Hungry Days: Aoharu ka yo.

The rest of the world certainly doesn't get commercials like this. Put simply, Hungry Days is an exquisitely animated series of ramen commercials with anime tie-ins, each one focusing on young love and the power of youth. As I often see with Japanese commercials, they understand the most important precept of advertising- you are not actually selling what you're selling, you're selling associations. These commercials might be made to sell you ramen, but what they're really doing is selling you an association of their product with the joys of being young. Given that Nissin instant ramen noodles in a cup are such a cheap andeasily accessible food, they're commonly eaten by students and young people without a lot of money. So, sidestepping an association with being broke, they capitalize on the realities of the market by celebrating youth. However, the episodes are extremely short, so there's not really much of a story here. They're more like fleeting vignettes. This is part of why the art is the strongest aspect of the anime, and not the story. It's clear that a lot of time and effort was put into adapting the referenced anime into a single unified style for each episode so that there's a certain measure of visual continuity, and that dedication is easy to see. Again, it's all very short, and sometimes adapting anime from other styles feels a little odd, but there's no denying that these commercials really do look great. Given their extreme brevity, there's not much more to say about them really. They are colorful, well-animated, and have a pervasive sense of wellbeing that pairs with their intended message quite well. The sound is good, though there's less to talk about here. It meets the basic standards of quality for the time of its production, and it's impressive how they cram all the necessary lines into each commercial, given that they're a scant 30 seconds per episode. The characters are good, but it's notable that these aren't their own. All the strengths of these characters should be attributed to their creators and the works they belong to. Still, they're handled with respect, which is always good to see. Overall, Hungry Days is a fantastic set of ramen commercials, and they're worth a watch just for the shot composition alone. Be sure to have a cup of ramen handy for full immersion!