Xross Road Secures Funding and Launches AI Manga Tool 'HANASEE'

Xross Road: Pioneering the Future of Manga with HANASEE

In a significant step forward for the world of animated storytelling, Xross Road has announced the completion of a $1.5 million pre-seed funding round aimed at enhancing their AI manga creation tool, HANASEE. This initiative comes at a time when the demand for innovative content in the entertainment industry is at an all-time high. The funding round was co-led by Arbitrum Gaming Ventures and Decima Fund, with participation from Taisu Ventures, Baboon VC, and various angel investors.

This new tool represents a bridge between traditional storytelling and modern technology, making it easier for creators to convert their novels and scripts into high-quality manga. By providing a platform where aspiring writers can visualize their stories through the lens of manga, Xross Road hopes to captivate a broader audience and facilitate a richer interaction with beloved narratives.

A New Approach to IP Creation

The demand for media adaptations of web novels into anime and manga has exploded in recent years. However, the opportunities to adapt these stories remain limited to only a select few. Xross Road aims to alter this landscape with HANASEE, a pioneering AI-powered manga production engine that enables creators to swiftly convert their scripts into visual storytelling formats. The ultimate goal is to democratize the process of IP growth, allowing more fans to encounter their favorite stories across different media.

Introducing HANASEE: The Future of Manga Creation

HANASEE sets itself apart with a unique architecture that captures the creative logic employed by professional manga artists. Unlike typical AI models, this tool is developed in collaboration with professional manga creators, ensuring the nuances of storytelling, composition, and emotional expression are preserved. With specialized AI agents working in unison across various stages—illustration, scriptwriting, and panel design—HANASEE overcomes common issues such as inconsistency that often plague traditional image-generation AI, enabling creators to produce cohesive long-form manga.

Key Features of HANASEE:

- Professional Supervision: Features a training model fine-tuned by active manga artists, ensuring professional storytelling techniques are integrated into the system.
- Specialized Multi-Agent System: Different AI agents handle illustration, layout, and composition, mimicking professional workflows to ensure high structural quality and character consistency.
- Consistency in Character and World-Building: With a unique consistency-maintaining mechanism, characters’ appearances, outfits, and setting details remain intact across all panels and pages.
- Professional Quality Composition and Pacing: The AI suggests layouts that adhere to manga-specific principles like eye flow and page-turn rhythm, creating an engaging reading experience.
- Interactive Editing Features: Creators can communicate directly with AI agents to shape narrative directions and fine-tune their visuals, ensuring their vision translates accurately into the final product.

Future Prospects: Monetization and Partnering Opportunities

Looking ahead, Xross Road is dedicated to building an ecosystem where generated content is not only recognized but widely distributed. The manga produced with HANASEE will eventually be available on their platform, supported by a robust rights management system set to roll out by 2026, ensuring transparent revenue-sharing.

Xross Road also plans to offer low-cost and rapid alternatives for established IP holders to test their works through adaptation, paving the way for multifaceted expansion in the manga and anime industries.

Insights from Investors and Executives

In comments highlighting the significance of this innovation, Dan Peng, Founding Partner at Arbitrum Gaming Ventures, expressed, "Connecting fans directly with quality entertainment IP like anime and manga has always been a challenge. Both top creative teams and community connections are fundamental to address evolving consumer demands. Through HANASEE, Xross Road and the TV Asahi Group have crafted a powerful platform that not only serves as a hub for fans but also drives innovation across games, merchandise, and content with IP holders."

Kiet Fong, APAC Gaming Partnership Lead at Offchain Labs, emphasized the potential of HANASEE to shift from mere viewing to an expansive engagement with the anime culture, stating, "HANASEE empowers fans to become the next generation of creators. With the support of the TV Asahi Group, they are uniquely positioned to transform grassroots creativity into a wave of global IP."

Japanese markets continue to produce some of the world's most exportable IP, and as highlighted by North Sea, General Partner at Decima Fund, Xross Road is uniquely equipped to navigate the complexities involved in bringing these IPs to a global audience.

Closed Beta Program and Business Inquiries

The closed beta phase for HANASEE is now live, but only through invitation. Creators interested in gaining early access can register via the provided waiting list form. For businesses looking to explore IP development using AI-driven manga, inquiries can be sent via email to [email protected].

About Xross Road

Supported by the TV Asahi Group, Xross Road aims to reshape the next generation of anime IP creation and ecosystem. By leveraging Web3 infrastructure, AI-driven content tools, and fan-first incentives, they are dedicated to creating high-quality IP that resonates globally.

For more information, visit Xross Road official website or follow them on X (formerly Twitter) @xross__road.