Fantasista 'Uta' Utamaro directs an imaginative animated lyric video for dance producer Nitecore. The video tells the story of a missing heartbeat and the power of memory, in a beautifully distorted blend of anime, coding and artistry, by the director who recently won a BAFTA with fellow Nexus animation team Factory Fifteen for BBC's Olympics idents for Tokyo 2020.For the concept for Heatbeat, Uta was inspired by the Balengiaca YouTube channel and quantum physics, and he put together an all-Japanese dream team, including award-winning typographer Tadahiro Gunji, to create the visuals. Contemporary visuals combine with Noughties nostalgia, layering distinctive aesthetics which clash in a hypnotic amalgam. Utamaro's affinity for pop culture shines throughout, and he incorporates just the right amount of individual elements to create something markedly unique.

ZMARAKS explores the notion of humans vs monsters in their anime-inspired promo for Misogi's Bunny, featuring Oklou. Shot in a hazy, dreamlike fashion, the concept spans zombie-style cannibalism, subdued performance and even makes space for a trippy 3D interlude. ZMARAKS is a British filmmaker and visual artist from Bradford who works between their home city and London.Last year, ZMARAKS was one of five unsigned British directors to win a place on Three Minutes – Crack Magazine’s incubator scheme funding five music videos by rising talents. The scheme is produced in association with production company Ground Work and made possible by Burberry, Shure and BFI NETWORK.For their Three Minutes project, they were able to expand their vision of caustic scenes and immersive narratives by connecting with two artists with a similarly hyperreal worldview. Meet London-based oddball pop producer MISOGI and French singer/composer Oklou. On their collaboration, Bunny, the pair find a common ground on a high-impact, tears-on-the-dancefloor banger. It’s the kind of song which makes anyone with a visual imagination run wild. And they did.On the collaboration, MISOGI told Crack Magazine: “When I saw the treatment for the video I knew I had to go with it. Aliyah understood from the beginning that I wanted the juxtaposition of a creepy video and a cute song to be really prominent and they definitely delivered exactly what I wanted."

Raman Djafari brings his signature 3D stop-motion like 3D animation style into the big time world of pop for the remix of Elton John's Cold Heart by PNAU, featuring Dua Lipa.In this case, Djari also adds anime-influenced 2D elements to create a world full of celebration, dance and joy - including Studio-Ghibli-inspired renditions of Elton and Dua.We follow the journey of four disco-dancing friends - reflecting the era that Elton enjoyed first time around, and Dua references in her hit album Future Nostalgia - of identical portly stature, as they move through galaxies that are increasingly dense with colour and nature.Along the way, they make friends with all the spectacular life they find; spreading joy as they go. They end their journey dancing with Elton and Dua at the best garden party this side of the Milky Way.Created in the isolation of the pandemic and inspired by the collaboration of two British icons, legendary and new, this video encapsulates a post-lockdown feeling to get back to a place where we can once again enjoy and feel music together, 2021-style.

After the priceless deadpan surrealism of his videos by Vedran Rupic, a dramatic yet equally mind-boggling change of direction into Japanese anime for Salvatore Ganacci.Having tapped into his dark side in Rupic's fairy tale comedy for video for Step-Grandma, the enigmatic dance maestro moves into full-blown super-villainy in this amazing tour de force by the team at Sydney-based teams of GOONO and Truba Animation for Fight Dirty, with directing team Will Goodfellow and Tom Noakes from GOONO, and Greg Sharp from Truba on animation directing duties.Astonishing set-pieces ensue as Ganacci's super-boss emerges to crush his own a super prodigy. He's a super bad guy alright.But hang on. It turns out we're not quite done with some Rupic super-weirdness in the brilliant epilogue to round off the amazing work in animation that precedes it.

Nicholas Lam directs an animated tour de force for Snakehips' Lie For You, featuring Jess Glynne. Action-packed and explosive, the endless stream of Matrix-style fight scenes and cyberpunk aesthetics are heavily inspired by Japanese anime, with nods to popular shows and literature in the genre. The visuals - created by the animators at Chinese animation studio Point Five Creations - are breathtaking from start to finish: beautifully rendered, rich in texture and saturated colours; whilst the transitions and story structure are classic anime, with a few contemporised additions.