Built around the concept of a song with a sense of scale that feels both small and vast—“lights,” “starry skies,” and “the universe”—this work was created as a music video structured to clearly present the lyrics.

Music video for Haru Haru Mai’s “Ano Machi.” Created around the keywords “homeward journey,” “memory,” and “nostalgia.” Used her own past photos and video tape footage as textures.

I directed animation for the first time after having only ever made independent animations before. In independent production, data management is much looser, there’s no need to separate in-between drawings from key drawings, and there’s no need to give instructions to anyone, but commercial animation doesn’t work that way, so it was tough. There were at least three major accidents, and I ended up drawing a huge amount of layout, key animation, in-between animation, and backgrounds. In the end, I got heavily involved in every stage except the photography, and for the month leading up to the deadline—34 days—I worked every day for 13 hours while talking on the phone with the art director, making it feel like the three of us, including the photography director, were producing an independent animation. Because my memories of my first time as director were like this, it has become a trauma.

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