Telling the Story of a City Through 3D Animation

No.7( Commission )

#Creative Direction#Future Design#Branding

2026

Telling the Story of a City Through 3D Animation

TAKANAWA GATEWAY CITY Future Experience Theater | East Japan Railway Company

To coincide with the opening of TAKANAWA GATEWAY CITY—one of the largest new urban developments in central Tokyo, directly connected to JR Takanawa Gateway Station—WOW handled the planning, direction, and production of the video screened at the on-site “Future Experience Theater.” Open to the public from March 27 through June 28, 2025, the work was built around the concept Where the City Becomes Your Wings. The alternative rock band Hitsujibungaku composed an original song for the piece, which unfolds as a music video–style 3D animation following a young boy as he moves between the past, present, and future of the Takanawa district.

Telling the Story of a City Through 3D Animation

Mission: To create a video experience that allows audiences to step into TAKANAWA GATEWAY CITY before its completion.
Approach: An animated narrative connecting the past, present, and future of the Takanawa district—including a vision of TAKANAWA GATEWAY CITY after its opening.

Choosing the Format: A Music Video–Style 3D Animation

Chapter.1

In 2019, a section of a historical railway structure known as the Takanawa Chikutei was unearthed near JR Takanawa Gateway Station. The embankment had been built over the sea to lay tracks during the dawn of Japanese railways in the 1870s. Discovered within the very site earmarked for TAKANAWA GATEWAY CITY, this Meiji-era remnant was recognized as a significant piece of heritage—a window into both the history of Takanawa and the origins of Japanese rail—and was subsequently excavated and studied in depth. In March 2025, the development opened as one of the largest new districts in central Tokyo, with direct access to JR Takanawa Gateway Station. WOW was brought on to plan, direct, and produce the video work presented as the “Future Experience Theater” inside the convention hall. The initial brief from client East Japan Railway Company (JR East) was to build an immersive theater where visitors could experience a vision of the completed city. With construction still at its peak, filming the finished cityscape was simply not an option. To create a viewing experience that would spark genuine excitement for the city’s future, WOW proposed a music video–style 3D animation—combining a screen that fills the viewer's entire field of vision with the kind of dynamic camerawork that only CG makes possible. The concept was Where the City Becomes Your Wings: the aspirations behind TAKANAWA GATEWAY CITY translated into lyrics and told as a story.

What the City Connects

Chapter.2

In developing the vision for the city’s future, the primary target audience was identified as parents raising children. The protagonist—a young boy of the digital native generation, lacking in lived experience—gradually opens up through the encounters and discoveries the city offers, his expressionless face slowly giving way to a smile. The story depicts scenes of a traditional Japanese dance class, a biotope, and the kind of cross-cultural exchange that reflects the city’s ambitions as a global gateway. The city environments and trains were rendered with meticulous realism in the background, while the characters’ movements and the non-linear timeline give the work a fantastical atmosphere. Leaning too far into photorealism would strip the work of warmth, yet a flat 2D animation couldn’t achieve this particular sensibility or visual appeal. That balance is precisely what 3D animation makes possible—and it was exactly what the team was after.

Alternative rock band Hitsujibungaku wrote an original song for the film. As if to hold the boy’s boundless potential up against the city that is just beginning its story in Tokyo, they sing: The map we hold is still leading us on a treasure hunt. The image and music intertwine to form a single, unified story.

The Process Behind Nearly Seven Minutes of Film

Chapter.3

This was WOW’s first full-scale 3D animation production, and it presented a host of challenges unlike anything the studio had faced before. Despite the film running just under seven minutes, the team grew to around 100 people, with WOW directing every element: character design, movement, color, city modeling, and the design of the future cityscape. Production began with character design. The team refined every little detail of the protagonist’s visual identity—his hair color, clothing, and the design of the bird that guides the narrative. Concept art and color scripts, akin to the visual setting sheets used in film production, were shared across the team, while the look of the city and trains was developed in parallel. Real-world environments were pursued with an uncompromising commitment to realism, and both the historic and modern-day Yamanote Line trains were crafted with input from technical specialists.

Storyboards were drawn in parallel as the work of integrating all the elements moved forward. Hitsujibungaku’s score was developed in close dialogue with those same storyboards. By the end, every detail had been refined—from the subtle shifts in the boy’s expression to the advertisements inside the train car—resulting in a fully narrative-driven animated work. Not purely for children, yet not targeted at any single demographic, the final piece strikes a balance that feels quintessentially WOW. From a locomotive crossing the Takanawa Chikutei, through TAKANAWA GATEWAY CITY as it stands today, through to a future 100 years from now where flying cars fill the sky—a single story connects the city’s past to its future and stirs the imagination of all who watch.

Credit

Creative Director : Kosuke Oho Director : Hironobu Sone CG Director : Nozomu Akazawa Designer : Shota Oga, Yutaro Mori, Takafumi Matsunaga, Ena Abei Planner : Hiroshi Ouchi Producer : Go Hagiwara, Takuya Inagaki Project Manager : Fumiya Inada, Ikumi Tabata Hitsujibungaku「Map of the Future 2025」（F.C.L.S./Sony Music Labels） Words and Music : Moeka Shiotsuka Arrange : Hitsujibungaku Khaki Production Manager : Kaori Ninokura CG Director : Yuri Nigo CG Artist : Toi Ikeno, Taichi Nagano, Ramm, Ryuichi Iwata Technical Advisor : Yota Tasaki KASSEN CG Producer : Taiyo Sato CG Assistant Producer : Moeka Nakamura CG Artist : Tetsuaki Matsumoto Compositing Supervisor / color / Online : Takahiro Ota Compositor : Atsushi Nishimura Compositor Mg : Yusuke Makita Cai CG Producer : Keisuke Toyoura CG Director : Takeru Kosaka CG Artist : Tai Komatsu, Tomoya Mitsui Zinou Pharmaceutics CG Producer / Director : Koichi Nobuta CG Lead Artist : Mutsumi Sakai Chief Rigging Artist : Takahiro Nowatari VFX Lead Artist : Taiki Katayama CG Animator : Miyu Higuchi, Tatsuki Suzuki, Masanori Tadayasu, Kenta Tanaka, Nobuo Hosoyama, Tatsuya Yokoyama, Aira Takemura, Shiun Ikeda, Kensuke Saito, Taisuke Isogai, Zhixiong Quan Rigging Artist : Chihiro Taguchi, Masanari Kinoshita, Shota Kato, Tatsuoki Hashimura VFX Artist : Seikou Son Technical Support : Yasuto Someya, Takahito Toshimitsu Production Manager : Yuka Nomura, Minami Inoue WACHAJACK Concept Art Director : Fujihiko Sawai Concept Artist : Shusei Sasaya, Hiroaki Maeda, Yuna Tanaka, Shintaro Koike, Kenshiro Ishida, Yuta Hirose, Aya Saito Charactor Desiner : Yuki Hanafusa Matte Paint : Yuka Shinada, Seiya Takezawa, Saori Matsueda Concept Art Project Manager : Ryo Arai Concept Art Producer : Sho Naito, Wataru Katsuo, Ryo Yamamoto BAREHAND CG Producer : Jun Kazuse BG Modeler : Shunta Masubuchi, Shun Akatsu, Ng Krissa, Kento Ayame Kakela Studios CH Modeler : Tsukasa Fujiwara, Atsuo Ichimaru, Kazuki Hashimoto, Nae Tajima PUCACHI CH Modeler : Kiyotaka Hirata, XU HongXu, LIU TongAN, HUANG Tao, Hou QiuGU, Wang Ning KORAT CG Producer : Taiyo Yamamoto, Kazutoshi Yoneyama CG Director : Yuki Kamada CG Artist : Atsuko Nozawa, Uezu Ai Production Coordinator : Taeko Kikuchi Production Manager : Haruka Niimi PUTBALSOUND Sound Effects Design : Yusuke Tamaki Melody Punch Sound Producer : Tohru Midorikawa, Mutsumi Hamano Sound Assistant Producer : Sara Aoki ONKIO HAUS Studio coordinator : Miwako Suzuki Mixer : Katsuyuki Yamada JR East Marketing & Communications,Inc. COMBRIDGE&EB