Animation studio SANZIGEN has confirmed that it produced the music video for hololive talent Sakura Miko’s new song “PON-DERFUL!!!”. The track debuted on Tuesday, with the video following shortly after on her YouTube channel.
The song appears on Blooming Cinderella, Sakura Miko’s second album, which arrived on Wednesday. Taku Inoue handled the lyrics, composition and arrangement.
Who made the video
The production list is a compact one, with several artists doing more than one job:
- Director, storyboard, editing: Tomomi Umetsu
- Art director, color key artist, background director: Shin Joseph
- CG director: Daiki Uchida
- Modeling director: Shoichi Ueda
- Animation director: Ayano Shimonishikida
- Compositing director of photography: Keisuke Watanabe
- Background and photography: Sho Shimizu
That split is standard for a music video, where the schedule is short and a handful of artists cover several roles. Umetsu handling storyboard and editing alongside direction, and Shin Joseph covering art direction, color keys and backgrounds, keeps the look consistent across a project that cannot afford many handoffs.
Why SANZIGEN fits this job
SANZIGEN built its reputation on CG animation and 3D productions, most visibly through the BanG Dream! franchise. A virtual talent with a 3D model is a natural fit for that skill set. The studio has already worked inside the VTuber space and the wider music industry, so an album tie-in video is a short step rather than a stretch.
Sakura Miko debuted in August 2018 and is one of hololive’s longer-serving members. Pairing a full 3D music video with a studio of SANZIGEN’s size is a bigger production than the average VTuber MV, and it reflects how far these videos have moved from simple lyric clips. The genre now regularly pulls in directors and animators who also work on TV anime.
What it says about VTuber music
Hololive’s music output has grown into a real business, with album releases and animated videos that sit alongside the streaming side of the talents’ work. Blooming Cinderella is a full album release rather than a single, and attaching a studio-produced video to one of its tracks gives it a piece of promotion that a normal upload would not get. The gap between the song’s release on Tuesday and the album’s on Wednesday means the video arrived at the exact moment it could pull the most listeners toward the record.
The video also slots into a broader trend on the anime side. Studios that make TV anime are increasingly taking on music videos, whether for VTubers, idol groups or game tie-ins, because the formats overlap in technique and audience. SANZIGEN has been part of that crossover for years, and this is another entry in the same column. Hololive’s own push into animation has followed a similar path, most recently with hololive: Let’s Head Out!, which announced 29 cast members and staff from Studio KAI.
For Sakura Miko’s audience, the takeaway is straightforward: the song is out, the video is out and both are tied to her second album. For anyone watching the production side, it is another example of a CG studio turning a licensed music video into something closer to a short film.
Source: Anime News Network.
Featured image: Sakura Miko’s “PON-DERFUL!!!” music video, via Anime News Network / Sakura Miko’s YouTube channel.
