This new work by HIFANA, “TEJIME,” released after a nine-year hiatus, was unveiled on the first day of the Reiwa era and was created with the Japanese traditional celebratory ritual of “tejime” as its inspiration, in order to grandly celebrate a new era. When it comes to HIFANA, they are pioneers of Japanese anime music videos. Animation synchronized with music. Strange and humorous characters. We wanted to present each element in an extreme style. Using cel shading, a technology uniquely developed in Japan, this is a fully CG animated work created entirely by one person.

"Link" is a piece created with the only shared information being the album title and the fact that it is a track using tapping sounds, with pre-existing information (language) kept to an absolute minimum. It is a subjective visual interpretation, approaching the music more sensorially by perceiving the sounds themselves and the “feel” of those sounds. It is a sensory communication trail, and an experiment, exploring the subjective and sensory images received from sound (music), and the “individuality” that emerges when translating those sounds into visual expression. It examines how these elements “resonated” (linked) with the track created by Japanese Footsteps. The project was an experimental process in which ITOAOI created the visuals purely based on the "sound" of the track, imagining and interpreting it through sensory perception. Due to the lack of linguistic constraints, the work evokes a sense of space resonating with the sounds themselves, the overflowing continuity of sound, and the feeling of sounds trapped within. These elements were translated into ITOAOI’s high-purity, subjective imagery and movements. This piece represents the "individuality" that emerged when ITOAOI translated the subjective and sensory images evoked by the music into a visual expression, and how that "resonated" (linked) with the sounds created by Japanese Footsteps—an exploration of the sensory communication between the two.

This work was produced using the prototype plug-in “VX-β” provided by Yamaha Corporation.