TOKYO: Toyo Tire & Rubber company recently unveiled its latest installment of the ongoing series 'AC Milan in Japanimation' featuring the Italian Serie A football team AC Milan together with Japanese local football team Gamba Osaka.
The short animated video is currently the fourth episode which roped in Yoichi Takahashi to collaborate in the making that was set in both Osaka, Japan and Milan, Italy.
"For the fourth installment of this series, we thought we would go in a different direction from previous videos by creating a unique mash of the real world and an animated world together with the great Yoichi Takahashi," said Toyo Tires brand communication team head Yoshiyuki Morikuni.
Takahashi is also the creator of a popular comic series, Captain Tsubasa, which started in Japan in 1981 and revolves around an 11-year old elementary student deeply in love with football and has dreams of one day winning the FIFA World Cup for Japan.
The comic was soon adapted into a TV animation series before the video game was subsequently created.
Under the returning theme of 'Surprising the World', the Japanese tyre-maker which sponsors the Gamba Osaka team and pits a few of its local footballers (Yasuhito Endo, Yasuyuki Konno, Shu Kurata and Hiroki Fujiharu) against some of AC Milan's best (Riccardo Montolivo, Hakan Çalhanoğlu, André Silva and Ricardo Rodríguez).
“We want to go beyond the expectations of our customers in continuing to surprise people around the world, and we are undergoing a variety of activities to that end," he added.
Within the clip, AC Milan footballer Riccardo Montolivo is seen casually reading a manga (comic), until the car suddenly jumps out of it and starts drifting.
The clip also features some of Osaka's popular locations including the city’s famous Takoyaki (octopus balls) snacks, while a Mercedes Benz G63 and a SL400 driven by Team Toyo Tire Drifters Masato Kawabata and Hideyuki Fujino respectively 'burn rubber' around the city.
Check out the other videos previously released:
