The New Year New Edit contest hosted by Rodney Ansell gets players out of there instagram zones and puts them into EDIT MODE. Players make a 2 min kendama video and post it on YouTube. It encourages players to put more thought into the presentation of there tricks, themselves, and their video. Creativity is at the forefront. Videos can be straight forward kendama edits or cinematic films with kendama as the theme.
This year 3 players from the GT team entered the contest with a common theme of shooting the entire video in one session.
KAITO NAKAJIMA
This year Kaito traveled to Nashville for the 2025 Battle at the border event. The Sunday after the contest everyone meets at the infamous Parthenon in downtown Nashville. Kaito decides he wants to enter the contest and asks Gucci to film a few quick tricks. Kaito proceeds to hit hammer after hammer back to back. Within a short period of time Kaito and Gucci have secured enough tricks for a solid edit. Gucci capturing all the good in between b roll moments as well. While Kaito is a world class kendama player he doesn't have much experience in the video editing world. Kaito took a crack at editing his own video for the contest and came out with a solid kendama edit featuring a track by Japanese hip hop artist "KOHH". The title "Lip Cream" comes from a funny Japanese / English translation moment with Kaito in Nashville where he was asking for "Lip Cream" AKA Chapstick in english. We offered him chapstick and he thought we were offering him red LIPSTICK. He was laughing thinking that we wanted him to wear red lipstick at the event. It was a funny moment that stuck with us. Next time you're in Japan and your lips are chapped ask for "Lip Cream".
MEES VANKESTEREN
Mees (pronounced Mase) Vankesteren is no stranger to creative tricks and stylish edits. A one man creative power house. Late night, headphones on, empty hallway, kendama in hand, and nothing but time to play. This is the vibe for Mees's video. Mees incorporates his own handstyle into the video by hand writing the titles. This mixed in with the intentional slow shutter filming and b roll makes this a well thought out video. Mees shows that he had an idea of how he wanted it to look before he even started filming. The music is Dutch artist Rey Fuego driving home the European vibe.
GUCCI MOONBOOTS
Last minute magic. There is something about cranking out a project last min that ignites creativity. Gucci captured the chaotic panic of shooting, editing, and posting a full edit within hours of the deadline. Quickly being able to conjure a concept and execute it in a few hours is an amazing feat of creativity. On top of it all Gucci decided to punch you in the face with some serious metal music to drive home the chaos.