What happens when some of Japan’s top animators use their talents to sell bread, booze and buildings? Excellent commercials, that’s what.
Yoshiharu Sato has an impressive resume: animator on Porco Rosso, key animator on Kiki’s Delivery Service, and supervising animator on My Neighbor Totoro—among others. Recently, he’s been focusing on commercials, and they’re terrific.
Here is Sato’s latest work, which is for a Japanese bread company known as Francois
These commercials certainly have a Ghibli vibe to them.
As Matome Naver points out, he previously did a shochu commercial for Satsuma Shuzo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrL1lHNon3A
Great, huh?
Other former Studio Ghibli animators have also made ads. Check out this one done by the folks at Studio Ponoc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DdRLfU2E0o
Over the years, Ghibli has also made commercials as well as opening credit sequences for TV shows
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WVokLq7FhM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCn4Q9NhSIc
The “new Miyazaki” Makoto Shinkai of Your Name fame has even directed anime ads of his own
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqd0kvee-hg
Here is the longer version of Shinkai’s spot for a Japanese construction company.
Wonderful stuff.
This article was originally published on May 3, 2017. It has since been updated.
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