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mameshiba edamame
Mameshiba 5 - Edamame

A YouTube video posted by mameshibavideos on April 23, 2009

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Wistful Japanese commercials featuring a talking bean who spouts trivia. SO KAWAII!

  • Aug 21, 2009
  • by
Rating:
+5
Mame-shiba isn't well know as Hello Kitty, but with all of these fabulous branding commericals he should be! He's little known character from Japan, with the name meaning bean (mama) dog (shiba, as in shiba inu). He's one of many quirky Japanese characters that are part animal, part food. What? Yes, animal characters that look like edible food. There's An-Pan Man (Bread Pastry Man), the Sushi seals (the seals are the rice part of the sushi), and the takoyaki cats (octopus pastry balls that have cat-like faces):

AN-PAN MAN:

TAKOYAKI CAT:

SUSHI SEAL:


Anyway, what the other animal/ food characters don't have are an amazing series of melancholy commercials, where the character will pop out of a food item and spout off some obscure fact, like "did you know a squid has three hearts?" 
 
In Mameshiba 5 (Edamame), a business man is squeezing the bean part out of an edamame pod when the bean (who has the face of a dog) sprouts off a bit of trivia about a kangaroo's pouch. Mind you, it's accompanied by sad music and the bean has the voice of a child. How manipulative! It's simultaneously delightful and sad mainly because we think the bean is spouting off a factoid to convince him not to eat him. Interestingly, "did you know" style facts do make you stop, think, and ponder, which is not unlike what happens when you find some usual tidbit of information online (a duck couple stops liking each other after they create a nest! A flamingo's mother's milk is red!). Before I knew what these commercials were advertising, I thought perhaps they were advertising the Japanese Google because of how prominently the factoids were positioned. If they aren't being used as search engine commercials, they should be! They're perfect branding pieces. And just SOOOOOO cute too. 

I recommend watching all the Mameshiba commercials!
business man mameshiba edamame

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March 02, 2011
Wow there goes my childhood.. An pan-man
 
March 02, 2011
Wow there goes my childhood.. An pan-man
 
August 22, 2009
omg i was mesmerized by those commercials. I have a box of the Sushi Seal candy that peacho or dave brought me back from japan once. The candy was gross but I like Papa Toro :)
 
August 21, 2009
Why'd you have to post this???  I watched the YouTube video full sized with the English anotations.  Now I'm gonna feel guilty every time I eat edamame!
 
August 21, 2009
Dude, this is totally my new favorite thing to watch on youtube. So awesome!
 
1
More Mameshiba 5 - Edamame reviews
Quick Tip by . August 21, 2009
"Did you know? The inside of a kangaroo pouch is supposedly really sticky" Ahhh! So cute! Can I ever eat edamame with a straight face again?
Quick Tip by . August 22, 2009
Cute and edible! My favorite combination!
see all Mameshiba 5 - Edamame reviews (3)
About the reviewer
Raina Lee ()
I'm a writer interested in technology culture: video games, personal technology, mobile phones, and even karaoke. I'm the author of Hit Me With Your Best Shot: The Ultimate Guide To Karaoke Domination(Chronicle … more
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About this online video

Wiki


What exactly is Mameshiba? They're not quite a bean, nor a dog, but rather a hybrid of both. They love to appear out of nowhere and offer random bits of trivia whether you asked for it or not...
view wiki

Tags

Food, Anime, Japan, Dog, Cute, Tv Commercial, Dentsu, Mameshiba, Edamame
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Original Video Uploader: YouTube
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"Wistful Japanese commercials featuring a talking bean who spouts trivia. SO KAWAII!"
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