Will You0 DECO be the best demonstration of near-future metaverse application scenarios?

After the miraculous "Summer of NFTs" in 2021, the blockchain market will usher in a cold winter again in June 2022, with the Federal Reserve raising interest rates, the death of the currency star LUNA, and the bear market of US stocks and other environmental conditions. , Bitcoin also fell below the $20,000 mark, and the bear market is coming, and it will be difficult to survive in the cryptocurrency market.

However, in the past year, the market has established expectations for the concept of the Metaverse and Web3. Meta, formerly Facebook, announced in early May that it will launch NFT-related functions for Instagram after 7 months of rebranding, and recently announced Certain creators will be opened to display and sell NFT works on Facebook, not to mention that Youtube also announced at the beginning of the year that it will invest in the NFT market. Perhaps the best way to overcome this bear market is to wait and take advantage of the market slowdown. Planning, after all, those who are involved in the market are well aware that there is still a long way to go before the concept of the Metaverse is implemented, and the real killer application has yet to be incubated.

However, a Japanese original animation work " You0 DECO" (Yuレイデコ, You0 DECO), which will premiere in July 2022, may reveal the development direction that Web3 applications are very likely to achieve before humans fully enter the virtual world.

The original story of this work was created by two well-known directors and screenwriters, Yuasa Masaki and Sato Dai , and was produced by the Science SARU animation studio co-founded by Yuasa Masaki and Korean producer Choi Eun Young. Yuasa Masaaki, who was awarded the "Purple Ribbon Medal" by the Japanese government, directed "Four Layers and a Half Myths", "Ping-Pong" and "Don't Do It!" ” and other unique visual narrative experience works, and also participated in the production of “Fantastic Food Chain” in the sixth season of “Adventure Time”. Dai Sato has participated in the screenwriting of many sci-fi animation works, including “Cowboy Bebop” and “Carbon Change”. " and "Ghost in the Shell" series and other important works with the background of the future world, and as the director of this work Tomohisa Shimoyama , in addition to serving as the original painting of "Alchemist of Steel", also participated in Hosoda Mamoru , From the works of representative Japanese animation directors such as Jin Min , from such a god-level combination, "Zero Mirage" is definitely a work worth looking forward to.

Personalized implant that reproduces the five senses

The background of "Zero Mirror" is set in the alternate world "Tom Sawyer Island" named after the protagonist of the famous American writer Mark Twain's classic book "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" (The Adventures of Tom Sawyer). One of thepermanent attractions of Disneyland, the official name and content vary by location. "Tom Sawyer Island" in this work is a future city where reality and virtuality are intertwined. All the operations of the city are managed by data by an organization called a "call center".

97% of the new generation of citizens on the island will have a decorative and personalized device called "DECO" implanted in their eyes before the age of four. Simply put, it is an ultra-high-tech VR/AR device. With the assistance of the "DECO" device, residents can It is possible to realize a new lifestyle of "hyper-reproduction space" that travels back and forth between virtual space and real space, and "DECO" can not only process visual information for decoration, but also reproduce sensory information such as hearing, smell, taste and touch.

A monetary system that integrates public services

The heroine of the story, Bailey, is an ordinary girl who talks about the mantra of "super love" (らぶい). Her parents work in the "customer service center" on the island. In the plot of the first episode, through her daily life Life demonstrates how the "DECO" system works. The animation begins with an adaptation of the Greek mythological giant "Argos". The adapted version of the story is a bit like an insinuation of the social platform giants who monitor users' every move. , but this is my interpretation, and then the teacher in Bailey's class began to explain the development history of "Tom Sawyer Island". In this future city, students do not need to go to the school in person, but enter the "DECO" generation. In this virtual environment, you can interact with teachers and classmates in real time. Of course, in this virtual environment, you can also choose your favorite "Avatar" virtual avatar to attend. Seeing this, do you feel that there is a Web3 application of PFP NFTs here?

Of course, the function of "DECO" is not only that, if you are happy, you can even change the appearance of the whole city in your eyes through the augmented reality function - as long as you can afford the corresponding amount of "LOVE" currency, "LOVE" "Like like or love on social platforms that we are familiar with, it is an extremely important part of the social interaction of "Tom Sawyer Island" residents. Islanders earn "LOVE" currency through mutual evaluation to exchange for various public services. The number of "LOVE" owned by everyone is open and transparent. There is a shadow of LikeCoin, an Ethereum- based application, and Bailey's mantra of course also echoes the setting of the "LOVE" evaluation mechanism in the story. .

Our distance from hackers

Because of its open and transparent information record management, "Tom Sawyer Island" has become a model city to achieve the goal of zero crime rate, but since it is an information city, it must be accompanied by the existence of hackers. The urban legend of "Zero Phenomenon", which caused a large-scale "LOVE" forced to zero, at the same time, "Monster 0" is also the name of a game that allows citizens to log in to solve puzzles. The English version of "Phantom Zero" is called "Phantom Zero" in the introduction of the English version of the official website, and the "You0" (pronounced YouRei) of the English name "You0 DECO" is the homonym of "ghost" in Japanese.

Bailey loves this mysterious incident, and also established a "weird 0 countermeasure room" with friends, and because of the "DECO" fault in her right eye, Bailey was able to track and use "DECO camouflage" to hide her whereabouts, suspected of "weird 0". "The hacker and parkour master Hack (Japanese: ハック, the Chinese translation name has not yet appeared in the first episode, I guess it is very likely to use Tom's friend Hack as the translation name), and the audience also witnessed Bailey's stalking her on the way. Hack uses "social engineering" (Social Engineering) to deceive other people's "LOVE" process, such a bridge can be said to be very well explained.

A possible pre-metaverse concept

Judging from the currently revealed settings, it may be more or less reminiscent of the first cyberpunk animation work " Computer Coil " directed by Iso Mitsuo , who also participated in the production of "Cowboy Bebop" and "Ghost in the Shell" ( Electric 脳コイル) world view, should it be said that heroes see the same thing? By the way, the theme of another animation work "Outer Earth Boys and Girls" that he served as the original and director is also quite interesting, and interested friends can watch it on Netflix .

As far as the content of the first episode is concerned, I think the world view of this work does present a pre-metaverse concept that is quite possible, although there are many barriers to current hardware technology in a short period of time It needs to be overcome, and whether it is fair to set up purely social interaction as a currency earning channel, let alone a system governed by a "customer service center" has fundamentally lost the concept of decentralization of blockchain technology and other obvious issues exist. , To connect with the real-world technological development, there are still many aspects to consider, but after all, this is still a sci-fi animation work rather than a public utility planning blueprint, and the setting is close enough to reality and very interesting.

In an exclusive interview with Japanese pop culture website MANTAN WEB for Daisuke Sato and Tomohisa Shimoyama, director Shimoyama asked whether the future of information technology is utopia or dystopia. Director Shimoyama replied: "I think my approach is utopia. style... (middle) We are trying to describe a world where technology is developing steadily and people are living a healthy life. In today's world, some people feel happy and some people don't, so maybe someone who sees "Zero Mirror" will think that it is It’s a dystopia, but it’s still a relatively happy world.” I think the director’s answer echoes my feeling after watching it. Although this work has many overly ideal settings compared to the real world, it has shaped an environment that makes People can yearn for the future world, and I look forward to the subsequent episodes to bring us more imaginations about Web3 or Metaverse applications.

"Zero Mirror" will be available on Ani-One Asia YouTube every Sunday at 22:00 (UTC+8).

Official website: https://yureideco.com/
Twitter: @yureideco

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