H/T to kurli_kid for sharing this in the comments yesterday.
Washington Wizards forward Rui Hachimura is one of the Wizards’ key young players, but he is more popular in his native Japan. He will be a flagbearer for Japan in the Olympics, and he’ll also have a commercial with one of his sponsors, Nissin Foods.
A commercial recently came out by Nissin featuring their curry ramen as well as a yodeling anchovy dressed in a Bavarian dirndl, a traditional folk dress peasants wore in modern-day Germany, Austria and Switzerland back in the 18th century. Today, you may find them more often at a German/Austrian/Swiss heritage festival or Oktoberfest in the early fall. The entire commercial is in Japanese, featuring a dancing Hachimura (okay, more like a dancing figure with Hachimura’s face) and some interesting effects. I’ll get into the fish and the Bavarian garb later.
Since I don’t know what the fish is singing, I looked to see if there was a translation. Here is a copy of what one user had on NBA’s Reddit. Again, I can’t verify if this is totally correct, but from the replies on the page, it appears reasonable.
A dashi will come out
Hime noboshi [anchovy] curry
A dashi will come out
Toyama noboshi will come out
A star of Toyama who comes to mind?
Of course it’s Hachimura Rui
What’s Hachimura’s favorite food?
Just as we thought it’s hime curry.
It’s Toyama’s gourmet B class.
The flavor of niboshi works.[Interlude]
Hime curry is not well known
Only people from Toyama know about it.
So if it doesn’t sell we’ll be in trouble.
Therefore we’ll ride on Hachimura’s popularity
[interlude] one village (ichimura), two village, three village, ... , eight village (hachimuri)
Toyama Black (garlic) ramen is also good but,
Hime udon is also good but,
This and that hime curry.Rui: Because it’s probably good, buy some won’t you.
As you can see in the video, there are mountains in the background. Using the lyrics as context, Hachimura is from Toyama, which is near the Tateyama Mountain Range. part of the “Japanese Alps.” That is probably providing the symbolism with the European Alps and Bavaria, which is in the range.
I found the Nissin commercial to be very creative. Hopefully, we’ll have more Wizards players in commercials like this locally as well this upcoming season!