What does “kama hen” mean? I took that question and pursued it to the very limit.

I directed and produced the official music video for Hatsuboshi Gakuen’s “Fighting My Way.”

Created with the goal of strongly emphasizing the theme and story with minimal effort, while keeping the amount of work and materials to a minimum. It is also the first work in which I commissioned part of the animation in the music video to someone else.

Dotsuitarunen “Ice Cream” (MV) It turned out absolutely insanely good. It’s ridiculous. Too cute. This video was made because I wanted Dotsuitarunen, who had fulfilled their dream of major-label debut, to keep shining even more from here on out. Before Dotsuitarunen’s major-label debut, I had made a few videos for them. Back then, Dotsu had a ton of momentum in the indie scene and looked really cool. They even ended up doing a solo show at Akasaka Blitz... way too amazing... But after their major debut, watching their activities from the outside, I could really sense that they were struggling. There were also members leaving the group, and I wondered if they were losing their way. In the middle of that, I received an offer to direct the MV for “Ice Cream,” a track on their first album. It was such a pure song that I suggested making it into footage of just a cute girl walking around, without showing the members at all. The record label people were on board and said, “That sounds great!” I was looking for a transparent, fresh, beautiful girl, and Uyuu-san, the super-beautiful winner of Miss iD 2018, fit my image perfectly. Since Uyuu-san and I had quite an age gap, communication and the distance between us during filming were a little tricky, but when we were chatting after the shoot and I asked, “Do you watch YouTubers and stuff?”, she got into it and said, “I watch them a lot!” and we had a great time talking. If I had started with YouTube talk from the beginning, maybe we could have become closer and brought out even more of Uyuu-san’s cuteness. That’s something I really regret. At first I thought we’d film by the sea, but I felt that the riverbank along a river was more youthful and tear-jerking, so we shot on the banks of the Edo River near Matsudo Station. I think it was nice that the city could be seen in the distance, which gave it a slightly bittersweet feeling. Uyuu-san has transparency, freshness, and overwhelming cuteness, so I think that’s what gives the video its CM-like major-label feel. “This is what it means to be active on a major label, isn’t it?” — this MV is my own answer to that. The illustrator Shinshu Oki, who is close to Dotsu, watched this MV and said, “It’s like you scooped up the diamond-like parts within Dotsu.” I was so happy to hear those words.