This project is inspired by hide and his concept of “LEMONed,” which redefines defectiveness and non-standard identities as sources of creativity, transformation, and collective belonging. Through music, fashion labels, retail spaces, and live performances, hide constructed a cross-media cultural ecosystem that offered emotional refuge and identity formation for non-mainstream communities.

As part of my research, I investigated the visual language of the Psyence album, the fashion objects associated with the LEMONed Shop, and the events organised under the LEMONed label. Together, these elements form a hybrid cultural environment in which music, fashion, performance, and self-expression intersect. This research became the conceptual foundation for my own imagined “Lemoned Space.”

The animation follows a girl who struggles to fit into society and remains trapped within a cocoon-like environment of isolation. When she hears Visual Kei rock music, her senses gradually awaken, and she develops a desire to escape. Guided by the melody, she rises upward along musical staves into a city slowly transformed by sound and colour.

Eventually, she arrives at the “Lemoned Music Utopia Space,” where music becomes a source of liberation, emotional release, and joy. Within this imagined world, she encounters a community of similarly marginalised individuals and forms connections through collective movement and dance. In the final scene, the figures merge together into a vibrant lemon, symbolising belonging, transformation, and shared identity. Through this journey, the protagonist completes her transition from loneliness and alienation toward connection and self-acceptance.