citizen1639 ▚▘▚▘▚▘

[Majin 魔人 @majinbysoto]

This was our first concept of the Smoking Duck. You can scroll right to discover its unique superpower 👀

[Majin 魔人 @majinbysoto]

Original companion design (Smoking Duck)

[Majin 魔人 @majinbysoto]

SOLD! ｜ $36,245 (13.3 ETH)

The auction on @manifoldxyz for the first Majin NFT closed on September 18 with the final bid of $36,245 (13.3 ETH).

Huge congratulations to the winner and new owner of our 1/1 Fallen Angel artwork! We're sure you will enjoy the matching grail in our PFP collection and the large physical edition which comes with this masterpiece.

I also want to express a huge THANK YOU｜感謝 to all our supporters and bidders. It has been exciting to see the price increase beyond what I had expected. We will continue to build and work on delivering one of the most beautiful collections on-chain.

It's the best motivation anyone could wish for to see such overwhelming demand and appreciation by serious collectors. It also makes me incredibly bullish on the choice of our mint price.
As you might know, we're aiming to mint for around 0.15 ETH. Considering that even at this very early stage we already have an NFT selling for over 13 ETH is absolutely crazy. I think this tells us a lot about the opportunity which we have for creating value for holders.

I'm very much looking forward to reveal new characters and artwork, and to continue creating an incredibly aesthetic and unique IP.

— Sōtō｜ソウトウ

[Majin 魔人 @majinbysoto]

Not all monsters are bad.

beach house - space song (slowed + reverb)

[Majin 魔人 @majinbysoto]

The reason people value hand drawn art over AI content is emotional satisfaction. If something was created by hand it contains: TIME.
And time equals effort. The artist had to learn the craft, hone it, and then put it to work with intent and passion.
AI on the other hand produces everything in seconds by recycling things which already exist. There's no effort behind it. It doesn't actually --create--.

Let me give you an example. Let's say you'd hand your mother a letter that expresses your gratitude and love for her. How do you think she'd react if you told her AI wrote it. She'd be disappointed, right?
Because even if you gave AI the input and even if AI maybe wrote the letter better than you could have yourself, it lacks the effort. It's simply not real.

And no matter how good AI will get, this void can never be filled. Anyone bullish on AI art or AI movies is completely out of touch with human nature. We do not value things which contain zero effort. Naturally we understand that they are hollow copies of the real thing and hence worthless.

Traditional art has proven the same point a long time ago. You can buy almost perfect replicas of famous paintings. But why are they worth so much less? Because, again, the artist can only give his soul to the artwork once. It cannot be copy pasted by plagiarizing the original.

Humans value time, effort, passion, and a love for the craft. That will never change. Never. In fact, that appreciation will only grow stronger as the world is flooded with slop.

That's why Majin builds on the foundation which Azuki laid. We honor the craft, we respect artistic integrity, and we make sure you can feel the soul in everything we create.

[Majin 魔人 @majinbysoto]

The NFT space has progressed so much over the years that simply “being better” isn’t enough anymore. You have to be different too.
That’s why I pursue novelty in the unique aesthetic of Majin. The more art we create that's interesting to you because you've never seen anything like it before, the more we set ourselves apart from everyone else.

[Majin 魔人 @majinbysoto]

For the creation of our logo we relied on hand-brushed calligraphy by a Japanese artist. We went through hundreds of analog iterations before we arrived at the version which you see below.
Even the color is based on 朱色 (shuiro), which means; vermilion, and is a traditional orange-red.
Everything we do is done with purpose, great attention to detail, and respect for Japanese tradition.

[Majin 魔人 @majinbysoto]

In the next live streams we'll start diving into the utility and roadmap of Majin. Because behind the pretty packaging, there's an absolute beast of a ponzi, sorry, I mean fully sustainable economic model.

[Majin 魔人 @majinbysoto]

The key to exciting a big audience is simplicity. Because no matter how great your product might be, if it's not attractive on a surface level and easy to understand, you'll have a tough timing scaling.

This is why we put a tremendous amount of work into the visuals of Majin. What we want to achieve is that it only takes one short glance to evoke the curiosity of the viewer. And any closer look immediately sparks the thought: "Damn, this looks good!"

If you manage to achieve that, then there's a very good chance for attention and growth to accelerate. It's also the straight path to mass adoption. Not explanations, but visual appeal, and fundamentals + utility to back it up.

[Majin 魔人 @majinbysoto]

We'll stream live tomorrow in the @vvvdotnet Discord server.

Tune in for new art, fresh alpha, EXP codes, and chips rewards!

5 pm CET / 8 am PT / 11 am ET

[Majin 魔人 @majinbysoto]

The first challenge goes live tomorrow. Access will be shared in the private Discord.

[Majin 魔人 @majinbysoto]

Starting next week, our server members can compete in brutal roguelike games for additional EXP and more.

After the private test run we'll open it up to everyone. Expect frustration, excitement, and victory. Just don't be slow, otherwise someone else might have redeemed your reward already 👹

[Majin 魔人 @majinbysoto]

Looks like we got invaded by @BEANZOfficial over night. Show me your PFPs 👇👀

[Majin 魔人 @majinbysoto]

You voted, so we will make it happen.

Get ready for the first livestream outside of the private Majin server!

[Majin 魔人 @majinbysoto]

Another Sunday night, scheming and dreaming about world domination.

[Majin 魔人 @majinbysoto]

One interesting observation I made is that trait rarity not always dictates price.

Meaning certain traits might be more rare on paper but less valued by collectors. And other traits might be slightly more common but highly sought after because of their aesthetics.

That further means, especially early on, be very careful what you buy/sell. Because the market will reprice traits according to taste, and not solely based on rarity numbers.

On the other hand, if you have a good feeling for what people might value visually, you could be able to make some great buys before the prices increase.

[Majin 魔人 @majinbysoto]

One key aspect I pursue is variety and creative diversity amongst traits and items. I believe this is what makes collections interesting to holders and where you as the creator can showcase your passion for the project.
That's why I go out of my way to avoid conventional traits that have already been (over)done by other collections (for example laser eyes, pirate hat, zombie).

But the real challenge is that you can't get rid of "boring" traits per se. Because the less desirable traits are those which differentiate floor NFTs from more expensive ones. That means you kind of have to make some characters less cool or more plain. Otherwise you might dilute the value at the top.
Then, yet again, you do not want floor NFTs to look bad. Otherwise the collection is not attractive to new buyers or you potentially hurt the quality of the brand.

So I'm working very carefully on making floor NFTs look great, but grails phenomenal... while at the same time balancing a clear visual differentiation between rarities.

[Majin 魔人 @majinbysoto]

This is one of the earliest concepts for the worldbuilding of Majin. The purpose of these illustrations is to visualize ideas for the brand. It’s also a way to test the color palette, get a better feeling for the “vibe”, place items or traits within the world of Majin, and to explore how we can communicate scale through art.
Again, this is just a concept so don’t get too attached to it. But a variation of the "black broken halo" will be one of the many traits in the collection.

[Majin 魔人 @majinbysoto]

How it feels to be whitelisted: