If you love anime – or think all Japanese animation is the same old, same old – check out
this all new selection of off-beat, wacky, vintage animated TV commercials from Japan. They are filled to the brim with imagination, style and appealing design.
Torys Whiskey
We have more of these Torys commercials made by TCJ Animation Center (now Eiken). The first one is a send-up to “The Untouchables”, with FBI Detective Uncle Torys taking a case of the Torys Whiskey for himself. In Japan, The Untouchables aired from 1962 to 1964 on the NET (now TV Asahi) network.
As a bonus, here’s another set of Torys commercials, these being made in color. The first one, where Uncle Torys returns home from work, was particularily famous, and arguibly the most well-known of the commercials. The third commercial is hilarious in that the Japanese singer is trying to sing a Western song in English even though he clearly has limited vocabulary in the language. “Ohhh western! Ohhh western! Action! Drama!”
Licca-chan
Licca-chan is a dress-up doll made by Takara company. Think of it as a Japanese equivalent of Barbie. (more at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Licca-chan)
This commercial is interesting, utilizing stop-motion animation on the actual dolls. I’m surprised there wern’t many commercials for dolls using stop-motion technique, although the lack of mobility might have been a factor.
Yanbo Mabo Weather
Yanmar is a diesel engine manufacturer and from 1959 to 2014 they sponsored a short weather spot, which featured two boys (Yanbo and Mabo) in an animated intro while singing “My name is Yanbo! My name is Mabo! Together We are Yanmar!” The characters were designed by animator Yasuo Nakamura, who worked on the spot for the entirety of the run.
Here’s an early intro from 1959:
Initially, the intros were entirely animation, but they later began incorporating the animated characters into live-action, which became the standard until its end. Here’s a later intro from the 1980s:
Finally, as a 50th anniversary celebration, they made a special opening where the two characters look through old intros from throughout its run, showcasing how they evolved:
Bambino Race ‘n Chase
How about we end on a commercial for a video game? I’m not a gamer, but from seeing the commercial, the objective is to catch the getaway car as you control the policecar.
The most notable thing, however, is that this 1980 commercial features the first animated appearance of Ryotsu from “Kochira Katsushika-ku Kameari Kōen-mae Hashutsujo” (“This is the Police Station in Front of Kameari Park in Katsushika Ward”, often shortened by fans as “Kochikame”), a long-running manga by Osamu Akimoto. The manga ran on Shonen Jump from 1976 to 2016, exactly 40 years.
Despite its popularity and long-run, it took years for a proper animated adaptation to be made. Tatsunoko Production made a 30-minute film in 1985 that was released as part of Shonen Jump Anime Festival, but a regular series didn’t happen until 1996, with Studio Gallop producing. The show lasted until 2004 for a run of 373 episodes, plus two theatrical movies and nine TV specials.
Charles Brubaker is a cartoonist originally from Japan. In addition to his work for MAD Magazine and SpongeBob Comics, he also created Ask a Cat for GoComics. You can also follow him on his Tumblr page.
I love the commercials for Santory Whiskey and their mascot Uncle Tory. Two commercials that I remember was a spot showing something out of a old Western showing a showdown between the U S Calvary and a tribe of Indians and of course Uncle Tory shows up and making peace with the two factions with Santory Whiskey and the second commercial shows a small musical group that merchants and shopkeepers used to advertise their business and products and it was a ad for Santory Whiskey announcing a newer size of their Whiskey with Uncle Tory as one of the performers.
Are those live action shots in the Kochikame ad from Adam 12?
I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s some sort of stock footage from an American production.
Interesting if they discontinued the Yanmar Weather spots a while back. Having to check out the Japanese Wiki page on the program (through Google Translation service), it sounds like Yanmar is trying to reposition itself as a global leader, and apparently mascots like Yanbo and Mabo don’t quite fit in with that image. That’s kind of a shame they felt they couldn’t keep these guys on the air much longer, though apparently they got a museum somewhere in Japan where they still sell merchandise of these characters, so they’re not completley forgotten, but certainly are being cast off to the winds of time.
https://news.mynavi.jp/article/20170119-yambo_mabo/
Despite its popularity and long-run, it took years for a proper animated adaptation to be made. Tatsunoko Production made a 30-minute film in 1985 that was released as part of Shonen Jump Anime Festival, but a regular series didn’t happen until 1996, with Studio Gallop producing. The show lasted until 2004 for a run of 373 episodes, plus two theatrical movies and nine TV specials.
And yet none of it came over here, but I guess I would be in that minority that would go for something like this than the usual action-oriented SJ titles that aren’t given a second thought.