Something that gets lost within the context of "holder expectations" and the work being done to bring Azuki into Anime:  WHAT IS THE POINT OF THE AZUKI ANTHOLOGY? For most, the perceived goal is that "this is the content that will bring us to the masses". And some even want to judge us by this, saying that Azuki's literal value is dependent on if this SINGLE EPISODE is a banger.  Now, don't get me wrong, we definitely believe that this is the start of that journey. But what most people don't realize, however, is that there is in fact a bigger goal. Bringing Azuki into ANIME. And by ANIME, I mean the massive, multi-billion dollar industry.  This isn't exclusively a fanbase or consumer or growth play. Instead, its even more so about building up our foundation, connections, credibility, and experience in the Anime industry. Setting the stage for us to do even bigger and more impactful things than even this. Stepping back a bit, building a traditional Anime franchise takes years. For most, its even DECADES. Start with a manga > find base > grow a base > gain attention > get bigger distribution > grow a bigger base > get more attention > start an adaptation > launch your Anime series w/ small distro > get bigger distro > get Tier 1 distro. The challenge with the web3 space is that no one has the patience for this normal path; holders paid $$$$, they expect an Anime Movie on Tier 1 streaming NOW. (I'm not exaggerating either, as a community member, I remember all of us speculating a movie *3 MONTHS* after mint just because Azuki's twitter account followed a streaming platform 😂). So our big challenge at Azuki is: how can we bring this brand, this IP, this project, and this community to the big stage as fast as possible? And in an industry that historically is hard to break into, is ultra competitive, and has extremely long timelines? Through the Anthology.  Perhaps the biggest goal with this was actually to showcase the power of our IP, and how it can align and attract some of the absolute best talent in the Industry. Director from Code Geass and One Piece Red. Creative from Zelda. Character Artists from Streetfighter. Voice Actors from Demon Slayer and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.  And with that as a stepping stone, as we work on even more ambitious projects, we can reach even higher. So yeah, do we think the Anthology is dope and will scale to millions of fans? Of course.  But even more importantly, the Anthology enables something even bigger: far stronger credibility to work with the very best. Azuki's story certainly doesn't live and die with this episode or even the Anthology series. It's quite literally the opposite; just the very very beginning of something far grander.