free-to-play digital card game called Astro Boy: Edge of Time created by Active Gaming Media, our website’s owner. Unfortunately, the service ended in March of 2018. But it looks like Astro Boy managed to find its way back into the digital card game market.

[Update 2022/02/09 21:48 JST] fixed grammatical errors.