It’s not unusual for stars to perform in Japanese commercials, but what they’re asked to do can sometimes lead to head-scratching.
Even Japanese stars can get perplexed at their commercials, as Kana Hanazawa (Akane in Psycho-Pass, Kuroneko in Oreimo, Zange in Kannagi: Crazy Shrine Maidens) demonstrates.
Hanazawa is promoting Sharp‘s new AQUOS smartphone and its very clear resolution IGZO (indium gallium zinc oxide) screen display. That means the producers have her jump a lot — first from side to side, then with rope, and finally on a trampoline. They explain that she is “verifying beauty,” but it’s not her own beauty that she’s verifying — it’s the smartphone’s. At one point she gets exasperated since they aren’t even using her voice for this. Of course, at the end she’s as impressed as everyone else with the crystal-clear screen (120 Hz), which makes her movement appear much more fluid.
Hanazawa has starred in another wacky commercial advertising meat, which has led to her own curry flavor.
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