SOS-dan Appears in Gum Commercial
A Japanese TV commercial for Lotte’s Acuo gum starring actor Toma Ikuta (Akihabara @ DEEP, Honey and Clover) co-stars animated characters from the Suzumiya Haruhi no Yutsu anime franchise: Haruhi Suzumiya, Mikuru Asahina and Yuki Nagato. The ad depicts Ikuta’s “nice” breath, well, just watch the commercial.
The ad will officially begin running on Japanese TV April 5.
This really is a bit bizarre. What, exactly, is the commercial suggesting? 2D women are better than 3D? A cat is fine too?
Source: Anime News Network
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Is this comment of this post really John? I am kind of surprised how you find this commercial to be bizarre, considering how knowledgeable you are about Japan. (For it seems a decade I have been educated by your Answers)
Japanese commercials are all about the unexpected; they inject a bit of strangeness anyway either by direct humor or the matter being “slightly off”. (Arnold being a businessman, A Japanese monkey listening to walkman being famous examples) In English world in my experience people frequently will be like “What just happened?” In Japan they may not necessarily have an answer to that question because it doesnt even warrant bringing up.
The point of the commercial by a Japanese person is that the breathe of the product is so refreshing that the person who smells this, in the most mundane of situations turns into an energetic being (and as a non-Haruhi viewer, what I see as stereotypical) who happen to be anime characters. (I can see this easily being a celebrity instead rather than 2d)
It also is funny because he just escaped these crazy transformations and as he’s in relief for escaping, he looks down and see adorable cats, who also turn into characters. The product is so powerful he cannot escape its consequences (transforming people spontaneously), even though it is initially alarming. His disorientation is thus, funny.
I mean I dont personally find it side-splitting funny nor care for anime girls but its entertaining in the concept itself. But then again I guess I’m used to these sort of commercials.
The CM suggests the gum is crazy refreshing. It refreshes so much that even dull modern day life gets crazy energy like … in this case an Anime I suppose. But that’s it. There’s no mental ticker that tries to now then deduce whether the producer was demeaning real women as less refreshing or anything like that. I don’t know why but Western culture likes to think a lot about certain issues too much, which I guess why the whole Whale thing gets crazy. But now I’m just going totally off track. Take care.