GM

When's the last time you reached out, grabbed a friend's phone when they weren’t looking, and signed them up to Mint or Skip?

Try it, it's exhilarating.

Links for the Top 25 drops are HERE.

Wasn’t expecting this

Context

Art Blocks announced that they’re officially raising their hands and calling for the spirit energy from weebs around the world (I’m paraphrasing).

Here’s what we know about Melancholic Magical Maiden, their upcoming anime-inspired Curated drop: 

• Artist: Emi Kusano

• Mint Date: Feb 28

• Supply: 300

• Price: Dutch Auction 

Our take

Art Blocks has not been having a fun 2024 so far. 

Attention seems to be drifting, Chromie Squiggles have been losing steam.

And then there’s this: two days ago, for the first time ever, the market cap of major gen art collections dropped below their cost basis in ETH.

In other words, on average, collections are now worth less than what they were initially bought for in ETH terms. 

What better time to mix things up? 

Bring in the anime 

Melancholic Magical Maiden feels unprecedented in a way. AB has worked with artists with some anime references (IIRC) but never with this kind of complete stylistic embrace. 

In short, MMM is a deep exploration of 90s anime themes. Think Sailor Moon, or the Magical Girl genre as Emi Kusano calls it. 

Traits include robots and teddy bears with big kawaii eyes and sparkly backgrounds made to look ever-so-slightly deep-fried from CRT TVs. 

These are then paired with kindergarten-level positivity phrases generated by AI, an ironic callback to corny 90s cut-scenes. 

The visuals intend to “encourage viewers to ponder the influence of childhood aspirations on their adult identity”, as stated in the artist notes. 

Emi previously captured this throw-back aesthetic with Shinsei Galverse, a PFP collection from 2022 that’s currently working on its own anime series. 

Now she’s collabing with creative coder Yurika Sayo to translate that same style into the Art Blocks gen-art format, with hopes that AB collectors also had access to Cartoon Network many years ago. 

Will they go for it? And if they do, will this kick off the Art Blocks senpai arc? 

Tune in next time for another episode ✨

NOTE: These drops are lightly curated. Our only requirement is that they have recognizable founders. As usual, DYOR. To learn more go here.

Palette by CFW

CFW, an artist known for their Pillheads series, is releasing their generative art collection Palette today, a collaboration with creative coder orb.

It’s the first big art collection using the new ERC404 token standard that popped up (and popped off) this past month.

You can read more about ERC404 here, but in simple terms, it allows NFTs to be fractionalized and traded like coins on a DEX, potentially increasing liquidity for these tokens.

Palette pays homage to the original Pillheads art while embracing this fresh innovation, appealing to both old and new fans of the artist.

Faster Than Light by makio135

Code Canvas, a Solana art platform founded in 2022, is rekindling its flame after a long hiatus and starting a brand new season of generative art tomorrow with makio135’s Faster Than Light.

This new collection comes more than 6 months after the last Code Canvas release and also will be the artist’s first Solana drop.

As good a collection as any for these new beginnings, given that the hyperspeed tunnels of light and color showcased in Faster Than Light do stand out in the vast sea of creative coding.

LINE by Figure31

Fancy some spatial NFTing? If so, LINE, tomorrow’s FingerprintDAO curated drop, might hit the spot.

Created by Canadian artist Figure31, LINE places panoramic photography shots of empty sunset scenes along a grid filled with coordinates.

Each photo is minted on a specific grid coordinate which affects its field of view (and the actual art on it), and holders can move their tokens (with onchain transactions) to change their position on the grid and their view.

A bit tough to grasp initially perhaps, but it’s an imaginative use of dynamism in art, essentially turning the tokens into onchain camera lenses. Dope.