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Hanasaku Iroha's Mel Kishida Designs Characters For Sanko Seika's First Animated Ad

Japanese confectionary Sanko Seika has just released its first animated commercial that boasts character designs by illustrator and character designer Mel Kishida, who's best known for his work on Hanasaku Iroha and the Atelier video game series. The commercial, titled “Breakthough! Take A Step Forward”, is meant to promote Sanko Seika's “Yuki no Yado” (“Snowy Inn”) and “Cheese Almond” line of crackers.

The commercial features three students whose names each reference one of Sanko Seika's crackers: Yukino Yado, Jizu Amon (“Cheese Almond”), and Kuroshima Milk (“Brown Sugar Milk”). Check out Kishida's designs and the 76-second commercial below:

The highschool romance story told through the commercial breezes through anime romance tropes in rapid succession: Yado, Amon and Milk bump into each other while holding their respective crackers in their mouths, Amon turns out to be the handsome and highly-desirable transfer student to Yado's and Milk's class, Yado and Milk both fall for Amon and decide to confess at the same time while swearing to maintain their friendship, and Amon declares at the end that he likes both (and the crackers they're named after).

Apart from Kishida's involvement, the commercial is directed by Yōsuke Kubo and animated at IMAGICA Lab. (which handled video editing for anime like Domestic Girlfriend and Blade of the Immortal). Aimi Tanaka (Umaru Doma, Himouto! Umaruchan), Toshiyuki Toyonaga (Hideyoshi Nagachika, Tokyo Ghoul), and Mayu Yoshioka (Mayu Shimada, Wake Up, Girls!) played the roles of Yado, Amon and Milk respectively. The commercial's backing track “Breakthough!” is by INSPRDIA.

In addition, a Twitter campaign has been launched where an assortment of “Yuki no Yado Sarada”, “Cheese Almond” and “Yuki no Yado Brown Sugar Milk Flavor” crackers will be offered to 100 lucky winners via lottery. Follow the Sanko Seika official Twitter account and RT the campaign tweet below for a chance to win the prizes.

Source: Comic Natalie