Sundays lately have been a “rest day” for us in the Junkyard, but I’m grabbing this one to mention a brand new animated music video.  We tend to live in our own little cultural worlds, and although anime has an enthusiastic fan following in the West I doubt there are many people who bother to immerse themselves in the wider culture such as music videos, and that’s a shame.  Maybe we should all open our eyes to the wider world a little more.  The video I am going to link to here has had half a million views in a couple of days, but virtually nobody in the Western world will have seen it.  See if you can work out what it’s all about.  The ideas are conveyed without the need to understand the language.

My wife always says I’m a sucker for a “soppy romance”, but I love that.  The cat is a pre-existing advertising character in Japan called Futenyan, and his human form has been named Minami.  The song (which I love – listen to it a couple of times and it will get into your head) is performed by a very popular duo LIPxLIP.  It’s worth checking out some of their other songs if you like this one.

The concept behind this video would surely be a great one for an anime television series.  That’s not an impossible idea.  HoneyWorks, who made the video, have had two previous pop videos go on to inspire animes.  We’ll be looking at the world of anime in much more detail next year, following on from all the Studio Ghibli reviews, but for now enjoy this video, because that’s art.  Let’s open our eyes to the rich cultures that exist beyond our own little worlds.   RP