Anime is a medium that allows for wild, out of this world visuals and story telling but some of the most popular stories of all are the slice of life stories, the tales of the regular highs and lows. They also make for great advertising for various products in the real world from educational courses to Disneyland!
Check out the youtube version below!
Studio Colorido have produced another endearing food advertisement, but this time related to recruitment. They were also the company behind the endearing miso soup commercialsthat I wrote about here. (click) As McDonald's is a huge name in Japan, the commercial features the vocal talents of AKB48 singers Rin Okabe and Yui Yokoyama, the video begins with a fresh first year college student names 'Sumire Hibino' noticing a help-wanted poster as she rides past. Soon enough, she’s working alongside 'Ikumi Hoshino', another senior college student working at the restaurant part-time.
Keep it together Sumire!
Ikumi embodies the helpful senpai (senior) concept that is prevalent throughout Japanese culture and guides Sumire through the various trials of starting a new service job. How to handle customer's requests for the trademark McDonald's smile as well as backing her up when she has trouble with a food order. Whispering to calm down and keep it together.
The animation is smooth and beautiful, they make the food look delicious too!
Strawberry Milkshake!
Sumire eventually grows into the role and offers great service herself, gaining the approval of those around her as well as job satisfaction. While you may think that this is glorifying the service industry as something more fabulous than it is. It does keep its roots grounded, it acknowledges that for many the service industry is often a spring board to future jobs, giving valuable work experience and soft skills. Ikumi senpai eventually moves on with a tearful goodbye. At the end, history repeats itself as Sumire welcomes a fresh recruit who goes by the name of Wakaba.
The recruitment website itself highlights that this is an ideal job for those who do not have to support a whole household such as housewives, part timers and university students. Various characters from different backgrounds are shown who will no doubt be featured in future commercials!
A few days ago I saw one of the new anime commercials for miso soup airing on TV and was inspired to write this post. However unlike usual anime tie-ins, such as DBZ advertising gum, or Attack on Titan promoting pizza, this was a promotion done using an original short anime story.
Anime, like any other form of film media is an effective way to create a narrative with impact within a short time. The quality of animation used for these commercials is high, very fine details can be seen on the products, scenery and storyline. In the case of the final commercial at the bottom of the page, it was created by Makoto Shinkai, who directed the phenomenal 5cm and Garden of words movies, where the attention to detail was mind blowing. If you haven't seen either of those films, I highly recommend you check them out!
Back to Miso, the brand Marukome has released a set of anime shorts to promote their miso soup, focusing on a strong 'family ties' theme, they are really effective at making you feel warm and fuzzy, just like miso soup does!
Check them out below! Even if you can't understand Japanese you will be able to get the 'gist' of the story easily enough due to the good direction. I'll post a brief overview too!
料亭の味 カップみそ汁 夜食篇 Cup Miso: Late Night Supper.
This is the latest, advertising cup miso. It shows the story of a high school girl and father who lament that they struggle to communicate together effectively.
After studying late at night she comes downstairs to find 2 rice balls and miso soup waiting for her, upon thanking her mum in the morning she realizes that it was actually her father who prepared it for her. She goes downstairs the following night and sees her father making more rice balls, "Do you want to eat together?" for late night supper. She drinks the miso and states "Dads miso soup is warm...". He asks her which flavour rice ball she wants and they play rock, paper, scissors to decide who gets it.
Its a cute way to show they can communicate again over a hot cup of miso.
This commercial advertises the multipack miso sachets. It focus on a young salaryman who has left home for the first time to start his career.
He receives occasional care packages from home containing all sorts of goodies from home, including the multipack. When drinking the miso soup he imagines his mother sitting opposite him, giving him advice and motivating him to do his best. He encounters struggles at work, late nights, illness and overtime but through these troubles he always has his mother supporting him with these care packages. Things begin looking up and he receives a bonus, returning the favour by sending his mother a new sweater.
Despite distance the taste of home comforts can help inspire us and bring people together.
料亭の味 即席生みそ汁 単身赴任篇 Instant Miso Soup: Job Transfer away from home
This is my personal favourite out of the three. This heart warming story, follows a young father of two sweet girls who has been transferred away from home, a somewhat common thing in Japan for businessmen, albeit for a few years this can understandably put strain on both sides of the family.
However, one day his two daughters decide to pay him a visit. The daughters are keen to make it feel like home and practice with their mother to prepare one of his favourite meals, packing all of the ingredients with them. The father tries to help but they tell him to sit and wait, he father states "they really grew up..." as he watches. The girls, a little upset that it hadn't turned out as appealing as they hoped are instantly cheered up when their proud father takes a bite and claims "tastes just like home", which of course includes the miso soup!
Apparently this advertisement was proposed by one of the company's own employees who was transferred from Tokyo to Nagano. All of these miso commercials feel very relatable and close to home.
Ofcourse not only food companies use original anime shorts for advertising, some of the big brands have also created some fantastic stories to help push their services, including none other than Disney! I remember watching this last year as their promoted their Tokyo Disney Resort and being blown away by the quality. Despite only being 30 seconds long they managed to squeeze in a romantic story spanning a few generations. This one needs little introduction so sit back and enjoy the ad for "Where dreams come true."
The last and possibly most detailed offering, comes from the renowned director Makoto Shinkai. This anime was a promotional project for the cram school Z-Kai. Due to the difficulty of many University and High School entrance exams here, many students now go to cram schools in a desperate bid to make it into their first choice university. It seems to be a very bitter and stressful struggle involving many late nights, while also juggling day to day responsibilities and part time jobs.
Cross roads features a level of detail as expected of his previous work, the backgrounds and objects are absolutely gorgeous and bring life to their story and help us get absorbed into their world. Cross roads was released in 2 minute, 30 second and 15 second versions.
I especially like the moment where they open their exam papers in unison and the phrase いこう。どこまでも "Lets go/Go further. Anywhere is impossible". Its an inspiring message, regardless of what stage of life you are at.
Many outsiders to anime tend to look down on it, seeing it as nothing more as kids tales of beefy muscles, girls with huge eyes, panty shots, robots and power blasts. But this is one of many examples of how it can also be used to tell a heart warming, and very real story.
