Yandere Meets Instant Noodles! Anime Marketing with Seiyuu Saori Hayami

Last week X lit up with the hashtag #早見沙織, or #HayamiSaori. Being a huge fan of anime voice actress Hayami Saori, famous for her yandere characters but also as Yor from SPY x FAMILY, I clicked the link. What I saw was a clever marketing campaign by instant ramen maker Nissin for their Donbei noodles that created quite a buzz in Japan. Let’s check out this new trend in anime marketing!

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Anime Marketing with Seiyuu Hayami Saori?!

The concept for the campaign was simple: take an iconic scene from an anime, digitally edit in some Donbei noodles, and re-dub the voices to promote the product in a fun way. The anime was Inou-Battle wa Nichijou-kei no Naka de (When Supernatural Battles Became Commonplace), a Trigger show from 2014. The most iconic scene came when Hatoko, played by popular seiyuu Hayami Saori, shouts “Wakannai yo!” (“I don’t understand!”) in her classic yandere voice. But in this TV commercial, instead of ranting about Ando’s narcissistic chuunibyou behavior, she’s taking him to task for “always eating the same Donbei noodles” when there are many other amazing flavors he could try.

Let’s watch the advertisement here!

There are no English subtitles, but the gist is that Ando says, “I don’t know if the new flavors of Donbei instant soba and udon noodles are good or not, so I stick to the flavors I’m used to.” In response to this, Hatoko says, “I don’t understand! I don’t understand what you’re saying! To only eat Kitsune Udon and Tempura Soba when there are so many other varieties?” She then goes over all the new products Donbei has released and why he should eat them.

What are Saori Hayami’s most iconic roles? Read them in this blog post!

Was the advertisement effective? I’m sure it was, considering the positive reaction on Twitter. And I’m sure it was not hard to create the commercial: all they needed was a script and to rent a studio for Saori Hayama to do the recording in. What’s even more amazing is she did the entire recording in one take without flubbing any lines or doing retakes. What an amazing voice actress she is!

The Rise of Saori Hayami in the Seiyuu World

I’ve been a fan of Saori Hayami ever since she became popular because of her role as Ayase in Oreimo. With this single performance, she helped define the yandere archetype in anime, all while YouTuber Laina Morris was popularizing the Overly Attached Girlfriend meme in the West. I’m fascinated that both of these came out around the same time.

Would you like a yandere girlfriend but want to avoid all the risk? Check out the Yandere Girlfriend Onahole here!

Growing up watching Audrey Hepburn films, Saori Hayami was intrigued by the voices behind the Japanese-language dubs, wondering who these mysterious people could be. This curiosity set her on a path that would eventually lead her to become one of Japan’s highest-earning and most beloved seiyuu in Japan today.

Thanks for reading this blog post about a clever anime marketing campaign for Donbei noodles using famous voice actress Saori Hayami. I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling pretty hungry right now. I’m off to find some instant noodles to eat!

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