Segata Sanshiro returns from the grave
...sort of.
If you're familiar with Sega advertising at all, then you probably know Segata Sanshiro -- the iconic gi-wearing martial arts hero of the Saturn campaign in Japan, who spread the good word of the console by grabbing people by their clothes and throwing them millions of miles. These were classic, iconic adverts that helped the Saturn to do very well in Japan, although they did soon come to an end when our boy Sanshiro prevented a missile from hitting Sega's headquarters and then rode it into the sun, blowing himself up with it.
Sanshiro has not been seen in the 20 years since this moment, however he is certainly still remembered. A fair few Japanese companies have used such superheroes to advertise their products over the years, one of them being Nissin -- who used a hero called Yakusuban to advertise their UFO Ramen. Said hero even appeared in a game for the SNES...and now the son of Yakusuban is back, and he's brought a rather familiar figure with him -- he's still got that glorious mane of hair, he looks like he's not aged a day, and when the chips are down he doesn't even need a Power Rangers-type suit, just a gi. Segata Sanshiro has returned! Although he's now selling ramen as opposed to Saturns.
This particular UFO Ramen ad campaign is still ongoing, and features Segata and Yakusuban teaming up and dealing out justice to those who would destroy the kettles and boiling water needed for the purpose of creating hot, spicy, gorgeous instant ramen. DJ Slope on the Youtubes has documented the story so far in his video just up there, which is worth watching if you're interested as the three adverts that have been shown so far are actualy translated in them. It's certainly all a nice bit of fun, and it's good to see that the almighty Segata Sanshiro is still very much remembered...with him back around, surely nothing bad at all can happen. Especially not to juicy, delicious bowls of instant ramen.
