Howdy fellows! Today we are sitting down with Filip Vantchev,The Co-Founder of Anime Gang. Let's get into it.
Chris: An epidemic that is sweeping the streets and spreading doom... Everyone loves a good anime storyline. What inspired this project?
Filip: What motivated us? The sheer absurdity of the situation in the world as well as our power to create something unique that can bring meaning to us and the people in our community. We wanted to paint a picture with our story - a deadly virus called De2o (death to all), an elite part of society that created a limited 10000 pill batch (the only known cure for the virus), and the first test subject that stole all the pills. The only side effect reported is that taking the pill turns you into an anime character. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeLVZkW0RL4) The first test subject went into hiding in a bar where he distributed the pills to all that took interest. Everyone that took the pill became a member of what's known as the Anime Gang.
Chris: Have you been in the NFT space for long? Who is on your team?
Filip: We have been in the NFT space for quite a while and we started as a small collective that wanted to create something special - not follow footsteps but make a new path. No monkeys, no doodles. Rough and edgy / street culture aesthetic with a heavy anime influence. We started planning this before BAYC released their collection and we've been working on it behind the scenes for more than 10 months. At 10,000 mints we will lock 150 ETH for our DAO treasury.
The team behind the project is fully doxxed - no empty promises and full transparency. Who are we:
The founder and the artist behind the collection is Philip Arnaudov. He is a professional portrait artist and he is hands down, one of the best when it comes to personalized anime/manga art.
The co-founders and the DEV team behind the project are Ivan Avramov and Alexander Karamanov. Ivan Avramov is a motivated software engineer with a passion for resolving complex tech challenges. He has worked for Audi, one of the biggest local e-commerce websites, and several online media. A. Karamanov - Graduated in mathematics and informatics, with experience in developing various products and software. Currently working as a developer (contractor) for big telecommunication companies such as Vonage and Vodafone.
N.Radulovik is the other artist who brings life to the characters through animation, storytelling, manga concepts, and overall creative input in the team. He currently works as an art director for Robo.bg and as a test subject in the Dark Corp. Inc.
Philip Vantchev is behind the marketing. He's been active in the crypto space for the last five years in various capacities and has been grinding on several projects in the field. He's also one of the founders and the CEO of the largest crypto media in Bulgaria.
Chris: How many NFTs will be sold during the first drop on 1 to 8 February? What will be the cost and minting process, and do you have a whitelist?
Filip: Phase 01 will be active for the first 1,000 NFTs and it ends on the 6th of February at 20:00 GMT. The cost is 0.09 ETH per NFT and there is no whitelist (The whitelist was for phase 0), but we plan to distribute benefits and privileges to all members that minted during each phase
Chris: So Anime Gang has 10 exclusive NFTs, what does this mean exactly? What will holders of these NFTs have that others don’t?
Filip: The 10 exclusive NFTs have custom effects and animations added to them. All of them will be available for mint and there will be 1 hidden "Exclusive" inside each 1,000 NFTs. All 10 Exclusive NFTs will be included in the manga and the anime among 10 other random NFTs from our collection, giving everyone the chance of owning an anime Gang member who has a role in the story. Owning an exclusive NFT basically guarantees you a spot in the manga/anime story. Who knows, maybe you can be the protagonist of the series!
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Chris: And the utilities? Everyone wants to know about utilities. We know that as soon as you reach 10% of your road map, you will give away 10 NFTs. What other cool giveaways are in store for the members?
Filip: We want to revolutionize the anime/manga medium and do something that has never been done before - this is the first NFT led manga/anime where the characters are chosen among the NFTs, and under our DAO structure the story will be created BY the community as each NFT gives you one vote in our governance structure. In our roadmap, we have several giveaways planned as part of major milestones. We've planned for a total of 25 NFTs and 20 Ethereum to giveaway before reaching the final stage. At that point, we'll implement a DAO structure and give the holders access to 150 ETH for them to develop the project as they see fit.
Chris: The Anime Gang is obviously looking to build a strong community of like-minded individuals. What are some of the values and qualities of this community that separate it from others?
Filip: While we don't like comparing ourselves to other NFT communities we realize it's quite important to harness the power of a loyal and invested community to reach the goals we've set for the project and go beyond.
What makes us unique are our goals and the way we decided to place them on our roadmap. Having the decentralized autonomous organization as a final milestone allows the community to build relations and create meaningful bonds before the voting system is established. That way there is more time for an exchange of ideas to happen in the community. Even at this point we see many people excitedly discussing how the Anime Gang can grow as a project after the DAO treasury is unlocked.
I guess this means that our core values are resonant with the ethos of decentralization. There were a lot of good ideas right from the get go, but we decided that the only way to go is to give voting power to holders.
Chris: This is one of the hottest anime projects out there right now. What’s the long term plan for the Anime gang?
Filip: Our ultimate goal is to establish a community based brand. Our roadmap goals are simply stepping stones to something much grander. The project's ultimate goal is to empower the holders to create a storytelling ecosystem and to use the promise of web3 to establish the foundation for interacting network effects that will add onto the anime's universe in exciting ways that we can't even fathom at this point.
Chris: You have a very active Discord and Twitter community. Where else can we follow your news?
Filip: Our main presence is on Discord and Twitter, as it's easiest to engage actively with our community there. We also have a Youtube channel and accounts in Instagram and Tiktok. Be sure to follow us there as well!
