As the world gathers in Osaka for Expo 2025, a bewildering and magnificent experience amplifies the power of imagination. Within the “Grand Ring” stands the Signature Pavilion LIVE EARTH JOURNEY, a multisensory odyssey conceived by the renowned anime creator, mechanical designer, and multimedia visionary Shoji Kawamori. Known for his iconic work on Macross, Aquarion, and The Vision of Escaflowne, Kawamori has long blurred the boundaries between the real and the virtual, the mechanical and the organic. At Expo 2025, he was generous enough to show us around the pavilion and grant us an interview to uncover the secrets of its creation. He channels his lifelong exploration into an immersive installation that invites visitors to perceive life, and the entirety of existence as a dynamic, interconnected, and ever-evolving phenomenon.

Shoji Kawamori Presents “LIVE EARTH JOURNEY” Pavilion, Photo: Sébastien Raineri

Situated within the Signature Pavilions zone, the LIVE EARTH JOURNEY is distinguished by its cubic and minimalist shapes, where large and small exhibits, each with their own architectural structures, form unified spaces called “cells”. The diverse cells are one form of life, welcoming visitors with a series of diverse experiences. Inside, the architecture is choreographed to support a narrative arc composed of several immersive installations. Circulation through the space is not dictated by a fixed path but flows organically, encouraging intuitive exploration. Visitors enter as participants in a living story that unfolds around and through them. Kawamori’s vision of a non-hierarchical, interconnected cosmos is echoed in every design decision, from the placement of entry points to the layering of symbolic motifs drawn from myth, nature, and quantum theory. The pavilion becomes a kind of mandala, a sacred spatial diagram, through which visitors are invited to contemplate their own place within the grand cycle of existence. The pavilion itself becomes a conscious participant in the journey it proposes, guiding each visitor toward a deeper understanding of the world, the self, and the invisible threads that connect all life.

Shoji Kawamori Presents “LIVE EARTH JOURNEY” Pavilion © Shoji Kawamori / Vector Vision

LIVE EARTH JOURNEY is a poetic ecosystem of images, sound, motion, and metaphysical inquiry. At its core are two deeply immersive experiences: Deep Vision “499 Seconds: My Gattai”, and ANIMA!. Both works ask questions about the role of human beings in the biosphere, while celebrating the complex choreography of life that unfolds at every scale, from microscopic organisms to the vast systems of the planet itself.

To understand the visionary scope of LIVE EARTH JOURNEY, one must begin with a moment of personal genesis. Shoji Kawamori visited Expo ’70 in Osaka as a child, and this formative experience left an indelible mark on his creative psyche. For him, it was a revelation, a window into a universe where science, art, and philosophy could converge to reimagine the human experience. Over five decades later, his own contribution to Expo 2025 pays homage to, and simultaneously reinvents, the spirit of that historic event.

Expo ’70 was Japan’s first world exposition and remains one of the most symbolically potent events in the nation’s postwar history. Held under the theme “Progress and Harmony for Mankind,” it drew over 64 million visitors and featured landmark works such as Taro Okamoto’s iconic Tower of the Sun. For the young Kawamori, the site was a surreal dreamscape of movement and meaning, a place where architecture breathed, robots conversed, and the universe felt tantalizingly within reach.

His later work in anime, particularly his transformation designs and metaphysical storytelling, can be traced back to this early encounter with Expo ’70. The concepts of fusion, metamorphosis, and planetary consciousness that are central to LIVE EARTH JOURNEY were seeded in the fertile ground of that exposition. As he developed into a creator renowned for blending mecha aesthetics with spiritual and ecological themes, Kawamori retains a deep respect for the interdisciplinary ethos of Expo ’70.