TORIENA - I created the music video for “The End of the World.”

This video work is an attempt to speak, through the medium of film, to the ambiguity and beauty held within the word “desire.” Aisho Nakajima’s GANGBANG is not mere provocation, but an anthem to the moments where human instinct and intimacy intersect, and I sought to depict it as a “visual orchestra.” The stage is a sealed, sensual room where shadow and light intertwine. There, the boundaries of gender and identity dissolve, and kisses and embraces emerge as a single fluid language. As the 360-degree rotating camera slowly traverses the space, the audience is led not into the feeling of “peeking” into this world, but into the sensation of “being there together.” What matters is not the correctness of the gaze, but the honesty of sensation. The extensive use of close-ups brings into focus the air drifting between bodies and the fragility that resides in exchanged glances. The lighting is pared down to the extreme, quietly illuminating the contours of the skin and the rhythm of breath. The shadows themselves become the blank space of desire. GANGBANG is a visual poem that affirms someone’s sexual being as sensual beauty. It is political, and at the same time deeply personal. By hovering on the knife-edge between “showing” and “making one feel,” this work once again asks what it means for us to “connect.”

As part of the first anniversary celebration for the Taiwanese smartphone game #Sabakaku, we produced a short anime at EARIN. As with the previous project, Kawasaki served as director. The character design and chief animation direction for the anime were handled by Kuroiwa, who joined EARIN this year. Also joining EARIN this year, Aaron took on the challenge of Japanese-style animation drawing for the first time. A large number of staff members participated, working in collaboration with both in-house and external teams.