UNICORN X SPACE BROTHERS FEEL SO MOON

Silver Spike
TitleUNICORN X SPACE BROTHERS FEEL SO MOON
BrandKODANSHA
Product / ServiceSPACE BROTHERS
CategoryA06. Best Use or Integration of Music
EntrantPARTY Tokyo, JAPAN
Entrant Company PARTY Tokyo, JAPAN
Contributing Company PARTY Tokyo, JAPAN
Contributing Company 2 BIRDMAN Tokyo, JAPAN
Production Company TAIYO KIKAKU Tokyo, JAPAN

Credits

Name Company Position
Masashi Kawamura PARTY Director
Qanta Shimizu PARTY Director
Kazuaki Seki OOO Director
Satoshi Takahashi PARTY Producer
Sachie Aihara TAIYO KIKAKU Co. Ltd. Producer
Miho Ishizuka PARTY Designer (MV)
Maiko Shimada TAIYO KIKAKU Co. Ltd. Production Manager
Hiroyuki Yabe Space Sparrows Cinematographer
Issei Tada Gaffer
Chisato Toyoda Art Dept.
Midoriko Nemoto TAIYO KIKAKU Co. Ltd. Art Dept.
Masataka Kimura Tasko Inc. Art Dept.
Roy Ryo Tsukiji BIRDMAN Interactive Director
Akira Koga BIRDMAN Producer (Web)
Daisuke Watanabe BIRDMAN Designer (Web)
Tomoya Takahashi BIRDMAN Technical Director/Front-End Engineer
Yuji Tamayama BIRDMAN Front-End Engineer

The Campaign

Manga (Japanese comic book) has been a huge market in Japan, but the way the publishers promoted the products, have been quite traditional, so this branded music video was a huge leap for the industry. Also, being able to touch on both the designs and the plots of the actual comic book for a promotion was a very rare opportunity. This video was made possible with the close collaborations between the publisher, the musician, and the creative team.

Results

The "Space Brothers" is a famous Japanese comic book series, about 2 brothers' journey to become an astronaut. The story captured the heart of young audiences, and has grown popular enough to become a movie. But after 4 years in its publication, the sales of the comic book was slowing down and the publisher wanted to find a way to engage new fans. Introducing, "Feel So Moon" Book Hack Music Video. The idea came to us when we learned that the author of the comic was a huge fan of the legendary Japanese band "Unicorn." He always listens to their music when drawing the comic book. So together with Unicorn, we made a branded music video where we hacked and transformed the actual comic book, a fan magazine, and the CD album into props to use inside the video. When the people bought the products, they were able to discover the same secret elements as they saw in the video, and reenact every scene. First, a song was written by Unicorn, which followed the plot of the comic book. From there, we started to think of various visual gimmicks that we can secretly hide inside the products to use in the video. The label of the CD became a zoetrope animation when you played the actual CD. Band members were secretly drawn inside the comic. Many elements were hidden inside the fan magazine, such as the puzzle where the answer became a message, a line from the lyric hidden inside an article, and a flip-book on the corner of the pages. On the website, we took this concept one step further. All the starring products animated in sync with the video, and the viewers were able to purchase the item used in that exact scene.

Knowing that many J-pop music lovers have similar enthusiasm towards mangas (Japanese comic book), we made a branded music video, hacking and transforming the actual comic book, a fan magazine, and the CD album into props. When the people bought the products, they were able to discover the same secret elements as they saw in the video. i.e. The label of the CD became a zoetrope animation when you played it, band members were secretly drawn inside the comic, a flip-book on the corner of the fan magazine. Purchasing all products enabled reenactment of every scene of the music video.

This video created buzz among both music and comic book lovers, and as a result, the first edition of the comic book was sold out in a day, and the total sales of the comic series exceeded 10,000,000 copies. Manga (Japanese comic book) has been a huge market in Japan, but the way the publishers promoted the products, have been quite traditional, so this branded music video was a huge leap for the industry. Being able to touch on both the designs and the plots of the actual comic book for a promotion was a very rare opportunity. This video was made possible with the close collaborations between the publisher, the musician, and the creative team.