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Chibi Maruko-chan Creator, Takeshi Kitano Make Animated Ads for Calbee Snacks
posted on by Crystalyn Hodgkins
Chibi Maruko-chan creator Momoko Sakura and filmmaker/actor Takeshi Kitano (Beat Takeshi) are collaborating to create a series of animated commercials for Calbee's snack products.
Sakura began working on the commercial series in August to commemorate 50 years of Calbee's Kappa Ebisen, which is a crunchy shrimp-flavored snack shaped like french fries.
Sakura designed the characters that star in the commercials — the members of the Oyatsu household — and Kitano supervised the filming. The commercials began airing in August, and have featured various products such as Calbee's Kappa Ebisen snacks, Saya Endō snap pea snacks, and yogurt.
The most recent commercials for Calbee's potato chips also include a live-action aspect starring comedian Matazō Mimata. These latest two commercials began airing on Japanese TV on Thursday.
Sakura also drew set of stickers with the theme of "apology" for the LINE social app. The official Calbee account will distribute the stickers starting on Friday.
The introduction video and the first nine animated ads in the collaboration can be viewed below.
Sakura serialized the original Chibi Maruko-chan manga in Shueisha's Ribon shōjo manga magazine from 1986 to 1996. She launched a four-panel version in Japanese newspaper in 2007, and she ended that version in 2011.
The original manga inspired the Chibi Maruko-chan television anime that is consistently the #2 rated anime series after Sazae-san. The first anime series ran from 1990 to 1992, and the ongoing second series premiered in 1995. The 1,000th television anime episode aired in 2012. The manga has also inspired several live-action series.
Source: Comic Natalie
