Perfume release their AI looking-ass-but-actually-not-AI video for “Fumetsu no Anata”

Perfume’s last single release before their hiatus was “Fumetsu no Anata”. And I do wonder whether this song was planned before or after Perfume made the choice to go on hiatus. I’m willing to bet that it’s after, because the timing of the release of the single and the music video feel so weird. But they only feel weird because Perfume are on hiatus. Otherwise we would have gotten a live performance of this song for Perfume’s Nebula Romance: Episode Tokyo Dome when it was just a celebratory return to Tokyo Dome and an album concert, and not a farewell concert. And we would have gotten live performances too. The music video probably still would have been this though.

Perfume’s music videos became really hit and miss after LEVEL3. There was always a level of creativity involved, but something really flat about the execution. And that’s how I feel about the video for “Fumetsu no Anata” too.

In this day and age, people will see a video like this and wonder ‘Is it AI?’. We’re now at a point in time where this is such a regular and recurring question directed at so many videos online, because AI content is so rampant and Perfume’s creative team have also used it. But in this case, Perfume’s music video was created using a technique called Gaussian Splatting, which is a volume rendering technique. From what I can gather, Gaussian Splatting is a technique for transforming images into 3D. You know that technology that Google Maps uses — where it renders streets from images to 3D and shit? Gaussian Splatting is KINDA like that, but a far more advanced version of it and it’s able to render in real-time. Here’s a great video which explains it far better than I am capable of every doing. The benefit of Gaussian Splatting is that it can create a higher sense of realism than just using CG models, motion capturing and scanning — especially if you are using it for people. But it does have some issues which can affect the end result. The Jor-El hologram sequence in James Gunn’s Superman movie was shot using Gaussian splatting and this video from 3DVF explains what some of these issues are and how they worked with them to make a creative choice. And this same creative choice was made in Perfume’s video — by making any odd rendering instances or glitches seem intentional and presenting the result as a digital artefact.

Perfume - Fumetsu no Anata | Polydor Records

Perfume have used different versions of volume capturing / rendering and data capturing before for many of their performances. Their performance of “Nebula Romance” for Expo 2025 used a version of it. And often when there is a tour visual which features their silhouettes (“Fusion” or “Edge”), it’s usually via some form of volumetric capturing involed. If Perfume were not on hiatus, we probably would have gotten something more about Gaussian Splatting and maybe even a live performance from Perfume which plays around with the tech in real-time.

It’s a shame that Perfume’s farewell felt so rushed. But it is what it is.

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