Japanese cars on Japanese anime
Mazda RX-7 starring in Summer Wars
Summer Wars (2009), directed by Mamoru Hosoda, is a story about a high school student named Kenji Koiso struggling to save OZ, a virtual world on the Internet protected by the world’s safest security system, being hacked and affecting the real world.
Natsuki Shinohara, whom Kenji has feelings for, invites him to act as a fake boyfriend when she goes to a family reunion at her great-grandmother’s house during summer vacation. That’s where Shota Jinnai, her police officer cousin, appears with his RX-7.
The FD3S was introduced in 1991 and is still the world’s only sequential twin-turbo rotary car until today. With its smooth engine like an electrical motor and newly developed wishbone suspension, the car was often referred to as the ultimate cornering machine.
In the movie, the car was realistically depicted on both its exterior and cockpit. There’s even a line where the driver clearly says “RX-7”. But unfortunately, the car gets wrecked in the end.
Daihatsu Hijet Deck Van starring in Your Name.
In 2016, a social phenomenon was born. It was Makoto Shinkai’s Your Name that became everyone’s topic that year. The film is about a high school boy who lives in Tokyo, Taki Tachibana, and a high school girl who lives deep in the mountains of Gifu, Mitsuha Miyamizu, getting their bodies switched.
The kei pickup appears in a scene where a local takes Taki and his friends to the town of Itomori, where a meteorite has crashed killing more than 500 local residents.
When most people think of Japanese Kei-trucks, or “Keitora”, they imagine trucks and vans. But this specific model of a Hijet is a Deck Van model, which has removed its rear upper part from a van body and made it into a small double cab truck.
These deck vans are popular among construction workers and gardeners since the car is capable of carrying tall and dirty cargo while being able to house four people in its cabin. Moreover, the car recently started to gain popularity among people who love outdoor activities such as fishing, camping, surfing, and more.
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Unlike in the past, when animated movies were something for kids, more and more adults are starting to enjoy watching animes because of their high quality in both art and story. Various things are depicted realistically, including cars, resulting in people who used to be not interested to anime watching those.
When actual places appear in a film, fans gather to visit the exact place in real-life, resulting in a phenomenon called film tourism. Just like those locations appearing in animes, cars might start to get some impact on their sales when they make an appearance.
