The BLUE OCEAN DOME pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, was created by the nonprofit organization ZERI JAPAN, with the theme Revitalization of the Ocean. Architect Shigeru Ban designed the building structure, while Kenya Hara and the Hara Design Institute at Nippon Design Center handled the exhibition concept and direction. In the second of the three domes comprising this pavilion, WOW was responsible for directing and producing the video content displayed on the hemispherical LED display, which was approximately 10 meters in diameter.

The video concept Hara presented was “We want to show Earth.” This began a four-year project to display a realistic representation of Earth itself with a presence rivaling that of the Moon Rock that Hara had experienced as a child at the 1970 Osaka Expo. The members of the project team, including Hara, conducted extensive fieldwork, engaging in dialogue with astronaut Naoko Yamazaki, who has seen the real Earth with her own eyes, and diving in the Raja Ampat Islands of Indonesia to imprint the image of the profoundly beautiful ocean into their minds. Through these experiences, the team explored the direction of the video from both macro and micro perspectives: a macro view surveying Earth from space and a micro view examining Earth’s depths up close. The LED display manufactured by AZLAB under WOW’s direction is a custom-made product, one of a kind in the world. The aim was a high-definition display capable of rendering delicate details that projectors cannot capture. Furthermore, to express Earth floating in jet-black darkness as seen by astronauts from outside the atmosphere, the display was enveloped in a cover treated with special paint that absorbs light. This enormous visual installation brought the team one step closer to conveying the presence of Earth.

Hara shared the overall storyboard, and WOW proceeded to create a direction storyboard from our perspective. However, there were limits to how much of the desired visuals we could actually film. As a result, we decided to make it entirely using CG video. We would create everything in CG, including photorealistic underwater scenes, and produce all processes in-house except for modeling.

Earth, the water planet, now faces an existential crisis due to waste generated by human activities. This visual work weaves together a range of scenes, spanning cellular-level microscopic depictions, photorealistic underwater imagery, sweeping views from space, and even imaginary worlds, to appeal directly to the viewer’s senses. While dealing with the sensitive theme of environmental issues centered on marine plastic waste, we were careful not to make the video overly explanatory. We sought balance between impactful moments and quieter storytelling, deliberately leaving space for viewers to form their own interpretations. Our goal was to craft imagery that makes people feel something even without words. For example, scenes where the viewer meets the gaze of living creatures may evoke different reactions. Some may feel sadness, while others may sense pure curiosity. Yet what unites these responses is the experience of somehow being unable to look away. We strived to create this sensation in every scene.

The team also engaged in passionate discussions about musical expression, which is an essential element of the visual experience. Ultimately, the chosen voice was that of vocalist Hatis Noit. Her music, composed based on the video, transcends language and meaning, as if representing the voiceless voices of the creatures of the sea. This matched Hara’s vision of music with a sense of the sacred.

WOW’s distinctive approach is particularly evident in the team’s direction that doesn’t over-direct. Camera work is restrained, expressing only the natural movements of living creatures. Though we used CG, we don’t have them perform like in animated films. We don’t create tearjerker moments. This restraint lends the work a sense of nonfiction-like credibility, despite being fictional. Above all, the team was committed to finishing the piece beautifully. Without beauty, people will look away from the video. Even scenes filled with garbage or moments of shock were crafted with a meticulous attention to beauty, as an extension of our everyday practice.

This visual production alone took more than two years. Through fieldwork, research, and repeated trial and error, we created a video that could never have been achieved in a short timeframe. We depicted the ocean’s reality and mystical beauty with such realism that viewers may not realize it’s CG, while also achieving a dreamlike visual world.