Imagine this: a Japanese stealth agent who manipulates intra-dimensional space travel to get the kill. Sprinkle in a bit of that rebellious, slightly arrogant, too-cool-for-school anime archetype and boom, that’s VALORANT’s Agent 15: Yoru. He’s the kind of character who would even make Neo-Tokyo’s legendary Shotaro Kaneda pause in his tracks for a double-take. To put it simply, he’s not to be underestimated.

Our mission? To encapsulate the sheer essence and complexity of Yoru’s character in a series of reveal trailers for Riot Games. In the words of Yoru himself, “Let’s end this.”

Riot intentionally wanted the trailer to embrace a music video visual language without actually being one. Enter Kyoto rapper Daichi Yamomoto’s hit single “One Way” — the ideal soundtrack to Yoru’s international debut that perfectly encapsulates his “IDGAF, I’m the shit” attitude.

Taking into account Riot’s specificities, we actualized these concepts into a reveal trailer that highlights his primary skill set of opening portals to travel through alternate dimensions. He’s an agent with a bit of edge and Japanese flair; from the way he moves, to the way he speaks, to the way he carries himself.

In order to anchor his personality in the spot, we created a design system of glitchy geometric shapes and kanji (a Japanese writing system adopted from Chinese characters) to help frame his introductory silhouette in a way that alludes to his stealth and dangerous tenacity. Transitions were cut-to in a pixelated, hard-cut way that emphasizes Yoru’s essence of breaking the laws of space and time.