Dear Viruses

Dear Viruses is a short animated film produced by students at the Tokyo University of the Arts, known colloquially as Geidai, within their prestigious animation department. Created during the global health climate of the early 2020s, the film serves as a reflective artistic response to the pervasive presence of viral biology and the subsequent shifts in human social behavior. It captures the specific anxieties and surreal quietude of a world navigating a pandemic, utilizing the distinct, experimental visual language often championed by the Geidai program.

The production highlights the school’s commitment to individualistic storytelling, favoring evocative, hand-crafted aesthetic choices over commercial trends. The student creators aimed to anthropomorphize the microscopic, framing the virus not just as a medical threat, but as an inescapable presence that forced a recalibration of everyday human existence. Upon its completion, the film gained modest recognition within international animation festivals for its poignant, illustrative approach to contemporary history.