“Naruto” fans will have access to the popular anime franchise’s first-ever official digital cards app with Thursday’s worldwide launch of “Naruto Ninja Cards.”
\n\nDescribed as “a gamified card-collecting experience,” “Naruto Ninja Cards” lets app users collect the series’ most iconic characters in card form, uncover exclusive artworks, and enjoy real-time strategic activities with friends.
\n\nWhile the offering, the only free-to-play “Naruto” app on the App Store and Google Play, may seem like a small-scale project, the app has been five years in the making for Paris and Tokyo-based indie studio Sekai.
\n\nAfter launching as an anime-focused startup in 2021 and a few rounds of brainstorming and development talks, the initial four-person Sekai team set out to land the rights to make a “Naruto” app from Japanese broadcaster TV Tokyo. (There have been many unofficial “Naruto” apps and projects launched over the years, but few approved by the IP owner.) The network not only ended up partnering with Sekai, but also invested in the studio, marking its first investment in a Western company since it backed Crunchyroll.
\n\n“We spent a year and a half in Japan convincing the IP’s owners to trust us, and became the first foreign studio ever licensed…
Original source: https://variety.com/v/tv/