NFT Project Spotlight: Anata, the Metaverse’s Anime VTuber NFTs

Anata is a collection of 2,000 Live2D VTuber NFTs that allow holders to bring their online identities to life. Crypto Briefing sat down with Big D Senpai, one of Anata’s developers, to explore everything the project has to offer. 

What Are Anata NFTs?

Anata NFTs are bringing VTubing to the crypto space. 

The project lets owners replace their webcam view with a fully animated motion capture-controlled avatar. Each avatar replicates the user’s facial expressions and movements, allowing the person behind the NFT to stay “anon” while presenting a personal representation of themselves to the world.  

VTubing (short for virtual YouTubing) first gained popularity in Japan but has quickly become a hit with western audiences too. Originating from the Japanese site Hololive, several anime-inspired VTubers have risen to prominence, attracting millions of views on streaming platforms such as Twitch. Top western streamers such as Pokimaine and Pewdipie have also experimented with motion capture avatars, exposing the trend to an even wider audience. 

However, VTubing can be a complicated process. Commissioning a high-quality avatar with advanced rigging and meshing can cost thousands of dollars, and getting to grips with complex VTubing software is often time-consuming. 

Enter Anata. By creating Live2D avatars represented by NFTs on Ethereum, Anata can seamlessly integrate VTuber identities with Web3 wallets through a browser extension called Hologram. This lets holders set their Anata NFTs for use in any application that allows a webcam. Anata NFTs can be used on Zoom, Google Meet, and Discord, while also integrating with streaming software, and even video sharing platforms like TikTok.

Those who own Anata NFTs don’t need to host the avatar’s files or run VTubing software on their own machine; instead, everything is hosted on the decentralized file storage platform Arweave, meaning access to an Anata avatar through Hologram is only ever one click away. Hologram also lets users set other NFTs in their wallets as the background for their VTuber avatar. That allows for users to use their generative art pieces or other NFTs in tandem with their Anata…