Japanese anime studio behind Dragon Ball wants to launch a blockchain game

Japanese anime production giant Toei Animation, known for generational series like Dragon Ball, One Piece, and Sailor Moon, has partnered with South Korean

Japanese anime studio Toei Animation, known for hit series like Dragon Ball, One Piece, and Sailor Moon, is partnering with South Korean blockchain firm Wemade to develop a blockchain game.

The game, which has the working title DenDenGarden, is based on Toei’s DenDekaDen intellectual property, which was launched in partnership with Japanese Web3 company Strata in 2022. DenDekaDen tells the story of seven Kyoto spirits striving to ascend to godhood.

The partnership represents a broader trend of Japanese entertainment content integrating with blockchain through gaming and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Earlier this year, Captain Tsubasa Rivals, a blockchain game inspired by the classic football manga, launched on the Japanese gaming ledger Oasys.

While Japan’s blockchain gaming market has onboarded notable developers like Bandai Namco and Sega, no blockchain game has yet achieved a major breakthrough, Ryo Manzoku, Oasys tech director, said in a recent interview.

This cautious adoption contrasts with South Korea, Wemade’s stomping grounds, where gamers showed more openness to blockchain games until play-to-earn was banned by local regulators in 2021. Wemade’s blockchain game MIR4 became a hit after launching in 2020, topping South Korea’s download charts before the crackdowns.

Wemade’s involvement in DenDenGarden also comes as the company is rebuilding its reputation. Its cryptocurrency WEMIX was delisted by major South Korean exchanges in 2022 over allegations of misreported circulation data.

Former CEO Chang Hyun-guk was indicted for falsifying information in August, an accusation he denied in his first trial hearing in September. Chang resigned from his post in March and founder Park Kwan-ho returned as CEO.