Inspired by Japan’s appetite for the new and its never-ending passion for curiosity, the 8th and final episode of TOKYO.NOW features a series of original content based on the theme of Tokyo.Love, from beginning, to and back again.
The series of abstract narratives begins with “Voiceflux”, a collaboration between W+K Tokyo Lab, MAS musician Tatsuya Yamada and voice artist Yoshio Otani and Artist / Illustrator Toshiko Kimura. The story sprouts from a bored salaryman’s desk, escaping into a surreal daydream. From his daily reality, we travel through a reverse evolution, to man’s primordial state of molecular beginnings and back to his rebirth.

Following is “Tokyo.Love”, a futuristic love letter, sent back to the present, mistranslated through Google translation software, into a curiously poetic Japanese expression of ambiguous affection.

Finally, “Japanese Whispers”, a short by W+K Tokyo Lab, featuring an epic original score by Tatsuya Yamada and animated in collab with Malaysia's Huevisualab, explores the idea of future beginnings. Rendered in a vivid hybrid expression of classical Japanese and bright Neo-Tokyo aesthetics, an artificial human life form is injected with organic energy, gasping its first breath, giving birth to a new world – “Shinsekai”.

The narrative evolves online at tokyonow.tv, with a new animated short by Tokyo based US designer Ian Lynam. “Tokyopolis” is a journey inspired by modular architecture, illustrating the perpetual evolution of the Tokyo megalopolis.