Who is Milkman Saito?
"1994-2024 Milkman Saito Retrospective: Keihanshin El Magazine's Film Criticism Collection" is a hot topic. Its pink cover makes it stand out even in the movie section of bookstores, and the stack (thickness) is about 3cm. The contents are just as impressive as the appearance. The book is 600 pages long, and contains an overwhelming amount of information, with some pages written in such tiny letters that you have to squint to read them.
This book is a compilation of the vast number of manuscripts left behind by Milkman Saito, who sadly passed away last year, for Meets Regional, SAVVY, and the monthly magazine L magazine, all published by L Magazine.
The cover design for "1994-2024 Milkman Saito Retrospective: Keihanshin L Magazine's Film Criticism Collection" was created by the design studio groovisions, of which Milkman was a member. 
Memorial cards were handed out to attendees at a memorial event for Milkman held at Kyoto club Metro. The design was done by groovisions. Incidentally, the name "Milkman" comes from the fact that his family ran a dairy.
Those who knew Milkman when he was alive may have an image of him that overlaps somewhat with the person he was.
When he takes to the stage at talk events, he wears that flashy pink big suit. And once he starts talking, he continues his machine gun-like talk of his vast knowledge (or is it insanity?) without a hitch until the time comes to end.
The same can be said for the VJ at the now legendary Pizzicato Five live shows in the 1990s, which made Milkman's name famous overnight. Cut-ups of film scenes from all over the world and throughout history were played out in unison to match the music. Pop and excess, excess and pop. That was Milkman's forte.
We spoke to Hiroshi Ito of groovisions, who was in charge of the VJ duties alongside Milkman, about what happened at the time and Milkman.
It all started with Kyoto's Metro
Ito and Milkman, who was also born in 1963, the year of the rabbit, met in 1992.
The location was Kyoto, and it was a certain video work that brought the two together.
"At the time, I was working as an assistant at a university in Kyoto, but at the same time, I was running music events at clubs like Metro. I wasn't a VJ at the time, I think I was just DJing. At Metro, Tanaka-han (FPM, aka DJ Tanaka Tomoyuki) and Matsuyama-san (Matsuyama Yoshihiro, owner of hair salon Romanza), whom I had met a while earlier, started a music event called sound: impossible, and I went to hang out there and met Saito-san (Milkman).
At that time, Saito-san was already creating materials by cutting up and connecting various films. At that time, we both got excited about the Eames short film "Powers of Ten." I felt like we were a good match."
The two then began collaborating as VJs, which first began at an event held in Osaka.
"Then, Tanaka-san planned an event at Ohbako in Shinsaibashi. That's when I finally got to work as a VJ with Saito-san. The style was to insert motion graphics of titles and credits that I had created on a computer between cut-up footage of the film that Saito-san had made. I had been making moving typography-like videos since then. We made a lot of use of the equipment from university (laughs), and we both loved Saul Bass, so we created the video with that image in mind."
The guest performer at the event was Konishi Yasuharu from Pizzicato Five.
Their meeting with Konishi determines the future of the two of them.
And so the birth of groovisions
"It seems that Konishi saw our VJ work and liked it. So he asked me to join him, and I ended up doing the VJ for Pizzicato's live shows from 1993. After that, I ended up doing it every year until the band disbanded in 2001.
Partway through, they began performing under the name of groovisions. Konishi was the one who coined the name. Later, my students joined as designers, and in 1997 they moved to Tokyo, but Saito, who remained in Kansai, continued as a member because of Pizzicato's VJ work. That's right, Saito was supposed to be in Tanaka-san's group, but he ended up transferring to our team without much thought (laughs)."
Milkman was the only non-design member of the designer group Groovisions. An interview with Milkman appeared in the April 2004 issue of Advertising Criticism in the "Special Feature: Groovisions" section. 
Groovisions even made Milkman T-shirts without his permission and sent them to him. Some of them were even sold as merchandise. From the collection of works by Groovisions, GROOVISIONS MGR. 
This is a rare photo included in the groovisions collection "grv2000," released in 2000. Milkman is exhausted and dozing off on a sofa in the groovisions office, with Thunder Bunny and Pipo-kun beside him, while working on VJ material for a Pizzicato Five live show, which has seen him stay up all night every day.
The groovy and cool visuals created by Groovisions, which were synchronized with the Pizzicato performance, stunned those who saw it at the time.
From that time on, VJs were increasingly appearing at other artists' live shows and club events, but the footage edited by Saito in particular was unrivaled, as it could only be done with an extensive knowledge of film.
In addition to his work with Pizzicato, Saito also began working as a film critic.
This pamphlet for Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights was designed by groovisions. It's the size of a 7-inch record and even features a playful design with a hole in the middle. Milkman also contributed. 
"Video Shop 2 AM" is a book edited and written by Kawakatsu Masayuki. Milkman is a co-author along with Tamaki Ogawa and Makoto Takimoto. The cover design was also done by groovisions. Milkman is on the far left.
Boundless knowledge and energy about film
"Saito-san's knowledge of movies is simply limitless. You could say he's the ultimate otaku (laughs). Years later, our agency opened a restaurant in Kyoto called Sanmiya, where we invited Saito-san to give live talks about movies, and if we left him alone, he'd talk for four or five hours straight (laughs). This kind of limitless excess was present in Saito-san as a person and in his works. I think the video for Pizzicato is a good example of this.
I was talking to Tanaka once, and he said that Saito's video is amazing, but if it was left as is, it wouldn't be able to be contained, or it would get out of hand. That's why "framing" and "packaging" are necessary, and I think that Pizzicato's work has miraculously worked out well in this regard. It makes it look cool and stylish... I think that can be said not only about the video and the talk, but also about the writing he does."
Unfortunately, it is difficult to recreate the VJing of that time, but Milkman's knowledge and passion for film should still be apparent in this book.
"This book is also incredibly voluminous and packed with information. If you really want to read it thoroughly, you need to be prepared. You can't compete with it with superficial knowledge. But just like Saito's talk, if you just listen to it for a bit, it feels like you're listening to the stories of a funny old man from the Kansai region (laughs).
We only worked on the cover this time, but we wanted the book's contents to have a similar pop design, like Milkman's pink suit. It will stand out in the movie section of a bookstore. So, I think it's fine for people to just flick through the contents, starting with the part they want to read. Of course, if you're a skilled reader, I hope you'll get sucked into Saito's movie swamp (laughs)."
