SK-II RELEASES TRIBUTE FILM “VS MACHINES”
IN CELEBRATION OF BADMINTON DUO AYAKA TAKASHI AND MISAKI MATSUTOMO’S JOURNEY TOGETHER

Shining a light on the beauty of human connection, global prestige skincare brand SK-II announces the release of “VS MACHINES”, a tribute film to Japan’s first ever Olympic Badminton Doubles Gold Medalists — Ayaka Takahashi and Misaki Matsutomo who recently announced their retirement as a duo from the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.

“VS Machines” is a part of “VS”, an SK-II STUDIO Animated series. It was created through a unique collaboration between SK-II and a newly formed, hyper-accelerated creative unit at WPP, which brought together worldwide talent to creatively push the boundaries of our preconceptions of beauty.

The film explores a futuristic dystopia where competition is the main reason for existence, humans become machines in their quest for perfection and “The Machine” keeps score. In this world, Takahashi and Matsutomo are programmed with machine-like mindsets and are pit against each other to achieve cold, joyless perfection. Together, they learn to resist and break free of “The Machine” by holding on to what truly defines them—the human connection they share.

Inspired by the duo’s recent news, WPP adapted the message and together with SK-II brought forward the release of “VS MACHINES” to pay special tribute to their over-a-decade-long connection.

Siddika Dehlvi, Executive Creative Business Director at WPP said “We wanted to depict the internal battle between our competitive mindset and real human connection. Blending together live action and high craft animation with our protagonists switching between robots and our Olympic athlete duo, we explored how connection can go beyond competition.”

To make the 5-minute film, WPP collaborated closely with award-winning production partners, including Imaginary Forces who developed high craft 3D animation with a team of 17 specialised artists, animators, camera crew and motion capture specialists, led by director Alan Williams. Additionally, a bespoke soundtrack and sound design was developed by Eclectic Sounds and sister company Bark Soho, led by Executive Music Producer Simon Elms, the team holistically composed and designed the track as the story was developed.

“The creation of “VS MACHINES” epitomises our “collapsed creative” philosophy and shows the creative potential of what can be achieved when you bring in worldwide talent, upstream in the process, to push boundaries and do so with the commitment to agility that is essential for responding appropriately when circumstances change”, said Nihar Das, SK-II Lead, WPP.

“VS”, SK-II STUDIO’s first ever animated content series – is a collection of six films based on the real-life experiences of six Olympic athletes battling toxic competitions in beauty, defining what beauty means to them.

Each film within the series explores a different facet of toxic competition in beauty today. Competitions that dictate how beauty should look, act and feel: Trolls. Pressure. Image Obsession. Rules. Limitations. Machine-Like Mindsets. These competitions are all brought to life in the form of a “strange beast” or “kaiju” in Japanese, with each “kaiju” shedding light on the inner demon each athlete must defeat in order to define what beauty means to them.