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ANIMERCEDES: The “NEXT A-Class”

Subaru did it with their Houkago No Pleiades original net animation series, now Mercedes Benz of Japan has made a short promotional animation. Created by the key staff on movies such as Ghost in the Shell: Innocence and the new Evangelion movies, the six-minute video sees three random characters chasing after an uncatchable ramen truck in the new A-Class Benz.

If you were wondering, that little song the truck keeps playing is a tune that ramen carts traditionally played on a charumera flute to let customers know they’re there, similar to how catering trucks and ice cream trucks play a song. Some people might recognise it as the first tune Yui Hirasawa manages to play in the K-On! anime. As for the truck itself, it’s a real thing. Search for “Renntransporter”.

The story itself is fairly thin, which I’m going to put down to the corporate nature of this gig, which forces them to keep the craziness at a fairly low level. However, I can definitely relate to that unstoppable urge to get that one particular ramen you have a sudden joneseing for. There’s a ramen place I go to sometimes that takes about 20 minutes to drive to, but the chashu and soup make it worth it. One of the guys behind the counter says he used to drift a white FC RX-7 when he was younger and lived in Miyagi prefecture in northern Honshu.

Speaking of that, I’m hoping you all caught the Initial D reference at the end of that video?