Minoru Fujimoto

“IMMERSIVE GATE” is a massive gate-shaped installation measuring 2 meters high and 8 meters deep, designed to greet visitors with light and video. The entire structure functioned as an LED display, showcasing ambient logo animations and dynamic 3D CGI visuals synchronized with music, creating an immersive experience akin to entering another world.

I imagined this work from the concept of the girls in “Ne mo Ha mo Rumor” winning the Japanese dance championship and then appearing at the world championship as Japan’s representatives next. When I was told about this MV project, I wanted to incorporate something new, so aside from the giant monolithic structure that appears in the video, everything was newly developed for this MV. That includes 20 battery-powered wireless moving lights, 40 LED poles, and the WAVING LED RIBBON that appears in the bridge section. The stage set itself does not move, and I wanted to break away from the idea of “things that are behind the performers.” So I decided to try a theme where the artists and the space become one. In this MV, ribbon performers come right up close to the members’ faces, and by making the moving lights wireless, they can be placed even on the dance floor, allowing beams of light fused with the members to dance together. The LED poles also continuously change shape, dancing alongside the members by mimicking the hand motions of their right and left arms. While keeping the artists at the center, this MV keeps expanding the space around them. I have mainly worked on live performance direction up until now, and AKB48 also value the kind of live, in-the-moment experience you get in theater performances, so this MV was produced with the image of watching one show all the way through. I think there is a certain comfort in watching a performance continuously, and there are always new discoveries no matter how many times you watch it, so I hope people will watch it again and again. I don’t think I’ll be able to pour this much passion into something for a while（笑）。