Ending theme for the TV anime "With You and the Rain." “filled” as the antonym of “empty” Even when we don’t know what kindness or doing the right thing looks like, there are moments when we’re unexpectedly comforted by the time we spend with someone or something. When you’re struggling, I hope there’s someone or somewhere you can go to and let your feelings out. They don’t need to answer; it could be a pet, a doll, a fictional being, or even yourself. Even if you know you’ll lose that presence someday, there are times when the moments you share now feel undeniably meaningful. Perhaps that is a small prayer to keep living, even while carrying feelings that can’t be put into words. Not denying loneliness. But not locking it away either. I wanted to depict the kind of time that gently gathers up the identity of that warmth as it gradually takes shape. I created this work hoping that, for those who watch it, it would become a time of quietly facing the emotions deep in the heart, a time in which something slowly begins to feel full.

I directed this year’s promotional video for the Japan Anti-Drug Addiction Campaign, “No Way. Absolutely Not.” When someone has come right up to the edge of the boundary, I wanted to portray the choice to turn back by one’s own will, rather than being stopped by someone else, and thought that perhaps the true meaning lies in the place one has returned to. Rather than presenting a bright future, I wanted to depict the moment of pausing at the very edge, and the beginning of a faint sense of recovery. The piece was structured based on the voices of researchers specializing in drug addiction and those with firsthand experience.