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| Image source: Onsen Musume PV |
Anime and hot springs (onsen) are two things synonymous with Japan, and now they have come together in an interesting multi-media promotional project intended to get more people to visit Japan’s hot springs.
This project centers around Onsen Musume (Hot Springs Girls), a female idol group composed of nine original anime characters, whose designs were inspired by famous hot springs from all over Japan. Although this project began in November of last year, it seems like it wasn’t until this month that it got kicked into high gear.
In addition to a redesign of the Onsen Musume official website, March saw both the start of a crowdfunding campaign and the release of a promotional video. The video introduces the nine onsen girls, and also debuts the group’s theme song, “Mirai Imagination” (Future Imagination). Not surprisingly, this video does get a tad bit sexy due to the whole onsen theme. Check it out below.
As for the crowdfunding campaign, it began on March 15th. The point of this campaign is to raise funds in order to do things like, create an Onsen Musume anime and an Onsen Musume smartphone game.
Contributors who donate at least JPY3,780 will be given an Onsen Musume original 5-track mini-album. Higher contribution levels feature various other rewards on top of the mini-album, including name credits, original illustrations and character themed goods.
The campaign is set to end on April 9th. At the time of this writing, more than 3/5ths of the campaign’s 5 million yen (US$44,359) goal have been raised, so it seems that the chances of an Onsen Musume anime becoming a reality are quite high.
Source: Da Vinci News, Famitsu
