An animated music video for YOASOBI‘s “The Bloom” (“Sakihokore”), the theme song for the NHK serial TV novel Blossom, has been released. Animator and illustrator Nina, who released her first original anime short film Luca in February, served as chief director, character designer, and storyboard artist, while Nobuhide Kariya (My Dress-Up Darling Season 2 Episode 6) directed the video.
Blossom tells the story of Tama Hono, a fictional character based on the real-life author and kimono designer Cho Uno who was active during the late Taisho, Showa, and early Heisei eras. In an X/Twiter post about “The Bloom” music video, Nina wrote that she worried about how to represent Uno’s “incredible energy” in video form, and arrived at the answer of depicting “the form of a person simply living straightforwardly.”
“‘Anima,’ the origin for animation, means ‘life,’ ‘soul.’ Walking, running, grasping, pointing; this MV is filled with such primal human motions.” continued Nina. “Through this production, I once again felt that each of those nonchalant actions are the very definition of living, and that animation is carefully depicting those actions sheet-by-sheet and breathing life into them.”
Some of the other staff involved with “The Bloom” music video include background art director Kiyoshi Sameshiki and producer Takafumi Nakame (Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End Season 1 co-animation producer, Your Name production desk, The Garden of Words and Witch Watch OP 1 co-production assistant)). OUTLINE is credited with cooperative production, while Toei Animation, Studio Kurm, Peakys, EOTA, and Team OneOne are listed under the production cooperation credit.
Source: YOASOBI YouTube channel
