A long-form Experiential Novel trilogy, final chapter Based on the original novel Sakubou
2027 — 2029
They do not align. They simply stand side by side. And perhaps that is enough.
A three-year story in which time becomes our own begins.
TRACE
PROLOGUE
Time does not exist. Then perhaps we can make it together.
A new moon and a full moon are, in fact, the same alignment. When the sun, Earth, and moon stand on a single line, the phenomenon is called a syzygy.
Built around the original novel Sakubou, Syzygy is the final chapter following KaMiNG SINGULARITY and RingNe. It is not only a story to read, but an Experiential Novel whose world is lived in reality. From 2027 to 2029, Yokohama and Kyotango become its stage. We are looking for co-conspirators who will invent and inhabit this world with us.
ORIGINAL NOVEL
The world of Sakubou
The story takes place in a Japan where humanity has learned to control time. Artificial gravity and gravity shields create physical “time basins” in which different speeds of time coexist. A technology called TiME stretches and contracts each person’s subjective second.
In contrast, the seaside town where aspiring novelist Itta Izuru lives is a Traditional Time Preservation Basin. One second remains one second. What he lacks is not talent, but enough time to fail.
Only while I am floating does my time become my own.— Sakubou, I: New Moon
His perpetually late classmate Mitsu Akuhara tells him that Ryugu, an urban legend where time has stopped, is real. Its path opens only on the night when Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn collapse into a single line in the sky. Miss that night, and the next arrives nineteen years later.
Together they cross multiple time basins and pass through the Syzygy Festival, where plural times can be experienced in one place. Their journey leads into the deep sea and toward the structure of the universe, the meaning of storytelling, and the secret held inside a modern-day tamatebako.
Perhaps time was never what I wanted. What I wanted was someone who would witness my time.— Sakubou, III: Full Moon
Through time, sea and cosmos, AI and gods, and the legend of Urashima Taro, the novel asks what quiet abundance can be found simply by sharing time with someone else. Over three years, we will write the space between its lines from the side of reality.
The complete second draft is currently available in Japanese.
WHAT IS AN EXPERIENTIAL NOVEL?
A story not only read, but lived
An Experiential Novel is Yuu Amemiya’s original form of practice. Readers enter a festival, immersive theatre, or another real environment shaped by a novel’s worldview, and complete the story by behaving as residents of that world.
ImagineRead the novel and share its worldview
→
LiveBuild and inhabit its world in reality
→
RewriteReality is written back into the novel
↺
The novel creates reality; reality becomes the next chapter. A long-form Experiential Novel turns this cycle three times over three years.
Who are the co-conspirators?
Our makers are not called staff, but co-conspirators: people who fabricate one world together and live as its residents. Planning, performance, decoration, communication, and operation are developed autonomously through the shared language of the story. Across three years, the previous work RingNe involved approximately 500 co-conspirators.
Syzygy introduces a third, parallel form of the long Experiential Novel. Alongside the completed original, every co-conspirator writes a parallel story of their own and revises it each year.
FORM 01
Branch
An alternative story using the characters or events of the original.
FORM 02
Shared World
A new protagonist living somewhere else within the same temporal world.
FORM 03
Interference
Parallel stories can enter one another and may even leave traces in the original.
A co-conspirator is both a maker of the festival and an author who creates, expresses, and lives a personal story. Countless worldlines stand beside one another without having to become the same. That plurality is the heart of Syzygy.
VOYAGE 2027–2029
A three-year voyage
The work moves from Yokohama, a port city, to Kyotango, a seaside home of the Urashima legend, and finally to Ryugu.
2027 / TIME
The day time came loose
A 1,000-person Syzygy Festival in Yokohama, where many time basins coexist in one space. Co-conspirators independently imagine and build performances, stalls, food, devices, and rituals that could exist inside the novel.
2028 / SEA / COSMOS
Sea, cosmos, journey, time basin
An immersive experience in Kyotango. The distance, the train journey, the checkpoints, and the return home all become part of the story.
2029 / RYUGU
Living where time is absent
A closed gathering built only by those who have lived through the first two years. The three-year story and its parallel worldlines align for one night.
SEVEN PHASES
How the world is made
Each year follows seven phases: shared wonder, shared world, conspiracy, resonance, enactment, rewriting, and coexistence.
01Shared Wonder
02Shared World
03Conspiracy
04Resonance
05Enactment
06Rewriting
07Coexistence
2026–2027
First cycle: Time
Complete and publish the original novel, form the committee, recruit co-conspirators, develop content, secure partners, and open the Syzygy Festival in Yokohama. Reality is then rewritten into the novel.
2027–2028
Second cycle: Sea / Cosmos
Research Kyotango, design the journey, deepen the immersive form, and hold the second chapter by the sea. The shared edition and parallel stories are revised again.
2028–2029
Third cycle: Ryugu
Co-conspirators build Ryugu, hold a closed final gathering, and complete the definitive edition of Sakubou alongside a constellation of parallel works.
All dates and venues are provisional and will be updated after confirmation with venues and relevant authorities.
OPEN CALL
Become a co-conspirator
Age, nationality, experience, and place of residence do not matter. We welcome people moved by time, sea and cosmos, Urashima Taro, festival-making, immersive experiences, music, writing, food, decoration, film, communication, or operations.
Conditions
Respect the original novel and the world it establishes.
Participate actively and join regular online meetings.
Respect different backgrounds and worldlines without exclusion.
Do not use the project for religious or multilevel-marketing solicitation.
Move safely between fiction and reality while protecting your physical and mental health.
Funding
This is a non-profit project. There is no base salary. Production expenses are covered only when the overall budget, sponsorship, crowdfunding, and ticket income allow. Raising the resources is itself part of making the world together.
Syzygy welcomes companies, organizations, and individuals who wish to place their story beside ours through time, wellbeing, sea, and regional collaboration in Yokohama and Kyotango.
World-integrated booth
Appear not as an ordinary exhibitor, but as a resident of the Syzygy Festival.
Sampling and visibility
Product sampling and appropriate inclusion in printed and digital materials.
Custom collaboration
Branded experiences, artist collaborations, workshops, CSR, and regional programs.