An animated work depicting the lively daily life of a boy named Yonpei-kun. This time, it is “Let’s Go on an Errand!” This work was created as a graduate school thesis project. I aimed for an expression that lies somewhere on the border between whimsy and madness. The technique used is hand-drawn animation. I drew using a variety of art materials, including ballpoint pens, colored sign pens, and colored pencils. After completing the drawings, I scanned all of them to digitize them, and then finished the piece by editing it using Photoshop and After Effects. For the music, I wrote the lyrics and added a temporary melody by humming, then a friend in charge of the music arranged it, and another friend in charge of voice acting provided the voice to complete the piece.

Music video for “Maou-sama,” a track from “DOKI,” the Major 2nd Full Album by “Pop Shinanai de”

We developed the video around the themes of “freedom,” “deadlines” (breaking away from stereotypes that exist as assumptions), and “summer.” The song itself carries the concept that we don’t need to be influenced by things bound by deadlines as norms, such as summer or youth, so we built the structure in line with that idea. We didn’t want to create a structure that condemns something as an antithesis, so the message is that each person’s free will (or right to choose), which resides within them, does not necessarily have to be bound by social norms. That said, through discussions with the artist, we were basically in agreement that we wanted to make something catchy and humorous, so rather than presenting the concept like a placard, we treated it as something seated within the work itself, while shaping the structure so that it would work well with the song’s sense of exhilaration and tempo. As for the production method, every shot was filmed against a green screen and composited in CG. As mentioned above, we wanted the composition and cuts to feel unique in keeping with the concept, so we combined a noisy retro texture with cinematic shots. We also used bold camera work, including 360-degree cameras.

MV / Direction & Produce