Background: Japan is one of the countries with the longest life expectancy. Cancer is the leading cause of death.

One in two Japanese will have cancer. Due to the prolonged coronavirus pandemic, the decrease in cancer screening rate has become a new issue.

As the environment surrounding patients and medical care becomes more severe, we wanted to show our support to cancer patients and their families as well as the medical professionals. We wanted to send them a positive message of hope to achieve the course of their treatment. This video was inspired by these thoughts.

Concept: To transmit the message, the concept was a picture-like book story that never fades. To convey the feelings delicately, we paid attention to each doll's emotional expressions.

Stop motion animation is like every moment of life. We carefully photographed the movements and facial expressions one by one over time, ending up with a total of 31,138 shots while shooting 50 days.

Why we chose stop motion: with real actors, the story wouldn't have the delicate feel needed and would be too "raw". If we used cartoons, it would have been too "pop". Using stop motion enabled us to approach a dramatic episode with a more positive and softer outlook.

The set for the scene where the woman ventures in the forest was challenging. Taking advantage of the background photo stretched in the back, the middle boundary looks like it is connected to the trees, creating a sense of depth.