Hometown Heroes
To mark the beginning of the 2025/2026 season, Major League Baseball set out to tell a story that stretches far beyond the field. At the heart of the campaign are Japan’s baseball stars – hometown heroes who’ve carried their dreams from small neighborhood diamonds to the world’s biggest stage. Each story begins where theirs once did: in their own hometowns. There, custom-designed manhole covers became unexpected gateways.
A Portal to the Past
A simple scan transforms the everyday street into a portal, unfolding beautifully animated journeys of resilience, passion, and the pursuit of greatness. Partnering with Wieden+Kennedy Tokyo we created twelve animations that explore the players' struggles and successes to become the legends of Major League Baseball.
The Best in the Game
To bring the project to life, the agency collaborated with twelve outstanding Japanese artists – each invited to design a manhole cover and create illustrations for the animations. Every artist brought a distinct style and perspective, which meant that every player’s story had to be approached in a new way. This diversity challenged us to rethink both the storytelling and the animation techniques, making each journey feel as unique as the player behind it.
Creating a Unique AR Experience
Another challenge came from the very medium itself: Augmented Reality. The manholes and animations existed as objects in space – you could walk around them, explore them from different angles, and experience them as if they were physically present. Our goal was to create animations that were not only captivating, but also immersive – expanding into the real world, feeling tactile, layered, and alive.
Molding the Art
The manholes themselves were produced in a factory in Hiroshima, where the designs were carefully translated into molds and then meticulously hand-painted to reflect each artist’s unique style. Once finished, they were placed across the country – turning everyday streets into gateways to extraordinary stories. For fans, each manhole became an entry point: scan the QR code and unlock an intimate, animated journey into the life of a hometown hero.
