AI artist aratama 璞’s AIVDJ work “UZUME” has been officially selected for GENaiME Anime Fest 2026, an international online film festival presented by Escape AI Media.

Following the screening of “Inner Elevator” in 2025, this marks aratama 璞’s second consecutive official selection for the festival.

The full 4K version of “UZUME,” with a runtime of 4 minutes and 55 seconds, will be screened during the festival on Saturday, August 1, 2026 in Pacific Time, or early Sunday morning, August 2 in Japan.

“UZUME”: Crossing the Boundaries of Anime, Live Action, Music, and Performance

“UZUME” is an audiovisual work that brings animation, live-action imagery, music, virtual expression, and performance design together within a single continuum.

Through “AIVDJ,” a creative format developed by aratama 璞, the work moves beyond video as something to be passively watched. Instead, it constructs an experience in which music, physicality, space, character, and the boundaries between the virtual and physical worlds intersect.

Rather than fitting neatly into established categories such as animation or music video, “UZUME” is an experimental project that crosses the boundaries between anime and live action, as well as between screen-based work and live performance.

The festival team praised the work for its intensity, visual immersion, and highly hybridized approach to combining multiple forms of expression. “UZUME” was selected as a work that reflects GENaiME’s commitment to exploring new creative possibilities emerging from anime and manga.

About GENaiME Anime Fest 2026

GENaiME Anime Fest is an international online film festival presented by Escape AI Media.

The festival showcases original short films by independent creators and filmmakers from around the world whose work is inspired by anime and manga.

Its program extends beyond conventional narrative animation to include anime realism, music-driven films, experimental moving-image works, and projects that combine live action with animation and other visual forms.

The 2026 edition marks the festival’s second year and will feature approximately 90 minutes of work by creators from across the globe.

The event is free to attend online. Participants can enter a browser-based 3D virtual theater using an avatar, watch the selected works, and interact with filmmakers and other audience members through text and voice chat.

A livestream option will also be available for viewers who prefer to watch without entering the 3D virtual environment.

Officially Selected for the Second Consecutive Year

In 2025, aratama 璞’s AI music video “Inner Elevator” was officially selected for genAIme [esc] fest 2025 and screened alongside short films from around the world.

In 2026, “UZUME” expands the scope of this creative practice and brings aratama 璞 back to the GENaiME lineup for a second consecutive year.

Where “Inner Elevator” explored the reconstruction of music, imagery, texture, and the perception of time through AI-generated moving images, “UZUME” extends that exploration into live performance, spatial experience, and hybrid audiovisual expression.

Read more about the 2025 official selection below.

aratama.io/en

[NEWS] aratama 璞 Selected for Global AI Animation Film Festival "genAIm...

🕒️2025-06-11

genAIme fest is a cutting-edge online film festival showcasing animation works created using generative AI (genAI).This innovative festival brings together global AI creators, artists, and audiences in a 3D virtual space for film screenings and networking, establishing itself as a groundbreaking new format for cinematic experiences.The festival, hosted by ESCAPE AI MEDIA on June 14, 2025 (PST), features award-winning filmmakers and avant-garde works from around the world.aratama 璞's su...

Comment from aratama 璞

I am deeply honored to have my work selected for GENaiME for the second consecutive year, following “Inner Elevator” in 2025.

“UZUME” is an experiment in bringing anime, live action, music, virtual expression, and performance together within a single continuum. It explores a transition from moving images as something we watch to an experience that also incorporates the body, physical space, and live presence.

It is particularly meaningful to have the work recognized not simply as an animated piece, but as a hybrid exploration that begins with anime and manga and moves beyond their conventional boundaries.

I hope this screening will lead into the future live-performance development of “UZUME” and the continued evolution of AIVDJ as a distinct form of creative expression.

Event Details

「GENaiME Anime Fest 2026」の上映作品が、『UZUME — SIGNAL — 天宇受売命』に正式決定しました。

『UZUME』は、アニメーション、実写、音楽、バーチャル表現、パフォーマンスデザインを横断し、一つの映像体験へと統合した、4分55秒のオーディオビジュアル作品です。… pic.twitter.com/jcP7jcvJdb

— aratama 璞 (@aratamadao) July 28, 2026

Featured Work

UZUME
Artist / Director: aratama 璞
Runtime: 4:55
Format: 4K
Category: AIVDJ / Audiovisual Performance / Hybrid Anime Expression

AI artist aratama 璞 will participate in “All About Generative AI Expo Vol. 5,” taking place in Kinshicho, Tokyo, on Wednesday, May 6, 2026.

About the All About Generative AI Expo

Source : Generative AI Exhibition

The “All About Generative AI Expo” (Generative AI Nande-mo Tenjikai) is Japan’s largest event for independent developers and creators working with generative AI. It brings together independently developed generative AI projects and artworks, creating a space where participants and visitors can exchange ideas about technology, creativity, and expression. This fifth edition will be the largest yet, with approximately 190 creators and developers expected to participate.

Unlike corporate or business-focused conventions, the event is centered on individual passion, experimentation, and creative exchange.

About the Exhibition

Through generative AI-driven video expression, character art, and narrative-based creative practice, aratama 璞 has continued to explore themes such as memory, emotion, and embodiment, while investigating where technology meets human feeling and perception. This exhibition will offer a firsthand look at works and creative experiments that emerge directly from that ongoing practice.

Details about the specific works on display and any materials or items available at the booth will be announced at a later date on this website and through official social media channels.

Taking place on the final day of Golden Week in Japan, the event offers a valuable opportunity to talk in person about practical generative AI workflows and the creative process. If you attend, please feel free to stop by the booth. I would be delighted to meet you there.

Event Details

• Event Name: All About Generative AI Expo Vol.5 (Generative AI Nande-mo Tenjikai Vol.5)
• Date & Time: Wednesday, May 6, 2026 / 12:30 PM – 6:00 PM (JST)
• Venue: Sumida Industry Hall 8F Sunrise Hall (Marui Co-Development Building, 3-9-10 Kotobashi, Sumida-ku, Tokyo)
• Access: 1-minute walk from the South Exit of Kinshicho Station (JR / Tokyo Metro)
• Admission: Free
• Official Event Page: https://techplay.jp/event/987273
• Official Website: https://www.genai-expo.com/
• Official Hashtag: #生成AIなんでも展示会

Looking Back at Vol. 4

#生成AIなんでも展示会 Vol.4、無事終了しました！
約1,500人の来場があり、最後までAI好きの方々と話せて幸せな時間でした。
Wi-Fiの接続が不安定で、具体的な制作ワークフローをお見せできず申し訳ありません。
規模が拡大しているので、スケジュールが合えば次回も参加予定です。

— aratama 璞 (@aratamadao) September 7, 2025

Update: April 12, 2026 | The Film Has Been Released

This film is also officially available on Escape AI, a platform where creators share their work.
It is the first animated short film I have officially released on the platform.
https://escape.ai/watch/69da3b12112f14d6d317aa58

An International Open Call Set 100 Years Ahead

AI artist aratama 璞 announces the official entry of their original short film, Ragna Astraea: Twin Shells, into the “AI Film Festival Japan — Short Film Competition 2026,” an international open call dedicated to cinematic works created with generative AI.

This competition is an international open call organized as a collaborative initiative between AI Film Festival Japan (AIFJ) and “LOOP 2126 ∞prelude∞.”
Under the theme “A world 100 years from now (the year 2126),” the festival seeks forward-thinking, AI-driven short films from creators around the globe.

Exceptional works that pass the initial screening will be showcased on the large outdoor screens of Tokyu Kabukicho Tower, as well as in public spaces and stages throughout Shinjuku’s Kabukicho district. Furthermore, works recognized for their high artistic merit will automatically qualify as official entries for the main “AI Film Festival Japan 2026” competition in November 2026.
The festival offers a platform for bringing AI-driven films from Japan to a wider international audience.

About Ragna Astraea: Twin Shells

The core concept of this film stems from a single question: what remains after humanity is gone? Even in a world devoid of people, there is a compelling possibility that memories, duties, and fragments of emotion might endure in alternate forms.
The story follows two autonomous robots locked in endless combat dictated by a forgotten mission. However, as shattered memories of their human past resurface, the underlying meaning of their battle gradually shifts. Rather than focusing solely on destruction and conflict, the narrative explores how a new future might emerge from the broken, the imperfect, and the half-forgotten.

Ragna Astraea: Twin Shells is a sci-fi short film created using generative AI. Centered on character designs that fuse mechanical anatomy with mythological motifs, it builds a cinematic atmosphere where profound silence and visceral tension coexist.
Through themes of a desolate Earth, fragmented memories, and two confronting entities, the film captures the lingering echoes of war and the possibility of renewal. By carefully layering the aesthetics of light, skies, weaponry, and physical form, the visual style achieves a delicate balance between apocalyptic finality and deep tranquility.

Artist Statement: aratama 璞

Ragna Astraea: Twin Shells is an original sci-fi short film created with generative AI. I focused on maintaining visual cohesion and a dense, self-contained world, while using the two central beings to evoke impermanence, loss, and emotional emptiness. With this entry, I’m grateful to be able to present the project as a completed cinematic work.

Entry Information

About aratama 璞

aratama 璞 is an AI artist, filmmaker, and VDJ based in Japan.
Working at the intersection of generative technology, cinematic aesthetics, and emotionally grounded storytelling, aratama 璞 creates works spanning AI-generated visuals, animation, and experimental film.
By weaving together themes of sci-fi, memory, mythology, and human fragility, aratama 璞 pursues a new frontier of cinematic expression—one born from the creative dialogue between human imagination and AI systems.

Artist aratama announces the release of Kokkin no Me (Eyes of Black Gold), a new work from the YōuMo Art Collection. The piece will be exhibited at the digital art event Digi-E 2026, held on March 14–15, 2026.

About the Work

Kokkin no Me explores the theme of “light emerging from within” through the contrast of black and gold.

Black is not treated as mere darkness, but as a vessel that contains light.
Gold represents not only material brilliance, but also the spiritual luminosity residing at the core of existence.

In stillness, light emerges from within.
Black is not an end, but a vessel of beginning.

This work was created as an attempt to visualize energy radiating quietly from the center of being. Though digital in medium, it carries nuanced textures reminiscent of lacquer and gold leaf, evoking a subtle craft sensibility within a contemporary visual language.

Artwork Caption

Title

Kokkin no Me (Eyes of Black Gold)

Comment

In stillness, light emerges from within.
Black is not an end, but a vessel of beginning.
A new work from the YōuMo Art Collection.

Production Process and the “Gold Form” Study

During the creation of this piece, multiple visual studies were conducted before arriving at the final black-and-gold composition.

A gold-dominant variation known as Gold Form played a crucial role in exploring materiality and surface luminosity. The fully gold configuration functioned as an experimental phase, testing intensity of light, gradation of reflection, and the perceived weight of presence.

Through this process of examination, the composition ultimately converged toward “black as vessel,” allowing the radiance to stand out more distinctly. Thus, Kokkin no Me reached its final form.

Gold Form is presented here as an important research stage within the work’s development.

About the YōuMo Art Collection

The YōuMo Art Collection is a series that traverses cuteness and mysticism, symbolism and presence.

YōuMo was created as a presence that gently stays close to the emotions of those who encounter it. It values non-verbal communication, offering a quiet sense of reassurance simply by being there.

For children, YōuMo serves as a small symbol of safety.
For adults, it becomes a space to pause and restore emotional balance.

Centered on the concept of presence itself, the series continuously examines gaze, texture, and the structure of light while evolving as an artistic IP.

YōuMo will continue to evolve quietly.

Exhibition Information

Digi-E 2026 – Digital Art Event

Digi-E 2026 is an exhibition dedicated to digital expression, including digital painting, illustration, and AI art. Through an open call process, creators from diverse backgrounds and career stages are selected to exhibit.

Dates

March 14, 2026 (Sat) 11:30–18:00
March 15, 2026 (Sun) 11:30–16:00
Free admission

Venue

Minatomirai Gallery ABC (All Halls)
Queen’s Square Yokohama, Queen Mall 2F
2-3-5 Minatomirai, Nishi-ku, Yokohama

Direct access from Minatomirai Station. The gallery combines an airy atrium filled with natural light and a calm exhibition space. Located near Yokohama Bay Hotel Tokyu and Pacifico Yokohama, visitors can enjoy both art and the surrounding waterfront district.

During the exhibition, each artist’s SNS QR code will be displayed alongside their work to encourage interaction between visitors and creators. After the event, a printed catalog featuring all exhibited works will be produced.

Work Specifications

Size: Within A3 (29.7 cm × 42 cm)
Format: Two-dimensional work (panel display)
Installation: Wall display

Official Websites

Digi-E 2026：https://nihonbungei.net/digi_e_2026/
BUNGEI GALLERY：https://bungeigarou.official.ec/
Queen’s Square Yokohama：https://qsy-tqc.jp/

Credits

Artist: aratama 璞
Art Collection: YōuMo