渦AR-RAQMI.NET / LOST GALAXY RESEARCH
EXPERIMENT REPORT  |  23–25 OCTOBER 2026

INK
SPIRAL

Solo agent vs. agent team: an empirical study of AI-produced anime lyric music videos

Rezephyr - Lost Galaxy (feat. Hatsune Miku)
RESEARCH BYIbn Ahmad ar-Raqmi
ar-raqmi.net
WITHYiyi, the agent  &  Yiyi, the cat
渦
01

The music video

映像
Rezephyr - Lost Galaxy (feat. Hatsune Miku) · INK SPIRAL · 3:41 · 1080p2497 shots · 0/241 frames with colour
02

Abstract

要旨

Can a team of AI agents make a better anime music video than a single AI agent? This multi-agent experiment measures it. An LLM agent, Yiyi (Claude Opus 5.5 at maximum effort, in Hermes Agent), produced anime lyric music videos for the artist Rezephyr: first alone (Like a Prism), then leading a team of 24 sub-agent runs that made five storyboards and a strictly black-and-white manga MV. The whole experiment used 266.82 M tokens, worth $237.18 at API list price. The team MV locks frame changes to the drums 1.58–2.60× harder than the solo MV, and costs 2.75× more per finished minute.

$237.18API-list-price equivalent
of 266.82 M tokens
×7.43team kick lock
(solo ×2.86)
0 / 241sampled frames with colour
24 runssub-Yiyis: 14 completed,
5 paused, 5 failed
147 pagesfive storyboards,
120 shots
7.80 hP3 time waiting
for the quota window
03

Key findings

結論
FINDING 1×2.60

Craft improved where the doctrine aimed

Stepped timing and hit-locked impacts raised drum sync on every instrument. Ten hand-built lettering treatments replaced default tweens.

FINDING 262%

Context, not headcount, drives cost

Neither run length nor call count predicts cost. Most of the lead's spend was re-caching its own context after idle waits.

FINDING 3≈93

The quota is the real limit

One 5-hour window ≈ 13.2 points of a week; the two team phases used about 93. Wall-clock time was mostly waiting.

FINDING 43/3

Tools caught the bugs, not reports

A stale engine copy, an ffmpeg-8 flag change and an impossible cost estimate were all caught by scripts and re-checks.

04

The song, measured

解析
Song map
FIG 1Lost Galaxy decomposed: 150 BPM, C major, three drops on downbeats (solid ink), 200 kicks, 23 aligned lyric lines.
05

Solo vs. team

同期
Sync audit
FIG 2Same drum-sync audit on both MVs. The team peaks on the hit frame; the solo hi-hat never locks.
Same four moments
FIG 3Verse, chorus, first drop, last drop. Top: solo Like a Prism. Bottom: team Lost Galaxy.
Nine metrics
FIG 4Team ÷ solo on nine metrics. Quality up, time and money down.
06

Inside the MV

絵
Pacing sheet
FIG 548 frames across the whole MV. Black frames are the one-bar gaps held as シン…
Lyrics
FIG 6Hand-built lettering: dots, spiral-set, carved 自由.
Inked art
FIG 720 artworks re-inked into line, black and tone plates.
Shot plan
FIG 8The 97-shot plan, generated from the timeline.
07

Five storyboards

絵コンテ
Five styles
FIG 9FEED CRASH · COMET CINEMA · AMANOGAWA · VHS 1989 · INK SPIRAL, forced ≥80 % apart.
INK SPIRAL board pages
FIG 10The INK SPIRAL board the MV was built from.
08

Time, tokens and cost

費用
Runs timeline
FIG 11All 24 sub-Yiyi runs. Dotted bands are quota waits.
Cost
FIG 12Cost by phase, token mix, where the money goes.
Quota
FIG 13347 readings of the plan quota.
09

Read and reuse

資料
Full report (PDF)22 pages · methods, all data, appendices
anime-mv-skills7 agent skills · coming soon
Watch on YouTubeRezephyr - Lost Galaxy (feat. Hatsune Miku)
10

About this research

猫
RESEARCHER

Ibn Ahmad ar-Raqmi designed and ran the experiment, wrote the briefs and the critique, judged every output, and supplied the songs (released as Rezephyr). ar-raqmi.net

YIYI, THE AGENT

The lead agent: Claude Opus 5.5 in Hermes Agent, directing 24 sub-agent runs ("sub-Yiyis").

YIYI, THE CAT

The original Yiyi and the agent's namesake. Champion napper; supervised from the keyboard.

Yiyi the cat asleep on the keyboard

Yiyi the cat, on duty at the render workstation.

11

Credits

クレジット

58 third-party artworks, each listed with its post page, original source and licence. Hatsune Miku © Crypton Future Media, INC. piapro.net. Private research; artworks © their artists.

Show all 58 artwork credits
#WorkArtistPost page · original sourceUsed in
1danbooru:10230681lughostdanbooru.donmai.us / 10230681
twitter.com / 1962214146889421168		MV
2danbooru:11045595inemuri_(jdq5e)danbooru.donmai.us / 11045595
x.com / 2037901700355465613		MV
3danbooru:11615427rhymewithraydanbooru.donmai.us / 11615427
x.com / 2067342957464998202		MV
4danbooru:11750325tatyaoekakidanbooru.donmai.us / 11750325
pximg.net / 145434101_p3.jpg		MV
5danbooru:4380385konya_karasuedanbooru.donmai.us / 4380385
pximg.net / 87951954_p2.jpg		MV
6danbooru:4380386konya_karasuedanbooru.donmai.us / 4380386
pximg.net / 87951954_p3.jpg		MV
7danbooru:4380389konya_karasuedanbooru.donmai.us / 4380389
pximg.net / 87951954_p5.jpg		MV
8danbooru:5065109izawa_(bhive003)danbooru.donmai.us / 5065109
twitter.com / 1483554738784575488		MV, SB05
9danbooru:5658318rune_xiaodanbooru.donmai.us / 5658318
pximg.net / 101073335_p0.png		MV, SB05
10danbooru:6036892cheonyeon-hidanbooru.donmai.us / 6036892
twitter.com / 1620358386109018117		MV, SB05
11danbooru:6227316dokumitsu_akaringodanbooru.donmai.us / 6227316
pximg.net / 88650298_p0.png		MV
12danbooru:6714284metsu_enddanbooru.donmai.us / 6714284
pximg.net / 111442856_p0.png		MV
13danbooru:6872275dotthebotdanbooru.donmai.us / 6872275
pximg.net / 113233185_p0.png		MV, SB05
14danbooru:6902252cheonyeon-hidanbooru.donmai.us / 6902252
twitter.com / 1726895835458457912		MV, SB05
15danbooru:8261542dixo_(user_srff3835)danbooru.donmai.us / 8261542
pximg.net / 123114531_p0.jpg		MV, SB05
16danbooru:8743322ryawdanbooru.donmai.us / 8743322
twitter.com / 1833140448237593048		MV, SB05
17danbooru:9337754le_(szs0k)danbooru.donmai.us / 9337754
twitter.com / 1898181831419465773		MV
18konachan:369558see sourcekonachan.net / 369558
pixiv.net / 114878436		MV, SB05
19wallhaven:jxg9rwuploader MrPatowallhaven.cc / jxg9rwMV, SB05
20wallhaven:o5p9wluploader MrPatowallhaven.cc / o5p9wlMV, SB05
21commons:109860690Utagawa Hiroshigecommons.wikimedia.org / File:NDL-DC_1303208-…SB03
22commons:11159377Utagawa Hiroshigecommons.wikimedia.org / File:Hiroshige,_The_…SB03
23commons:67973284Andō, Hiroshige, 1797-1858, artistcommons.wikimedia.org / File:Saruwaka-machi_…SB03
24commons:77567922Utagawa Hiroshigecommons.wikimedia.org / File:Utagawa_Hiroshi…SB03
25commons:77597235Utagawa Hiroshigecommons.wikimedia.org / File:Utagawa_Hiroshi…SB03
26danbooru:1613567unknowndanbooru.donmai.us / 1613567SB04
27danbooru:3997515amenomori_howadanbooru.donmai.us / 3997515
pximg.net / 82932648_p0.jpg		SB03
28danbooru:4467522nengorodanbooru.donmai.us / 4467522
pximg.net / 89135856_p0.png		SB02
29danbooru:4939355ushiyama_amedanbooru.donmai.us / 4939355
pximg.net / 75600953_p0.jpg		SB03
30danbooru:5243423gemidanbooru.donmai.us / 5243423
twitter.com / 1510187966706061316		SB03
31danbooru:5360153shuu_illustdanbooru.donmai.us / 5360153
pximg.net / 98419493_p0.jpg		SB03
32danbooru:5493608avogado6danbooru.donmai.us / 5493608
twitter.com / 1439930817149501440		SB02
33danbooru:5555286pasoputidanbooru.donmai.us / 5555286
pximg.net / 76783413_p0.jpg		SB04
34danbooru:5559404watanabe_akiodanbooru.donmai.us / 5559404
ototoy.jp / 877694		SB04
35danbooru:5584726fasnakegoddanbooru.donmai.us / 5584726
pximg.net / 100439997_p0.jpg		SB02
36danbooru:5752581patch_oxxodanbooru.donmai.us / 5752581
foundation.app / 2		SB03
37danbooru:6128091danmakumandanbooru.donmai.us / 6128091
pximg.net / 105893886_p0.jpg		SB04
38danbooru:6195000sakauchi_wakadanbooru.donmai.us / 6195000
piapro.jp / eU_0		SB01
39danbooru:6320205sakauchi_wakadanbooru.donmai.us / 6320205
twitter.com / 1651481324274974721		SB01
40danbooru:6342898maburokudanbooru.donmai.us / 6342898
pximg.net / 94703640_p0.png		SB03
41danbooru:6640306hiten_(hitenkei)danbooru.donmai.us / 6640306
files.yande.re / yande.re%201113987.png		SB03
42danbooru:7293124nid417danbooru.donmai.us / 7293124
pximg.net / 116629910_p0.png		SB02
43danbooru:7811285suzuki_shunjidanbooru.donmai.us / 7811285
animarchive.tumblr.com / 625721073437212672		SB04
44danbooru:7823803chilfa_112danbooru.donmai.us / 7823803
twitter.com / 1809874816452685949		SB03
45danbooru:8017617sakauchi_wakadanbooru.donmai.us / 8017617
instagram.com / CriSGEtPB_I		SB01
46danbooru:8291941sakauchi_wakadanbooru.donmai.us / 8291941
twitter.com / 1845717533636374708		SB01
47danbooru:8331004sakauchi_wakadanbooru.donmai.us / 8331004
twitter.com / 1845591013420945765		SB01
48danbooru:857034seo_tatsuyadanbooru.donmai.us / 857034
pximg.net / 16810195_p0.jpg		SB02
49danbooru:8729395gagagank0810danbooru.donmai.us / 8729395
twitter.com / 1880270435440586859		SB04
50danbooru:9602269sakauchi_wakadanbooru.donmai.us / 9602269
sakauchi.fanbox.cc / 9749703		SB01
51wallhaven:13mrg3uploader Rocketizadawallhaven.cc / 13mrg3SB02
52wallhaven:2kydq9uploader Deireadhwallhaven.cc / 2kydq9SB02
53wallhaven:85852juploader JustJonwallhaven.cc / 85852jSB02
54wallhaven:gp17veuploader TankerNejlawallhaven.cc / gp17veSB03
55wallhaven:rdlypjuploader fakenewswallhaven.cc / rdlypjSB02
56wallhaven:wy6vqxuploader iamctzwallhaven.cc / wy6vqx
pixiv.net / member_illust.php		SB02
57wallhaven:x6yrezuploader Cyb3rCr0wwallhaven.cc / x6yrezSB02
58wallhaven:x8zyqouploader muskratracerwallhaven.cc / x8zyqo
pixiv.net / 90351903		SB02