Interest

Moyashimon, Sengoku Basara Get Alcohol Tie-Ins

The production team behind the live-action adaptation of Masayuki Ishikawa's manga Moyashimon has collaborated with Okinawa distillery Seifuku to create and sell a limited number of limited-edition Moyashimon bottles of an alcoholic beverage called awamori. The bottles were sold by Rakuten, who announced that the initial launch of the beverages — 200 bottles sold at 1,500 yen (about US$17.35) — sold out in one minute. The site promises that an additional 100 bottles will be sold at a later date.

According to Japanese news site Walker Plus, Ishikawa himself visited Okinawa incognito to find the right distillery to collaborate with. The Seifuku Distillery makes Awamori as well as other alcoholic beverages, and in 2009 the company worked with Sega to sell bottles of awamori and umeshu (a sweet fruit liqueur) branded as tie-ins for the video game Yakuza 3. Awamori is a drink that historically associated with Okinawa, having come to the island in the 15th century from Thailand. Unlike sake, which is brewed, awamori is distilled, like the Japanese drink called shōchū. However, shōchū is distilled from Japanese short-grain rice, while awamori uses Thai-style long-grain rice. The limited-edition Moyashimon awamori contains 25% alcohol by volume, which is about 5% less than Seifuku's usual batch of awamori.

On July 19, CAPCOM announced a new tie-in for its video game and anime franchise Sengoku Basara. In an effort to introduce a younger generation of adults to traditional sake, CAPCOM is collaborating with sake breweries around Japan to release a sake for each of several main characters in the franchise. The first four characters in the lineup are Date Masamune, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Takenaka Hanbei, and Maeda Keiji, all of whom are based on real-life figures from the Sengoku (Warring States) period of Japanese history. Of these four, Masamune and Keiji appear in the first season of the anime adaptation, with Hideyoshi and Hanbei appearing in the second season, which began broadcasting in Japan on July 11. Funimation's simulcast of the second season also began today.

Each character's sake will be made by a different brewer, chosen for their "strong connection" to each character, as follows:

• Date Masamune - Hōyō Uchigasaki Brewery, Miyagi - Masamune's mausoleum is in Sendai in the Miyagi Prefecture
• Toyotomi Hideyoshi - Jurakudai Sasaki Brewery, Kyoto - Jurakudai is the name of Toyotomi's palace
• Takenaka Hanbei - Tsuki no Katsura, Kyoto
• Maeda Keiji - Tomio Kitagawa Honke, Kyoto

An official website and Twitter account have been launched for the campaign, which is titled "Sake Kassenn" (Sake Campaign).

[Via alafista, animeanime.jp]