Inspired by the title “The Last Man in Europe,” one of the other proposed titles for George Orwell’s science fiction novel 1984, I created a story about a protagonist being swallowed up by internet society. For the world-building, I drew influence not only from 1984 but also from PSYCHO-PASS and Discipline and Punish. I tried to portray contemporary society as a sacred yet eerie world permeated by gods, likening the internet itself, or the “sense of common decency” fostered there, to God as an omnipresent watcher, and smartphones, as internet devices, to angels as God’s messengers. The protagonist, an existence before being exposed to God’s surveillance—that is, before internalizing the watcher—is modeled on the devil, the symbol of chaos and the antithesis of angels. I personally like the atmosphere in which mischief and a sense of tragedy coexist, so the overall design ended up having a cute quality. Since the comic panel layout was a familiar structure for depicting the story, I organized the sequence of information toward the climax and carefully examined the role and function of each cut.

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A music video sung by the weekday Kymerio from “YUKI×AOI Chimera Project,” a project themed around the bestial transformation of words, for which Aoi Yuki serves as planner, original concept creator, and character designer. The story parts, created with hand-drawn animation, depict the mysterious Kymerios that devour words, along with the frightening side hidden beneath their adorable appearance. The cutout parts, assembled by taking the character pieces apart and turning them into digital stop-motion animation, highlight the Kymerios’ personality and charm. Composed of these two forms of expression, the video portrays the Kymerio’s dual nature.