NHK Minna no Uta, an animated work created in conjunction with the October–November 2023 song “Take a Rest on the Canoe” by Kei Owada and LAGHEADS. Aiming to visually capture the dreamlike feeling of being gently rocked in a canoe in nature through a song that celebrates that comfort, we expressed it by blending hand-drawn animation with water-surface effects created in Houdini.

The people in our memories lose their outlines, while only the landscapes remain vivid. To turn sensation into the structure of the film, I overlaid a rotoscoped “her” onto live-action scenery, designing a device in which she appears only inside circles. I directed and produced the music video for “Toroi” by 19-year-old singer-songwriter AKASAKI. The concept is “fragments of reminiscence.” The film is structured like a patchwork, following a first-person perspective as it traces the memory of a woman who has drifted away. In reminiscence, memories of places and light remain intensely alive, while the contours of people grow hazy. To translate that texture of memory into the visual structure, I shot nostalgic photos and footage in live action, then layered a rotoscoped “her in memory,” drawn in pencil and watercolor, over them. The composition, in which the woman can be seen only within circles placed across the screen throughout the film, visually emphasizes the theme of reminiscence while also suggesting the presence of “someone gazing at her.” The act of tracing memory as if peering into it was itself inscribed into the film.

I was in charge of directing and editing. I aimed to create a video that lets viewers experience the Jump CH content catalog in a lively, fast-paced way.