Re-Imagining Japanese Culture In The Metaverse, And In Second Life Machinima

This is a visually gorgeous and technically impressive machinima created by Pyewacket Bellman and Niten Altamura, a machinima team who dub themselves "Nitwacket".  Slow-moving, it begins as a saccharine mood tableau, then slowly evolves into something darker, and more ambivalent.  In doing so, it evokes some essential themes from Japanese cinema.  It was actually made for a machinima contest to promote Hosoi Ichiba, a Japanese furniture and lifestyle company based in Second Life.  The rules called for "the use of authentic Japanese avatars fitting with the environment", and on that score, I'd say Nitwacket succeeded... perhaps on an even deeper level than the sponsors expected.  Hat tip: Geuis Dassin's machinima Twitter feed.