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ANIMERCEDES: The “NEXT A-Class”

By in 21-11-2012 2:07 am

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?

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HIGH PERFORMANCE, HARD TUNED IMPORTS: 2001 is nostalgic now?

By in 14-11-2012 4:31 pm

Back in Australia around the turn of the century when the internet was still pretty much useless for video, our easiest source of good content from Japan was the High Performance Imports series. Anyone else remember those? Before they came out though, there was this video, Hard Tuned Imports on VHS tape. Get ready to relive Martin Donnon’s shenanigans and his “speak louder and with an accent” way of communicating with the locals.

これは懐かしい!2000年ぐらいで、オーストラリアのジャパニーズパフォーマンスカー雑誌の編集長がビデオシリーズを作りました。よ~く覚えてるよ、これ。青春の暑いハートでよく見ました。「ドリ車がちょ~ほしいな!」の気持ちの誕生でした。これは初版です!どうぞ見てください!

Another massive wave of nostalgia is coming soon as Ben at Otomoto, the original creator of the videos and former editor of HPI magazine, will be releasing all them on Youtube! Here is the first volume complete with countless drag GT-Rs, the Ricoh Racing 180SX and the mispronounced Japanese brand names we all love and remember!

Click below to view the rest of volume one.

(more…)

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