Japan cm of the week - My girlfriend is Kanna Hashimoto

No, that is not a Stalker Vision™video of Kanna Hashimoto, though it could be.

Hello everyone, how was your week? It's Saturday now, meaning I have a few days off and we get another installment of my commercial of the week series.

As anyone who's been following this blog knows, I like to give a weekly link to Japanese ads that are a) quirky and a bit strange, b) highlight something about Japanese culture, and c) feature an IT personality.

This one manages to do all three in the perfect balance.

First, to explain, this ad is for Ameba's game, Girlfriend Beta. It's one in a long, long tradition of Japanese dating sims. The idea here is that you're a guy who runs into one of your old crushes from when you were a student, and you both agree to play out what would've happened had you dated back then. There's a list of girls you can choose to "date" and each has their own storyline.

OK, I don't 100% remember the plot (I tried it around a year ago), but I do recall that for a free dating sim game it was actually pretty good, if you're into that kind of stuff, and the artwork was great.

And now they've added real people as characters into the game. Kanna Hashimoto (橋本環奈), the smiling girl you see in this ad, is being called the perfect idol, that a girl this cute only comes along "once in a thousand years." She's a member of the group Rev. from DVL (?) and whether you agree with what they're saying about her or not, she will surely be popping up on TV more and more.

Oh, and the quirky/strange part? It has to be the Stalker Vision part of this ad. What, you ask, is Stalker Vision?  Just watch this commercial and you'll understand. Yes, there is a very stalker-ish element to any dating sim, especially one featuring anime versions of real people, but the way this ad is shot seems to say "this is how the world looks through the eyes of a stalker." Like how she smiles at a person looking at her through a rack of books. Kinda creepy when you stop and think about it.

Anyway, more of her can be found here: Kanna Hashimoto Official Blog and at the Rev. from DVL homepage.

And the game's page is here: ガールフレンド (仮) Girlfriend Beta with links to get it for iOS or Android. I'm not sure if it's available in your country but if you like Japanese dating sims it's free and a lot better than most.