Next A-Class

Name: Next A-Class
Genre: Action, Sci-Fi
Released: 2012-11-17T00:00:00+00:00
Rating: 6.36

NEXT A-Class

6.36(4,876)

#7503

CM1 ep.Finished Airing6 min

In the not so distant future, to cope with the traffic jams and verticalization due to the increased population, the city of Tokyo was reconstructed under the theme of city sharing in which people share the urbane space by transforming the roads and city structure by time of the day. A woman named Nico is walking in the city. She is having her long-awaited day off; however, she does not know what to do and who to hang out with. She hopes an exciting thing suddenly happens. Then, a truck passes right before her eyes. The loud music and flashy decoration of the vehicle reminds Nico the car it that everyone's talking about on the internet. As soon as Nico sees it, she runs after it, then runs into Gatsu and Makito. Nico gets in their latest A-Class and they chase after the truck driving through the city that is changing its form rapidly. (Source: AniDB)

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Reviews(10)

Pliers

August 31, 2013

Recommended

Next A-Class is a fun and short anime. Kids driving a super A-class Mercedes-Benz goes on a high-speed chase to catch the legendary noodle stand. Best part got to be when the kids can shift seats in the car without moving.

Trades46

January 27, 2013

Recommended

Imagine my surprise when I saw an article on a short ONA made by Productions IG when I was browsing through a car blog. Seeing that a German company which used to only specialize in executive/expensive automobiles that used to only target customers in their 40s with a hefty salary, this commercial comes off to me as quite revolutionary as a car enthusiast/business student and awesome as an anime fan. This was not the first time I've seen that anime has been used as a medium as advertising. This however was the first for a non-Japanese firm, and in terms of quality, the small details in a6 minutes short really shows. I'd give credit to those who convinced the uptight Germans in Stuttgart to put funding into this. Story: 5 Given it's 6 minutes running length, there isn't any particular story to speak of. It does play parody to the most famous Japanese car-related anime, so I will give credit for that. Art: 9 The futuristic look of the 'moving city' with the lighting, the details of the characters are surprisingly good for such a short clip. The integrating of the A class (possibility A45 AMG?) with the 'Blue Wonder' noodle truck is done greatly. Water effects and lighting are used in great effect. Sound: 7 The music really fits the mood well, if albeit constrained due to the length of the clip. The sfx for engine noise doesn't sound relative to the M159's throaty roar that is found in the hood of a IRL AMG V8... Characters: 6 Nothing much to say here, but each are distinctive and fits well to the 'futuristic japan' theme that is going to play here. Enjoyment: 10 What part of seeing a prototype/futuristic A45 AMG racing against a 1954 Blue Wonder truck fitted with a 6.2 M159 V8 lifted from a gull-wing SLS AMG in a moving city, drifting in narrow Japanese streets and getting air-time in the process just to get Ramen not sound cool? Overall: 7 At the end of the day, this is still a manufacturer promotion campaign. For the already downward trend of Japan's auto industry, the indication to the manufacturers of this clip is showing that MB is now targeting the next generation of youngsters to drive European cars. Better start making more desirable cars, Honda and Toyota. To the part anime-fan and part car-enthusiast like me out there who gets chills down his spine hearing a AMG V8 starting up, this is a really delicious, if a bit short, treat from MB of Japan.

mistersunday

July 20, 2020

Not Recommended

Well... if the story would've had a little bit more direction Mercedes could've made Next A-Class look less like a capitalist marketing scheme. Overall, I thought that Next A-Class had good animation and decent sound combined with a promising set up. Having the entire short take place during a high-speed car chase was fun and it had potential to present a cool yet interesting story. I wasn't expecting a transcendent message or anything, but even with 6 minutes there could've been some kind of takeaway... instead Mercedes just shows us a futuristic car that doesn't even exist (at least not with those specs). It was clearthat the story was built around the promotion of the company rather than trying to weave the promotion of the company into an already compelling short story. Ultimately, this short video fails to transmit any kind of message or narrative beyond a simple car chase, which is still underwhelming even within the parameters of its 6-minute time frame. I just think that there are so many successful animated shorts (eg: Paulette's Chair, Tsumiki no Ie) that are able to convey powerful messages or recreate idyllic moments. Due to this, Next A-Class falls kind of flat in comparison. It gave us a cool car chase at least so I guess it has that going for it. Story: 3 Again, it's a car chase with no real narrative. I try not to judge shorts too harshly when it comes to this category because I attempt to take the time frame into account, but even with 6 minutes the story could've had more direction. It would've been nice if some of the 'folklore' surrounding the Noddle cart was focused on to create higher stakes for the car chase. Anything to make the story feel somewhat captivating. Art: 8 The animation was definitely good, everything was animately quite well for the most part. There were some exciting scenes in there. Sound: 7 I really liked the sound! I thought the soundtrack was good and matched the atmosphere of the car chase appropriately. I thought there were times when the sound effects were slightly too cacophonous and I couldn't really make out what was going on but I guess that's expected for a high-speed car chase. Character: 4 The character designs were decent and they definitely had distinct 'personalities'; however that's about it. They could've dropped more clues about the characters in the dialogue or animation. Successful shorts can present (seemingly) fleshed out characters in a short time frame. Next A-Class missed the mark with that too but at least each character had individuality. Enjoyment: 4 I can't say I didn't have a bit of fun while watching the car chase, but when the short ended I didn't feel like there was much meaning to what I just watched. It was more like Mercedes just tried to subliminally ingrain their logo in my head lol.

ShiionKoro

November 5, 2018

Recommended

This is really, really cool! Such an amazing idea from Mercedes, to advertise their A-Class through a short anime movie! It's basically about a girl, whose bike got taken away for parking wrong or something like that. On her way home I guess, she saw the legendary Ramen truck passing her. Luckily, two dudes noticed it as well and she got into their A-Class Mercedes and chased it down. First, they lost it, but after a while it passed them again. After making a dangerous stunt with the car, they finally got to eat the ramen. But the owner mentions a legendary tofu truck... Not much to say aboutstory and characters, but the artstyle of this fascinated me... 8/10 for this amazing idea to advertise a car!

Next A-Class

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