Dotsuitarunen “Ice Cream” (MV) It turned out absolutely insanely good. It’s ridiculous. Too cute. This video was made because I wanted Dotsuitarunen, who had fulfilled their dream of major-label debut, to keep shining even more from here on out. Before Dotsuitarunen’s major-label debut, I had made a few videos for them. Back then, Dotsu had a ton of momentum in the indie scene and looked really cool. They even ended up doing a solo show at Akasaka Blitz... way too amazing... But after their major debut, watching their activities from the outside, I could really sense that they were struggling. There were also members leaving the group, and I wondered if they were losing their way. In the middle of that, I received an offer to direct the MV for “Ice Cream,” a track on their first album. It was such a pure song that I suggested making it into footage of just a cute girl walking around, without showing the members at all. The record label people were on board and said, “That sounds great!” I was looking for a transparent, fresh, beautiful girl, and Uyuu-san, the super-beautiful winner of Miss iD 2018, fit my image perfectly. Since Uyuu-san and I had quite an age gap, communication and the distance between us during filming were a little tricky, but when we were chatting after the shoot and I asked, “Do you watch YouTubers and stuff?”, she got into it and said, “I watch them a lot!” and we had a great time talking. If I had started with YouTube talk from the beginning, maybe we could have become closer and brought out even more of Uyuu-san’s cuteness. That’s something I really regret. At first I thought we’d film by the sea, but I felt that the riverbank along a river was more youthful and tear-jerking, so we shot on the banks of the Edo River near Matsudo Station. I think it was nice that the city could be seen in the distance, which gave it a slightly bittersweet feeling. Uyuu-san has transparency, freshness, and overwhelming cuteness, so I think that’s what gives the video its CM-like major-label feel. “This is what it means to be active on a major label, isn’t it?” — this MV is my own answer to that. The illustrator Shinshu Oki, who is close to Dotsu, watched this MV and said, “It’s like you scooped up the diamond-like parts within Dotsu.” I was so happy to hear those words.