I have a lot of respect for companies that work hard to understand the countries they do business in, and if I were ever to sell a product in Canada, I hope I’d have the vision to market it to hockey fans. For years there’s been a doujin meme called OS-tan in which amateur artists create cute anime girl versions of your favorite computer operating systems like…Windows 2003 Server-tan, a moe characters to represent that OS. (Incidentally -tan is the endearing –chan name suffix, but pronounced as if a small child were saying it, making it even cuter.) With the release of Windows 7, Microsoft got in on the game, commissioning an “official” OS-tan character called Nanami Madobe (nana = 7, mado = window) to promote its new OS, and fans dutifully started creating doujinshi works featuring the new character. Microsoft continued the series with an official Silverlight character as well as Claudia Madobe (Nanami’s cousin), who promotes the company’s cloud-based computing services. Now Microsoft is raising the otaku-bar again, bundling a PVC figure of Claudia with purchases of Visual Studio Professional. What’s next, official Microsoft dakimakura pillows? If they make them, I will totally sell them on J-List.
Microsoft markets its products with official anime characters.
