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Patlabor/RahXephon's Izubuchi Designs Stride Gum Heroes

Anime designer and director Yutaka Izubuchi (Patlabor, RahXephon, Mobile Suit Gundam Wing) designed "Choujikan Hero Stride" characters for a Japanese commercial for Stride brand chewing gum. The Gantz live-action film suit designer Dango Takeda designed the heroes' costumes using Izubuchi's original character designs.

The characters' names are Stride Endless (green), Stride Allday (blue), and Stride Everlasting (yellow). The commercial's story begins when three mysterious lights approach Earth from outer space and land in Tokyo. A "teaser version" Stride Hero commercial will begin airing in Japan on May 7.

This was Izubuchi's first time designing for a television commercial, but he has worked on numerous anime and live-action special-effects projects. Izubuchi is known for his mechanical designs in anime such as Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket, Patlabor: The Movie, and Toward the Terra. He designed costumes for the live-action Kamen Rider the First and Cutie Honey films and served as chief director for the RahXephon television anime series and RahXephon: Pluralitas Concentio film. Izubuchi is also directing the Space Battleship Yamato 2199 anime film and television series project, which premiered in Japan this month.

A 145-second behind-the-scenes video for the Stride commercial featuring Izubuchi began streaming this week.

Source: Mainichi Shimbun's Mantan Web