The bigger picture

No devil lived oN was created as a world where more than one story can unfold at the same time. Different characters follow their own paths, make their own choices and experience different parts of the world. What happens in one story can influence what another character encounters later, even when those characters never meet or understand how their stories are connected.

We believe this creates an opportunity to approach manga differently.

Rather than limiting the universe to a single line, we want to explore parallel manga stories following different characters and arcs. Each can stand on its own, while together they reveal more of the world and the larger story behind it. A reader may experience one journey, while another follows events happening elsewhere. Following both can reveal connections, consequences and a bigger picture that neither story could show alone.

We want to explore the same idea with anime. A universe with this many characters, planned arcs and possibilities does not have to be experienced through one group of protagonists or one continuous perspective. Separate stories can unfold alongside each other, giving different parts of the world the space to become important in their own right.

And we don't want the idea to stop with manga and anime.

No devil lived oN grew out of years of roleplaying, where choices, freedom and consequences have always been an important part of how the world works. Original board games and a fully functioning trading card game have already been created and tested. Looking ahead, we see exciting possibilities in digital games, apps and other formats where the same universe can be experienced in completely different ways.

For us, innovation does not mean adding technology or new formats simply because they are new. The story and the world have to come first. The opportunity is to look at everything that already exists within No devil lived oN and ask what each medium could allow us to do that wasn't possible before.

We have many planned arcs, One Piece scope, a large cast of characters and years of worldbuilding to draw from. That gives us the freedom to think bigger than a single manga series, while still keeping everything rooted in the same universe.

Our ambition is to work with publishers, studios, developers, creators and other partners who want to explore that potential with us. We don't believe we already have every answer — and we don't want to. Different industries bring different expertise, technologies and ideas.

We have built the world and the stories.

Now we want to see how far they can go.

Our goal is not to follow where manga universes are going next. We want to help define it.

How will we achieve this?

For the past year, we have allowed ourselves to dream, in the spirit of the late David Lynch, to think about what No devil lived oN could become if we stopped looking only at what already exists and instead asked what might come next. At the same time, we have worked to turn those dreams into direction. We have sharpened our priorities, built new relationships and started assembling the people we believe can help us take this universe where we want it to go.

We are now collaborating with SAGAS, and together we will explore just how far the possibilities of No devil lived oN can reach.

For us, who we work with matters enormously. We want people around us who have passion and ambition. People who are curious, resourceful and excited by the possibility of creating something new. We always look up at the sky, rather than straight ahead at the world that already exists. The world is smaller and more connected than it has ever been, but that does not mean there is nothing left to invent. We see powerful IPs succeeding across film, television, games, publishing, music, collectibles and entire communities.

So why not push manga and anime further?

Our ambition is enormous: we want to build the Marvel or DC of manga. Not by copying what either of them has done, but by thinking at that scale. Several stories, arcs and characters, each strong enough to have an identity of their own, all contributing to and affecting one much larger universe.

Parallel Stories. Shared Consequences.

Imagine No devil lived oN becoming a successful anime on a platform such as Crunchyroll, HBO or Netflix. Now imagine another story from the universe running alongside it. Two shows. Different characters. Different journeys. Different choices. Different fates. But they exist in the same world, and what happens in one can affect what happens in the other.

Maybe the characters in No devil lived oN accidentally burn down a tavern. For them, it may simply be one event in their journey. But that tavern just happens to be where the protagonist of Name no one maN was supposed to gather information. Suddenly, his story has changed because of something that happened in another. Maybe one group pisses off the wrong person and starts a war. Somewhere else, characters who had absolutely nothing to do with that decision now have to live with its consequences.

These things happen naturally in games. Someone makes a choice, the world reacts, and other people experience what follows. Why not explore the same idea through parallel manga, books and anime?One story does not have to contain the entire picture. Each can reveal another part of it. You can follow one and experience a complete journey, while following several reveals connections, consequences and pieces of a much larger story.

And we already have the material to explore it. With 15 years of arcs planned and years of characters, events and worldbuilding already developed, we are not creating an empty universe and then trying to find enough stories to fill it.

The stories are already there.

Now we need to find the right ways, and the right partners, to bring them to life.

And then there are games.

This is where the concept can become especially fun. The nature of No devil lived oN gives us the opportunity to explore completely different kinds of games within the same universe. We can imagine large multiplayer roleplaying games, open-world experiences, and smaller games for more accessible platforms built around fun characters, adventures and quests.

They do not all have to play the same way, but choices and consequences can remain part of their DNA. What you do now can change what happens later.

In a large open multiplayer server, that idea can become much bigger. Nothing is ever completely certain. The combined actions of the people playing on that server could influence the direction of the plot itself. This would allow players to change the world.

There are also more controlled ways to approach it. An open-world game could have global events that move the larger story forward while keeping enough structure to prevent a handful of trolls from destroying an entire server. Although, admittedly, sometimes letting the players cause chaos could be part of the fun.

The point is not that we have already decided exactly how every future game should work. We haven't. But, this universe gives us the opportunity to ask those questions and work with talented developers to find out what is possible. And more importantly, what is FUN.

What happens when thousands of individual choices contribute to one larger world? How much control should players have? How unpredictable can we allow the story to become? That is something we would love to explore.

Some games are already real.

There are also formats that are an obvious fit for this universe: TCG, RPG and board games. And here, we are not beginning with ideas on a whiteboard. We have already created games, developed original mechanics and tested them over several years with different groups of gamers. The original roleplaying campaign itself was played for years, with its own rules, choices, consequences and freedom to explore. All we need is the final artwork and it could be ready to go.

We have seen people actually play inside this world. We know it works around a table. Now, we want to see how much further it can go.

The sound of a new universe

We also want to explore the music industry.

Anime already has an incredible relationship with music. Openings, endings and featured songs can become inseparable from the series they belong to. With multiple stories and arcs, we see room to play with that relationship even further.

A new arc could bring a new song. A certain number of episodes could introduce another artist or sound. Different stories could develop their own musical identities. Every character can have their own style of music, jingle, sound. It can be a part of the brand of the character. Adding alternative ways to use music and sound in anime, could also enable more people to follow the anime. 

And then we can connect those relationships back into the universe.

Imagine an artist creating music for the anime and later being invited to join a live No devil lived oN RPG session, playing a smaller character or NPC. Suddenly that collaboration is no longer limited to a song.

The artist has stepped into the world.

Building our community

We want to explore live RPG content as well.

A campaign could be played and shared through platforms such as Twitch, while an active Discord community follows along, discusses what is happening, shares theories and becomes part of the growing community around the world.

Artists and other guests could be invited into individual sessions to play smaller characters or NPCs. That gives us another way to connect people and platforms.

Music can lead someone to anime. Anime can lead them to manga. Manga can lead them to games. Games can lead them to live play. Live play can lead them straight back into the universe.

That is an important part of what transmedia means to us.

We don't want No devil lived oN to expand simply because we keep adding more stories, we want it to expand across platforms, industries and communities.

Someone might discover it through a song. Someone else through a manga. A gamer might discover the world through an RPG. A cosplayer may fall in love with one character before knowing anything about the larger story. Someone watching Twitch might become curious about the anime. They don't all have to enter through the same door, they just need a reason to enter.

And that is also why we want to understand the people who will eventually love these characters and stories. Our next steps include market analysis and pre-projects that can challenge our assumptions, inspire us and help us make smarter decisions before moving into full production.

There are enormous communities surrounding manga and anime that directly influence the culture around them. Cosplay culture is one obvious example. The characters for our first stories, No devil lived oN and Name no one maN, are already quite developed. But we want to make sure their visual identities are optimized with their future fandom in mind as well. We want unique characters visually. Bold colours. Recognizable silhouettes and features. Memorable traits.

We need cute characters people fall in love with. Mesmerizing villains people cannot look away from. Designs people immediately recognize and characters people want to draw, discuss and cosplay.
Because a great character does not end on the page, it inspires people to create something of their own.

Hirohiko Araki showed us the importance of the “it factor.”

Now let's create the hit factor.

The task team

We have assembled a core team devoted to launching this mission.

Dino Tomic, creator and co-founder, brings the universe itself — its stories, characters and more than a decade of development.

Mina Tomic, co-founder and CEO, will lead the company and the work of transforming that creative foundation into an international IP.

Reese O'Keefe, lead artist, will help develop the visual identity of the characters and world as we move into the next stage.

And Teodor Bjerrang and his company SAGAS join us as collaborators as we begin exploring the wider possibilities of the IP.

But we don't consider this team finished. In fact, finding the right people is one of the most important parts of what comes next. We are looking for allies. We want publishers, studios, developers, investors, artists, musicians, strategists and creators around us. But more than titles, we are looking for a certain kind of person.

Smart people. Resourceful people. Ambitious people. Fun people. People who know things we don't.

We want to learn from people who understand their industries better than we do. The ones that also dream of inventing the future instead of experiencing it through others. We want our assumptions challenged. We want to discover opportunities we hadn't considered and allow great ideas to change our direction when they deserve to.

Because innovation cannot happen if you are only willing to follow the path you already know. The world is our oyster now.
We have the stories. We have the characters. We have years of worldbuilding. We have games that have already been played and tested. And we have an enormous amount left to learn.

Now we want to find the people who look at all of that and ask the same question we do:

How far can we take it?