DegenDemon

I really admire companies like Bandai and Bushiroad. They've built great games and communities around licensed IP that fans love. We're taking our own approach at Azuki by building the TCG and manga together in-house with our own IP. It's a lot of work. We're developing the game while also writing the story and creating the characters. Owning the IP means we can connect the two directly without a separate licensor approving which characters we use, what art is allowed, etc My thesis is that building both together will create a more immersive, community-driven game. You can meet a character in the manga, learn their story, and find them in the game. And that character may be from a holder's pfp, making people from our community part of the world we're creating. Pretty sick imo Here's some of what the team has been working on across both fronts: • AZUKI chapter 2 releases next week • Azuki TCG 1st Anniversary Collection opens for preorder next Tuesday 9am PT • Fractured Domains, our second TCG set, releases November 20 • Garden Arena Regionals announced in NorCal and Florida, with more to come. The Midwest Regional in Peoria is next, and Nationals in Vegas are announced for May 2027 • More holders' characters featured on TCG cards in Set 2 • European expansion starting at SPIEL Essen • Manga reader UX improvements on our site • Working with dope TCG creators like Good Time Society on tutorials and playthroughs • Manga manuscript art prints available now for collectors We're not a huge company with a wildly successful IP (yet). But we make up for it with a small team of passionate creatives and a community who's been a part of this journey since day 1. I wanted to write this post and keep showing more of the work going into both the manga and TCG. Really proud of the team building this. This is only the first chapter (quite literally 😂). Much more to come!

Some late night reflections 🍜 ... Azuki's active holder base is probably the smallest it's ever been. And at the same time, this is the most excited I've been in a long time. When we started yrs ago, there was abundant liquidity and huge dreams. It felt like there was no limit to what a project could become. Nike was acquiring RTFKT. It was hard not to get lost in the sauce. During that time ppl joined Azuki for all sorts of reasons: the art, decentralized brand, tech innovation, fashion, IRL events, or the chance to make some bread. Often some combination of those things. That was part of what made the early days so special. But it also meant people could love Azuki while having very different ideas of what it should become. With a new clothing brand, expectations are usually clearer: you like the clothes, you buy them. With Azuki, people were imagining entirely different futures for the same project, and tbf we gave them a lot of different things to be excited about. Over time, it became clear to me that airdrops and hype announcements could only take us so far. We needed to build something people would keep coming back to, something that could sustain itself and reach people beyond our existing community. About a year ago, I decided to be much clearer about what that meant for Azuki. We're building a TCG and growing the IP through a manga (and hopefully one day an anime adaptation), based on the characters our community holds. That direction reflects our team's strengths, what the market is telling us, and what I personally want to spend years building. It also builds on what we've learned from making anime content over the years. Committing to it meant saying no to other things. Some of those were the very things people joined for. I understand why someone could care deeply about Azuki and still feel disappointed by that choice. But trying to keep every possible version of Azuki alive would make it impossible to do any of them well. Those early days does hold a special place in my heart. There was nothing quite like it. The people who were part of that chapter helped make it what it was, whether they're still here or have moved on. And today, I've seen firsthand how much players are enjoying the TCG. They're asking about the characters in it. And now they can read the first chapter of the manga and dive deeper into the story. I've even seen a player pick up an OG Azuki because they thought it was sick that they could actually own a character and make it their identity. Seeing that happen means a lot to me. It gives me a real reason to believe we can bring more people into this world through what we're making. We're smaller today, and choosing this direction has come with trade-offs. But I feel really good about where we're going and the community we're building it with. I haven't felt this much conviction in a long time. IKZ 🫡