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Japanese Animator's Characters Melt Together with Stunning Flow

Females, fish, and flowers fuse in Masanobu Hiraoka's newest animated short film.
Screencaps via

Dive inside the mind of Japanese animator and director Masanobu Hiraoka in his newly released short animation. Hiraoka, who recently featured in Dan Deacon’s "When I Was Done Dying" music video, uploaded the untitled five-minute short to his Vimeo page, simply labeling it "New animation." The fluidity and speed of his compositions make you feel like you're watching a sleight of hand game or illusion as you try and follow the film’s female protagonist. The long-haired figure melds and fuses with her environment in a seamless wave of motion, like milk pouring into a cup of coffee, or oil paints mixing together.

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The film features a recurring image of a thin rectangle that multiplies, breaks, and envelopes our character, blooming bouquets of ribbons and tentacles in a mesmerizing display of color. The film plays with gravity, perspective, and geometric shapes in one sleek motion, simulating a water current or wave pool. It's like watching an underwater ballet—Hiraoka guides us through a cream-colore purgatory, making us feel like sticks of butter melting in the summer sun, or like we're lying in a hotel bed, slowly getting wrapped up in freshly machine-washed white sheets. It's a good thing.

Check out some our favorite clips from the film, and watch Masanobu Hiraoka's new animation, below:

New animation from masanobu hiraoka on Vimeo.

Visit Masanobu Hiraoka's website, Vimeo, and Twitter for more.

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