Preheating for a year and about to be released, will the Ether with a similar art style to Azuki be popular?

Last night, Azuki's new series "Azuki Elemental Beans" was officially released. Amidst widespread community attention and high expectations from investors, the outcome of the launch disappointed, leading to extensive questioning of Azuki's official operations. As a result, the prices of Azuki's NFT series plummeted, and many loyal Azuki holders started selling and leaving the community.

Among the many top NFT projects, Azuki stood out with its unique anime style and exquisite artwork. Last year, when Azuki faced FUD due to the background of its founding team, people shifted their attention to several NFT series similar in style to Azuki. These projects briefly saw an increase in prices, but most had short lifecycles. Azuki, on the other hand, quickly rebounded and secured its position as the second blue-chip after BAYC.

So, will there be alternative projects to attract users who left the community? Odaily noticed that Ether, established in 2022 and set to launch in 2 days, has garnered a high level of discussion.

On June 30th, Ether will be officially launched at a public price of 0.65 ETH. Although lower than Elementals, this price is still quite high in the bear market of NFTs. What makes this project unique?

(Community members are creating memes about this situation)

Ether is an anime-themed NFT project based on Ethereum. According to the project's own description, it "combines fashion, innovation, and storytelling". Unlike most standard PFP lace projects, this project consists of 10,000 characters.

Among the 10,000 characters, 5,000 are male and 5,000 are female. As for the character races, 50% of the characters are human, 30% are robots, 19% are vampires, and 0.95% are mutants.

In addition to regular characters, Ether also has 5 special 1/1 characters. The project team states that these 5 special characters play a crucial role in the Ether universe. These artworks will have exclusive preview animations and high recognition.

It is believed that each character has the potential to develop a storyline that aligns with the Ether brand identity.

The creator of Ether is VIII. According to the official website, VIII is a digital artist with extensive experience in the entertainment and gaming industries, having worked for various brands and public figures including Sony, Nike, and Epic Games. VIII has a long-standing interest in fashion, storytelling, and collectibles.

Long preheating and familiar narrative

In July 2022, Ether's official Twitter account posted its first tweet. Currently, this project has undergone nearly a year of preheating.

In the rapidly changing and short-lived NFT market, Ether is undoubtedly a very "slow" project that has not conducted any sales activities for nearly a year.

According to the information released on the official website, Ether aims to become one of the first luxury brands to create high-quality clothing and collectibles using blockchain technology. Ether is trying to build this IP into a powerful brand, striving to create a "collaborative and immersive narrative approach, breaking possible boundaries".

Currently, it is already the middle of 2023. The market has long transitioned from the bull market in 2021 to a deep bear market, and a turnaround is expected to come. However, in terms of narrative, Ether is still limited to the PFP design that was most "conventional" during the last bull market, without any new gameplay.

When it comes to the motivation behind the creation of Ether, the founder VIII explained that "after the concept of blockchain ownership emerged, he attempted to be one of the earliest artists to combine digital assets with physical goods."

In a podcast, the team explained their vision for Ether. They are trying to build Ether into a brand and hope to collaborate with well-known brands or IP in the future. They may also engage in quarterly release events or issue collaborative digital "skins." They are also trying to create an ideal digital identity for users through Ether.

Apart from beautiful material design and a long preparation time, Ether seems to have few highlights.

Azuki

Ether's public sale price is 0.65 ETH, while those on the whitelist (WL) can purchase at a discounted price of 0.35 ETH. Although lower than Azuki Elementals, this price is still considered quite high in the current market environment.

(Comparison Image of Azuki and Ether)

Previously, the release date of Azuki Elementals had not been confirmed for a long time. However, after Ether announced its release date, Azuki Elementals quickly confirmed its own release date. Many fans believe that Azuki deliberately chose this timing to compete with Ether, which has a similar art style, and steal their traffic.

However, this argument doesn't hold up, as Azuki Elementals was already sold out during the presale to Azuki owners and BEANZ holders, without offering a public sale opportunity. Although the project disappointed some, the strength of the Azuki community is evident, and it is also the audience that Ether hopes to attract.

According to official documents, the funds raised from the Mint will be used for the development of the Ether project, with plans to expand the team and execute the roadmap with the highest quality. 70% will be used for project financial management, 10% for charitable causes, and the remaining 20% for team building.

Currently, there are only 2 days left until the Ether sale. Can they make a strong start in terms of content quality and ignite a new spark in the cold NFT market? Odaily will continue to monitor its performance.

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