Unusual Japanese Bank Commercials Feature Magical Girls

These are commercials for Bank of The Ryukyus, an actual bank in Okinawa, Japan. Like, a real bank. Here, you can see one of its loan ads from earlier this year. The virtual idol animation is all kinds of awful! Apparently, this was made for broadcast television. And here is the bank’s latest commercial, for insurance services. The animation has gotten a little better (I guess!) as u31.com เข้าสู่ระบบ the bank appears to be inspired by magical girl anime like Pretty Cure. Likewise, this seems to have been made for broadcast.cnx.cmd.push(function(){cnx({"playerId":"e3616d04-4972-4839-a63a-c6975e2e9731","settings":{"advertising":{"macros":{"AD_UNIT":"/23178111854/od.kotaku.com/article","CHILD_UNIT":"article","POST_ID":"1619271444","POST_TYPE":"post","CHANNEL":"kotaku-east","SECTION":"","SUBSECTION":"","CATEGORIES":"kotaku-east","TAGS":"","NOP":"0"},"timeBeforeFirstAd":0}}}).render("cnx-player-main")}); There’s even official art for u31 ทางเข้า both characters, which are named Rumi, who works at the call center, and Rura, who works at a bank branch. They turn into magical girls, because… Because… As far as Japanese bank commercials go, these are rather peculiar. Most Japanese bank commercials are rather vanilla ( here and here, for example). So when Japanese people see these Bank of Ryukyus ads, they’re surprised, too! “Chaos,” wrote one commenter on 2ch, Japan’s largest internet forum. “I don’t know what’s going on.” Others pointed out that the animation was questionable. Note that they’re not “girls” per se, as the characters are listed as being in their early twenties; however, the ads are clearly using the magical girl trope from anime. “At this age, do characters transform into magical girls?” asked one commenter on 2ch, Japan’s largest thread. “They’re too old!” chimed in another. Well, they don’t let kids work at banks, so whaddaya think they’re gonna do? 琉球銀行の萌えないCG使った謎コマーシャルwｗｗｗwｗｗｗ[2ch] To contact the author of this post, write to bashcraftATkotaku.com or find him on Twitter @Brian_Ashcraft Kotaku East is u31 เข้าสู่ระบบ your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from 4am to 8am.