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SK-II reacted to a landmark moment in Japanese sporting history – the retirement of their only gold medal-winning badminton duo, Ayaka Takahashi and Misaki Matsutomo – with an early release of “VS MACHINES” as a tribute to the pair; the first of six animated films. VS Machines focuses on the pressure to be a constantly performing machine; a mindset that eventually makes you more robot than human. With a well documented-struggle and slump in form after the 2016 Olympics, the film explores a futuristic dystopia, set in a training facility where competition is the main reason for existence, where humans become machines in their quest for perfection. In this world, cyborg-versions of Takahashi and Matsutomo are programmed with machine-like mindsets and are pitted against each other to achieve cold, joyless perfection. Together, they learn to resist and break free of The Machine by rediscovering the the human connection they share.

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Japan takes hitting targets and overachievement extremely seriously – for example, the term 'karoshi' specifically refers to 'death by overworking' – so losing human connection with each other is something that happens easily. When the Japanese badminton duo spoke about the pressure of staying at the top having already achieved the sport's greatest accolade, an Olympic gold medal, we realised this was a truth that would resonate across Japanese society. The cyborg versions of Matsutomo & Takahashi were a visual metaphor of the 'robotic' nature many people feel forced to take in a world of KPIs and targets. Due to be released as part of a six episode anthology, we took the decision to release VS Machines earlier as a response to the retirement of Takahashi. With the disappointment of the Olympic postponement in Japan, the film was a timely reminder of the beauty of human connection, over competition.