Nippon Ichi goes insane?
By Cokomon • Dec 28th, 2007 • Category: Entertainment, Music, Video Games
Nippon Ichi is a company known for RPGs that involve big numbers and big prizes. They also pride themselves on their quirky Japanese sense of humor. What could be more Japanese than Idol Singers? How about a blog dedicated to Nao and Hiro, two pop stars that NIS America is hoping will make it big. For more info about the duo, check out their blog or continue on after the jump for the full press release.
From the press release:
Hello everyone,
We hope that you are all having a wonderful holiday; wherever you may be, we hope everything is filled with love, joy, and … videogames!
Today, we’d like to introduce you all to our new staff, Nao&Hiro! They are from Japan, and they are working their way to becoming international “Pop” stars! They are even aiming to be on the big screen one day…
So, now you may be wondering why NIS America is supporting these two strangers. Well, our mission is to bring high-quality RPG games over for the US fans, and we thought it wouldn’t hurt to support two Japanese girls who want to spread their “love” to American people.
To start off, they’ve started Nao&Hiro blog!
They will be updating their blog everyday, and they will also teach Japanese to their readers. As you can see, they are young and Japanese, so expect to learn “real” young Japanese phrases and words!
Even though they’re Japanese, they can speak English. Well, maybe not perfectly, but they are understandable, so you won’t have any problems communicating with them!
Nao&Hiro are dying to say hi to you guys, so here they are!
Cokomon
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Er… it could be good. Is Nippon Ichi actually using them in a game with them? Seems like an odd promotion.
I don’t know if they are from a game or just some weird viral marketing.
Idols; pop stars. In Japan there are corporation-created women who don persona and are marketed to the masses, usually as singers. They are different from other ‘real’ musicians in that the appeal is their image rather than talent. Despite this, such idols are amazingly popular in Japan. I don’t think it would work over here, though it could be argued that singers such as Britney Spears and the like could be considered the American equivalent.
Is NIS trying to bring Japanese Idols in to U.S. popularity? I don’t think it would work. I don’t actually know what the hell they are trying to do. The blog, from my quick glance seems to have no links to any music, just NIS games. Are they just here to sell games and NIS merchandise? I don’t think the blog is written by Nao and Hiro; They probably don’t speak English well. They may not even exist in real life. Also, the blog is trying immensely hard to be super cute. I got a kick out of the poll:
Are you a dog person or a cat person?
1. Bow wow
2. Meow
Deep stuff.
Actually, the blog is translated by a guy who works at NIS America and posts on Penny-Arcade. That is where I found this. I still vote viral marketing, seeing all the Nippon Ichi links on there.