It’s not entirely uncommon for automobile companies in Japan to sponsor an anime or even create an entire series aimed at selling their cars (I apologize to those of you who are now having traumatic flashbacks to Houkago no Pleiades right about now). It’s rarer, however, for western automobile companies to use anime or otaku adjacent characters in order to sell their goods. I’m not ignoring the huge campaign involving Hatsune Miku from a few years ago. I’m just saying that it doesn’t happen in the west all that often… though perhaps we’re about to see a change in that.
In the ongoing case of “Has Anime Gone Mainstream Yet?”, I submit yet another example which involves the American branch of car manufacturers, Acura, creating their own series of anime shorts. If you’re like me and are just now catching up with this story, let’s begin back on January 17th when the first promo for this new upcoming street racing series hit Twitter.
The race is on. Acura presents Type S: Chiaki’s Journey. Streaming 1/20. pic.twitter.com/3fug6gWspj
— Acura (@Acura) January 17, 2022
As you can see from this rather stylish fifteen seconds, we meet a pink-haired girl (presumably our heroine, Chiaki) who speaks of earning respect… the hard way, while her car spins out wildly on a rainy night. Brutal, but again, it’s only fifteen seconds. Surely, there’s more for them to show us. And you would be correct as Acura delivered the first volume on YouTube on January 20th.
So, according to the official website, the series is going to be released in four parts which will build us up to the moment we saw in the preview which features Chiaki earning her respect. No word on how often these advertisements are going to be released but it would make sense for them to be released fairly regularly as, if this first “episode” is anything to go by, these will not last long in the viewer’s mind before disappearing into the abyss that is our collective media-consuming subconscious.
Again, this isn’t really that big of a leap for any company these days. Taco Bell released their anime-style advertisements last year and I suspect that we’re going to be seeing many more of these before too long.
Source: Acura on Twitter
