Interest
Director Yoshihiro Kanno Will Wow You in 45 Second Ad
posted on by Lynzee Loveridge
An animated commercial for Kyoei Forging Works in Niigata prefecture is turning heads for its stunning visuals. The commercial casts the metal forging workshop and its employees as the makers of an advanced, transforming jet plane. The plane takes off into the vast blue sky to defeat an impending alien invasion.
The ad brings together Sword Art Online: Alicization action director Yoshihiro Kanno as the commercial's director, storyboard artist, and key animator. He also designed the ad's characters, mecha, and jet plane. Kumiko Takayanagi (ēlDLIVE, Himouto! Umaruchan) is credited as the assistant key animator and additional key animation was completed by Shunsuke Matsuo and Studio Cj. Tetsuya Kobayashi (Persona 3, 4 anime series) composed the music.
Kyoei Forging Works produces car and motorcycle parts, agricultural machinery parts, construction machinery parts, and other tools for the likes of John Deere, Mitsubishi Motors, Toyota, and more.
The advertisement picked up traction after cosplayer Yū shared it on Twitter on Saturday. Her tweet has since been shared 11,000 times and the video has nearly 350,000 views. The Twitter version doesn't contain any sound, but the YouTube version includes the music and narration.