Ayaka Ōhira
Description
Ayaka Ōhira is a Tokyo-based animation director, artist, and the original creator behind the anime and NFT project Shinsei Galverse. Born in Fukuoka, Japan, she established her career as an independent animator and video director, creating works that merge the aesthetics of 1990s and 2000s Japanese anime, manga, and gal culture with a futuristic sensibility.
Ōhira began her creative journey with aspirations in live-action film and music video direction. Lacking formal art school training, she turned to animation as a means to combine her love for cinema with her lifelong passion for drawing. She initially learned the craft through self-study before attending a small animation class in Tokyo's Asagaya district, where she gained foundational knowledge using traditional cel animation techniques. In her early twenties, she relocated from Fukuoka to Tokyo and spent a formative period in Hong Kong around 2017, where she dedicated herself to studying and creating animation independently.
Her professional work includes directing music videos and creating artwork for numerous prominent musical acts. Her portfolio features collaborations with Japanese artists such as m-flo, BAD HOP, JP THE WAVY, YOASOBI, Number_i, Kana Nishino, and Hatsune Miku, as well as international artists including Tove Lo. She has also collaborated with fashion brands such as NIKE and Levi's. In 2023, she illustrated the cover artwork for the Japanese band CHAI's EP Jajjan.
Ōhira is the creator of Shinsei Galverse, an original anime project that originated as a generative NFT collection of 8,888 unique character artworks in 2022. The project was co-founded with partners Emi Kusano, Devin Mancuso, and Jack Baldwin. Inspired by 1980s and 1990s cyberpunk and magical girl anime, the collection featured over 2,400 individual traits across 22 layers, a level of complexity significantly higher than typical NFT projects. The NFT sale sold out within hours and ranked as the top-selling collection on the OpenSea marketplace for several days following its April 2022 release. The project evolved into an anime production studio with the stated goal of creating an original animated series funded through this Web3 model. The Shinsei Galverse anime, for which Ōhira served as chief director and original creator, premiered as an original net animation (ONA) on YouTube on June 25, 2025.
Recurring themes in Ōhira's work include what she describes as a nostalgic and futuristic world where opposing elements coexist. Her artistic identity draws heavily from the gal subculture, which she identifies with from her youth, combined with the visual language of Showa and Heisei era anime and science fiction works such as Akira and Ghost in the Shell. Her stated goal in projects like Shinsei Galverse is to depict worlds free from discrimination and to subvert established gender narratives in anime, creating stories centered on strong, independent female characters.
Ōhira's significance in the anime industry is tied to her pioneering use of Web3 and NFT models to independently fund and produce an animated series. Her approach represents a departure from the traditional studio-driven production system, positioning her as a creator who has leveraged new technologies and direct community engagement to finance original intellectual property. Her work has been featured in publications including Hypebeast, WWD Japan, GQ Japan, and she has participated in exhibitions and auctions related to NFT art.
Ōhira began her creative journey with aspirations in live-action film and music video direction. Lacking formal art school training, she turned to animation as a means to combine her love for cinema with her lifelong passion for drawing. She initially learned the craft through self-study before attending a small animation class in Tokyo's Asagaya district, where she gained foundational knowledge using traditional cel animation techniques. In her early twenties, she relocated from Fukuoka to Tokyo and spent a formative period in Hong Kong around 2017, where she dedicated herself to studying and creating animation independently.
Her professional work includes directing music videos and creating artwork for numerous prominent musical acts. Her portfolio features collaborations with Japanese artists such as m-flo, BAD HOP, JP THE WAVY, YOASOBI, Number_i, Kana Nishino, and Hatsune Miku, as well as international artists including Tove Lo. She has also collaborated with fashion brands such as NIKE and Levi's. In 2023, she illustrated the cover artwork for the Japanese band CHAI's EP Jajjan.
Ōhira is the creator of Shinsei Galverse, an original anime project that originated as a generative NFT collection of 8,888 unique character artworks in 2022. The project was co-founded with partners Emi Kusano, Devin Mancuso, and Jack Baldwin. Inspired by 1980s and 1990s cyberpunk and magical girl anime, the collection featured over 2,400 individual traits across 22 layers, a level of complexity significantly higher than typical NFT projects. The NFT sale sold out within hours and ranked as the top-selling collection on the OpenSea marketplace for several days following its April 2022 release. The project evolved into an anime production studio with the stated goal of creating an original animated series funded through this Web3 model. The Shinsei Galverse anime, for which Ōhira served as chief director and original creator, premiered as an original net animation (ONA) on YouTube on June 25, 2025.
Recurring themes in Ōhira's work include what she describes as a nostalgic and futuristic world where opposing elements coexist. Her artistic identity draws heavily from the gal subculture, which she identifies with from her youth, combined with the visual language of Showa and Heisei era anime and science fiction works such as Akira and Ghost in the Shell. Her stated goal in projects like Shinsei Galverse is to depict worlds free from discrimination and to subvert established gender narratives in anime, creating stories centered on strong, independent female characters.
Ōhira's significance in the anime industry is tied to her pioneering use of Web3 and NFT models to independently fund and produce an animated series. Her approach represents a departure from the traditional studio-driven production system, positioning her as a creator who has leveraged new technologies and direct community engagement to finance original intellectual property. Her work has been featured in publications including Hypebeast, WWD Japan, GQ Japan, and she has participated in exhibitions and auctions related to NFT art.
Works
- Topics: Anime overview