ANREALAGE AUTUMN/WINTER 2026-27 COLLECTION Designer: Kunihiko Morinaga / Show Direction: Shige Kaneko / Stylist: TEPPEI / Makeup: UDA (mekashi project) / Hair: Kiyoko Odo / Nail: Hiro / Global Press: PR Consulting / Production: Eyesight / Casting Director: The frame / Invisible LED Wall + LED Product: LED TOKYO / LED Look System Development: MPLUSPLUS / Print: Kyocera Document Solutions Inc. / Coordinator: Hiromi Otsuka / Collaboration: GHOST IN THE SHELL / 攻殻機動隊
A little self-promotion, because I’ve always loved fashion and the future: I wrote a short-story that includes a section about a character wearing a jacket laced with technology:
Art imitating art imitating art, or just a neat idea shared by multiple dreamers? I don’t recieve a royalty, but should you wish to own a copy: https://a.co/d/00pPbK4p
Perfume, iconic for blending electronic-dance music with precise choreography, high-tech live performances, and futuristic fashion, has a documentary set for release May 15.
It centres on the group’s last live arena performance before their public announcement to take a “cryosleep” hiatus from it all, at a defining crossroads in their career:
Perfume announced in an official statement last September 2025 that in 2026, they would take a temporary break to concentrate on their personal lives:
The center of all Perfume activities lies in our live shows.
We have given out everything to share that time and place together and resonate with you. Every show, we went up on stage thinking this might be the last time the miracle happened and ignited our hearts.
Time spent with you means the world to us.
“Marking our shining legacy in history”. This has always been one of Perfume’s dreams.
To capture this moment that we can proudly call a “shining legacy”, we have decided to put Perfume to cryosleep starting 2026.
No matter what shape or form, as the three of us, we will forever be Perfume. To spend many more years together, to become better and more sophisticated Perfume, to face new challenges, we have decided to pause our milestone.
We have continued to improve and polish ourselves every day for the past 25 years so we are always ready to go as Perfume and this break will be the time that we, for the first time, will face our lives as individuals to find the new us. We have never experienced a time like this, nor have we never even thought about something like this so we will probably start with rehab. LOL But the three of us all agreed that we are ready to face that challenge.
Many beautiful landscapes we created together will continue to push us forward and if we ever feel down, we’re sure that they will keep shining upon us. We appreciate every one of you who has supported us thus far, from the bottom of our hearts.
Since we came this far without taking a break as Perfume, we hope you support our decision to give ourselves little break time. Please continue to lend us your support as we chase our new dreams.
We are doing all this just to come back as “new Perfume.” We all want to be more powerful than ever so we would be delighted if you could kindly look forward to that day when we meet again.
Rest is a healthy and good thing to want, and having a documentary to bookend a long and successful career is a neat thing for the fans.
Ending this post with “Spring of Life” (2012) seems appropriate.
Perfume’s ふめつのあなた / Fumetsu no Anata is a beautiful song, paired with a beautiful music video. Released on Valentine’s Day, Fumetsu no Anata is a fragrant love letter and, in my humble opinion, Perfume’s magnum opus:
I’m not crying, you are! 😭
Serendipitously co-aligning with Perfume’s surprise drop marking this year’s Hallmark occasion, predictively almost; a massive J-Pop fan with a cool blog who makes J-Pop audio mashups created this sweet R&B throwback using Perfume “Chocolate Disco” (2007) and Destiny’s Child “Cater 2 U” (2005), and it works:
🎼 SONG CREDITS “Chocolate Disco” Written by Yasutaka Nakata Produced by Yasutaka Nakata Performed by Perfume ℗ 2008 AMUSE Inc. | “Cater 2 U” Written by Beyoncé Knowles, Kelly Rowland, Michelle Williams, Rodney Jerkins, Ric Rude, Robert Waller Produced by Rodney “Darkchild” Jerkins & Ric Rude for Darkchild.com & Beyoncé Knowles for Music World Productions, Inc. Performed by Destiny’s Child ℗ 2004 SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT
Fantastic music video for track by NosajThing and ChanceTheRapper, put together by Rhizomatiks and features dancers from Elevenplay. The video uses drones, 3D capture and performative dance to create a sense of alternating between digital and real worlds:
While CG effects are nothing new, the use of little drone cameras to capture the movements of the two dancers teetering on the edge of reality and illusion gives everything a very unique feel. Learn about the making of here >rhizomatiks/coldstares/<
Directed by Tokyo-based media artist, Daito Manabe, who I remember a few years ago was doing interesting things with electronic pulses and facial muscles moving in sync to music:
During my daily commute to work, I found myself digging a track heard over the radio. It had some really great synth and a few 8-bit coin tosses. I had to endure some folk-pop tune before the radio announcer told me who the song was by — Neon Indian.
My mate Dom dropped that name a few nights ago so I immediately clicked on that ‘this is good.” I found the song I heard that faithful night and guess what? It has a sweet music video — It’s just, so damn cool:
The music video for Neon Indian’s classic cyber-track “Polish Girl,” off Neon Indian’s new album Era Extraña, incorporates light painting to tell the story of a disjointed personal journey.
These aren’t laser beam dreams, but shapes made from illuminated string! How awesome is that! (I have an urge to play ‘Tempest X’ now)
On their quest for creating classic computer effects without the computer, Dark Matters continues the analogue feel from the “Matter” video.
The new Kenton Slash Demon video, Deamon is the take on analogue wireframes in the same naive universe. An abstract space opera about loadscreens based on Strings and nails.
Ginger Root is the indie music project of singer-songwriter and instrumentalist Cameron Lew, who describes the sound of Ginger Root as “aggressive elevator soul.” I feel it. I took a deep dive into this cat’s YouTube page and holy wow, his creative output has been phenomenal from the jump. Dylan Hovis on bass and Matt Carney on drums join Cameron Lew when performing live, making appearances in videos as well.
SHINBANGUMIreleased on 13 September 2024, and coinciding with the release of each single was a narrative-driven music video, conceived as a serialised story.
Presented in a classic CRT television 4:3 aspect ratio and washed in VHS fuzz, SHINBANGUMI follows the exploits of a young music supervisor in 1987 Shōwa era Japan, being fired, going independent to start his own TV company—Ginger Root Productions—and gaining popularity, while his former employer—JubanTV—tries to thwart his rising success.
It is very entertaining, funny, and cool.
I am un/fashionably late to the Ginger Root party, but here is SHINBANGUMI lovingly compiled into a single short film, freely presented for our listening and viewing pleasure:
Neat, huh? Great casting! It has since been picked up by Adult Swim, and aired on Toonami. My next opinion may sound like shade and/or high-praise, but it’s really an observation: Ginger Root’s SHINBANGUMI is better than Gorillaz’s “The Mountain, The Moon Cave and The Sad God.” I said it. Scope. Effort. Execution. Entertainment. Many hands make light work special. I love seeing people as characters give a performance.
A few prelude segments missing from the movie above:
Had fun discovering these, one video at a time. Can see his interest in aesthetic was present in the early stages of Ginger Root. Personal favs: “Weather” & “Mahjong Room”
The world of Gorillaz has been brought to life in an 8-minute animated film, an homage to the aesthetic of animated features from the 1960s, the golden era of 2D animation.
“If particular visuals couldn’t be achieved in that era, then we didn’t do them. We processed our digital pencil work to mimic photocopy degradation. We scanned real paintings at high resolution and finished the details digitally. It was about capturing the tactile quality that only real materials give you.”
[…]
“In a time of AI overload, this is our love letter to craftsmanship. We’re chasing the feel of pencil on paper. Paint on board. And all the imperfections that come with it.”
-Max Taylor
And to think, we could have had a full-length Gorillaz animated film in 2023 had Netflix not cancelled it.
Throwback to 2018 where The Line studio handled animations for Gorillaz music video “Humility” featuring Jack Black:
This short tidbit of information might trip some fans:
Currently on a free Vercel server, MTVRewind is a passion project operating on the edge of capacity; a guerilla archival project built by the developer Flex (@flexasaurusrex), this fan-made “time machine” has resurrected the channel’s original spirit.
MTVRewind is a staggering database of 33,931 music videos spanning six decades (1970s–2020s), presented without the glossy sheen of modern streaming services — enjoy:
The manifesto on the splash screen is a direct indictment of the modern web:
No ads. No algorithm. No login. Just pure random discovery.
LIT-B carries the same eccentric DNA as DITB does, but with more focus on a specific kind of content. The lateral pivot of where I spend my time is healthy for me, and is refreshing my goals. Wherever you are in the World, remember to have fun, and take care of yourself. Let’s make 2026 a special kind of year 💪✍️
Also, for archival purposes of course: ditb.bandcamp.com
I wrote a flash piece for a flash, pop culture journal dedicated to film, TV, music videos, celebritism, and moving image media on the things we like to watch — please check them out and follow!
In The Mood publish triannually, so watch for their themed submission windows, should you have something fun and interesting to pitch/share (Gabrielle & Sennah, thanx)
I love this frenetic, kaleidoscopic video (A.I. be damned!!), in no small part because of Mica Tenenbaum and Matthew Lewin’s awesome music!! Giving Y2K vibes & future hope:
Director: Felix Geen / AI Artist: Max Kreis /
Camera & Lighting: Josha Eiffel / MUA: Georgia Hope
“‘Dreamcatching’ is about all the places you want to know and all the places you’ll never go,” the band said in a statement. “The video uses AI neural networks to create the landscapes and worlds we long for in the lyrics, a computer’s interpretation of our dreams.”
🎭 