Danny Choo, founder of Culture Japan and inexhaustible ambassador for all things moe, announced the collaboration between his mascot Mirai Suenaga and the Thai airline Asian Air on his website this week. Read on to find out just how far their plans for anime-themed air domination go.
Mirai Suenaga is Culture Japan’s cute and perky mascot, who is also an official mascot for Japanese tourism. Created in 2007, she now travels the world promoting Japanese culture and, as you might expect, has a dedicated fan following. She’s already appeared in collaborations with Japanese brands such as Kadokawa and Nitroplus, but now it looks like she’s branching out even further – and bigger!
On April 1 both Asian Air and Culture Japan officially announced that they’d be collaborating to bring about the ultimate (and perhaps only?) anime flight experience. Their vision is a fully-decorated plane reminiscent of the Pokemon x ANA collaboration, but the Mirai madness won’t stop with the exterior.
▼ The images branding the hull and body of the plane are of super-deformed ‘chibi‘ versions of the cast of CJ characters which includes Mirai and a bunch of her other nubile friends.
▼ Here’s Mirai as you’ll usually see her, with her signature two braids and skimpy white and orange uniform.
The in-flight videos and entertainment system will feature Mirai and her friends, and there will be exclusive merchandise for sale on board too. CJ will also be contributing to further branding and content such as new uniforms for the attendants. We think Mirai’s usual uniform would be a pretty good place to start! Basically, it will be a complete and inescapable Mirai experience.
▼ Here’s Mirai-chan adorably modeling the current Asian Air uniforms.
Flights will start this June between Bangkok, Tokyo, Osaka, and Sapporo, with more international routes to come later. Danny and the rest of the team want to make this the best experience possible for both Mirai’s legion of current fans, and those who will no doubt be indoctrinated as new converts once they stumble off the six-hour flight.
Okay, so this was actually posted on April 1, which made us highly suspicious at first, but Danny has since posted that, just like how some of his past pranks have had a habit of becoming reality, this is the real deal. OK, Danny, we love you and we WANT to believe you, but we’ll wait until we see the planes on the tarmac if that’s OK?
Source: Hachima Kikou, Culture Japan, Asian Air
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