It appears that a major NFT project may be in hot water for illegally using the franchise.
NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, are being produced by a growing number of businesses and properties. Boruto appears to have been used to perpetuate yet another of the numerous scams associated with the new speculative art market.
Scammers claiming to have officially licensed NFTs of Naruto properties, according to the official Boruto Twitter account, have posted notices to warn potential fans of the franchise.
This announcement is most likely in response to Boruto Inu, a cryptocurrency and NFT project.
It’s understandable that the Naruto and Boruto brands would want to avoid any ties to NFTs. Not only does the creation of these tokens tend to enrage fans of other franchises, but Shonen Jump — the Shueisha Inc. imprint that publishes Boruto — has gone out of its way in the past to assure fans that major announcements would not be for NFTs on social media.
Many other well-known figures have spoken out against NFTs as well. They’ve been dubbed “scams” by popular Twitch streamer xQc, and fellow streamer Asmongold has also slammed the tokens and those who buy them. Several major game producers have also expressed reservations about the use of NFTs, including Josef Fares, the director of It Takes Two, who stated that he would “rather be shot in the knee” than use them in his games.
While some may argue that NFTs are here to stay, the results of companies that have implemented them appear to indicate that they are nothing more than a passing fad and possibly a bad investment.
When Neopets launched their own NFTs, the website’s user base plummeted as previous fans boycotted the game in protest. While NFTs were available in Ubisoft’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint, they sold poorly, making them a bad investment for both the company and speculative players.
Even so, it appears that the world of anime and manga will continue to play with NFTs. Toei Animation is currently working on an anime called Zombie Zoo based on a nine-year-art old’s collection, and Fanworks is collaborating with Tokyo Otaku Mode on a show based on the CryptoNinja non-fungible token project.
For the time being, fans of Naruto and Boruto can relax about their favorite characters becoming NFTs because the company behind them does not appear to want that to happen. Crunchyroll and Hulu are currently streaming Boruto: Naruto Next Generations.
