Renga: the Art and PFP Drop That Keeps Building

TL;DR
Renga is an anime-styled, art-focused PFP collection dating back to 2022 that has maintained a strong community and continues to build. Headed by artist and founder Daniel Isles, it has several new developments generating interest at the moment, including a new website/portal, and an incoming new reward system for holders that will lead to a further PFP collection, physical items including art prints and apparel, and a Renga graphic novel.

NFTs have experienced an uptick in interest lately, with floor prices moving in the right direction, and among the projects with comeback potential (as mentioned here last week in our roundup of OG builders), Renga has been quietly working on some long-term plans to reward holders.

What Is Renga?

If you were flipping JPEGs back in 2022, then you might be familiar with Renga, or even have a few of its items still stashed away.

To summarize, it’s a collection with a maximum possible supply of 10,000 front-facing PFPs (although it’s not yet at that number, as we’ll see in a moment), and it fits into the artistic anime and manga niche, alongside the likes of Azuki and later project San FranTokyo.

Renga’s origin story goes back to a March 2022 art drop called The Art of Seasons (TAOS) by Japan-residing British artist Daniel Isles, aka Dirty Robot, who now leads Renga. TAOS holders were later that year rewarded with an airdropped Black Box NFT, and these Black Boxes could then be broken open to reveal a Renga PFP. Also, earlier this year an Isles piece called Space Honey was distributed as a free mint for Renga holders.

Notably, there is no time limit on the Black-Box-to-Renga-PFP process, and so there are currently 9,047 revealed PFPs, with the rest of the supply available as still-unrevealed Black Boxes, alongside the original TAOS art collection, which contains 7,237 pieces.

As for floor prices, Renga soared to an October 2022 ATH of 2.95 ETH, while Black Boxes hit 5.26 ETH, but these items are now down (by a lot) to 0.11 ETH and 0.4 ETH, respectively.

Current and Upcoming Renga Plans

If you’re looking for OG projects that might have a resurgence, then two key factors to consider are: has the project continued to build, and does it still have strong community engagement?

Regarding both of these points, Renga can answer in the affirmative. The project has a loyal following thanks largely to its distinctive design work, and the fact that it is centered around Daniel Isles’ creative output, which has hooked in plenty of admirers. And as for building, you can find the following active developments:

• A new portal: Renga this year launched its new portal/website, and as you’d expect for such a design-focused project, it looks great. This portal will be the place to head for all future Renga releases and activations, although Discord is still the community meeting point.

• Collector Capsules: these are yet to be launched and information around them is currently incomplete, but Renga has posted that through these mysterious incoming items, “your collection and participation within the ecosystem will offer access to future RENGA activations”. Essentially then, it looks like some kind of community reward system, which will in turn lead to future releases including the following…
• R1: this appears to be a further character collection expanding on the original PFPs. The existing collection contains ten different character archetypes of varying rarity, and Renga has stated that nineteen new archetypes are coming down the line, but has also mentioned “sacrifice”, which could mean some kind of burn or modification mechanism for existing NFTs, although this is currently just speculation.

• Renga products: these will include physical items, with plans for art prints and apparel, and it’s worth noting that Daniel Isles previously designed clothes and ran his own fashion brand back in the 2000s.
• Renga graphic novel: Isles is an experienced comic book artist, having previously released a three-part graphic novel series called Joyama, and there are now plans for a new release titled Saturn. What’s more, Isles has been live illustrating some pages of Saturn to an appreciative audience in the Renga Discord.

Renga Positives and Negatives

As mentioned, Renga is building, and that–for a collection that started with PFPs at its core–is hugely important. Also, the project still has an actively engaged community and there is a strong connection between founder/artist Daniel Isles and Renga holders. As a result, there is excitement about ongoing developments, and new posts and announcements gain plenty of traction.

On the negative side (arguably, although some holders might disagree), Renga has always been a slow burner that moves at his own pace, and which doesn’t seem concerned about NFT hype cycles. That means Renga NFTs should be viewed as longer-term holds, or as the kind of items to buy and keep if you’re simply a fan of the work and want to pick up some digital collectables.

Also, Renga tends to be a little cryptic about its plans, but then again this is not unusual in the world of NFTs , often helping to build anticipation and, in the right market conditions, raise prices.

Finally, it’s worth noting that Renga’s initial release timing, with PFPs that revealed in Q3 2022, wasn’t optimal as its full launch unfolded after the NFT market had peaked. This created a sense that it should have been at the top tier–in terms of both prices and mindshare–but remained just to the side of the main spotlight. However, as it’s now survived the bear market, Renga may be better positioned in the event of future NFT market gains.