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Mamoru Hosoda's 2nd Boy & The Beast/Suntory Drink Crossover Ad Posted
posted on by Egan Loo
Director Mamoru Hosoda and his Studio Chizu animated a few crossover commercials between Hosoda's latest film The Boy and The Beast and SUNTORY's drink brand Green Da-Ka-Ra. The second ad, "Market," debuted on Wednesday with a song to tell the story:
Narrator: Mugi-chan and Green Dakara-chan take a little visit inside the movie.
They gathered, gathered lots of good things, and this is what they made.
For a body in summer!
Green Da-Ka-Ra and Gentle Barley Tea!
Also in the first ad titled "Sashiire" (Insertion or Present), SUNTORY's mascot characters Green Dakara-chan and Mugi-chan meet the movie's main character Kyūta and his beast teacher Kumatetsu:
Narrator: Mugi-chan and Green Dakara-chan take a little visit inside the movie.
After working up a sweat under the sun, drink this and get back your fluids!
For a body in summer!
Green Da-Ka-Ra and Gentle Barley Tea!
The first ad debuted online last Wednesday, and began airing nationwide on Saturday. After the film itself opens on July 11, the campaign's website will present an exclusive 80-second version of the whole campaign's video.
The child actress Suzuku-chan has been playing the brand's mascot character Green Dakara-chan in a series of live-action commercials for SUNTORY's Green Da-Ka-Ra brand. Nagisa-chan, Suzuku-chan's little sister in real life, recently joined the campaign as Mugi-chan to promote Green Da-Ka-Ra Yasashii Mugicha ("Green Da-Ka-Ra Gentle Barley Tea").
The story of the film is set in the human realm (Tokyo's Shibuya ward) and the bakemono realm ("Jūtengai"). In these two worlds that must not intersect, there lives a lonely boy and a lonely bakemono. One day, the boy gets lost in the bakemono world, becomes the disciple of the bakemono Kumatetsu, and is renamed Kyūta.
Hosoda (Summer Wars, Wolf Children) created and scripted the movie. It will be Hosoda's first film since 2012, when his relatively new animation movie company Studio Chizu released Wolf Children as its first project. Masakatsu Takagi (Wolf Children) is scoring the soundtrack. The film stars:
Kōji Yakusho as Kumatetsu, a bear-like being who acts as a teacher to the human Kyūta
Aoi Miyazaki as child Kyūta
Shōta Sometani as adolescent Kyūta
Suzu Hirose in her debut voice-acting role as Kaede, a high school student Kyūta meets
The film will open on July 11 in Japan. Renji Asai (Sentō Jōsai Masurawo) launched the manga in Kadokawa Shoten's Monthly Shōnen Ace on April 25.
Funimation licensed the American rights to the film, and plans to release the film in select theaters later this year and nationwide in early 2016. Theatrical screenings have also been set for France, and the major French movie studio Gaumont will handle international sales outside Asia. Funimation is working with Gaumont International to release the film.
