To Western audiences, Japanese TV appears wacky, colorful, and low on production values. But sometimes, like with the success of “Takeshi’s Castle,” the outright craziness and cheapness of it is also its appeal. But sifting through hours of Japanese TV shows to find moments of comedic or artistsic brilliance would try the patience of even the most dedicated Japanophile.Fortunately, TV commercials are a big deal in a country that is only second in the world to the U.S. in terms of average minutes of television watched per person per day at 264 mins in 2014 (in the U.S. it was 282). That means commercial-makers have refined to an art form the skill of selling products to their audiences in just seconds, in many cases using visual tricks with little relevance to the product.In previous decades such tricks included having a Hollywood film star do something rather silly. The master was Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was quite happy to play along with the zany requests of the directors, but others including Nicholas Cage were more surprising – and enjoyable. At the time, few Westerners would ever get the chance to see the ads, but in today’s YouTube world, the potentially embarrassing clips are available for all to see.Today the most ubiquitous Hollywood face to be seen in Japanese ads is Tommy Lee Jones, who has been the spokesman of BOSS coffee for a decade now, appearing in 38 commercials. As “Alien Jones,” his name is intended to imply that he has come from another planet to Earth to learn about human culture. The name though, seemed to replicate reality somewhat – foreigners living in Japan were given “alien” registration cards until 2012, when the word was eliminated by a foreign residents’ registration system.Japanese commercial-makers though still love their extraterrestrials, and plenty appear in cartoon or superhuman form in local ads selling Frieza grape soda, energy drinks and Cup Noodles. Japanese YouTube channel JPCMHD has compiled the best from last year in one video, which begins with a playful touch, thanks to Rev pop-group member Kanna Hashimoto. Hashimoto apparently needed 600 takes to get a number of “stupid cool” tricks right for Cup Noodle, including a “Triple Fork” trick.The tricks are called “bakakkoii” in Japanese, meaning “stupid-cool” and “it didn’t take long for someone to take bakakkoii to the next level” says Scott Wilson of RocketNews24. The word may apply to many of the other ads too, ranging from an art school life drawing class with a rather naughty resolution, to some nifty animation.
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