Anime crossover campaigns are all the rage in Japan, covering everything from canned coffee to family restaurants. But two concerned groups put their foot down when animation studio TRIGGER collaborated with Kirin to promote their new product, an alcoholic fruit cooler called Kirin Hyouketsu.

Here's the web commercial that's been pulled (complete with warnings and disclaimers), which was tied to the campaign as a whole:

The ad features four young adults -- graphic designer Anna, ad agency employee Chihiro, amusement park performer Saki, and anime fan Tatsuya -- as they pursue their respective goals of becoming an animator, a producer, a voice actress, and a composer. The four support each other's efforts and celebrate their accomplishments with cans of Kirin Hyouketsu. Shintaro Asanuma (Crow Hogan in Yu Gi Oh!) and Ai Kayano (Darkness in KonoSuba) voice all four characters between them.

However, the Japanese Housewives' Association Shufuren and alcohol and drug abuse prevention society ASK have expressed concern that an anime-based ad campaign will encourage minors to drink, calling for an end to both the showing of the ad on television and the campaign itself. The campaign site (which has an age check at the beginning) is still available to peruse, but reflects the cancellation of the prize giveaways. Before the complaint, winners of an upcoming contest would have received a case of Hyouketsu and a campaign shirt autographed by Asanuma and Kayano.

It seems that this campaign might have previously included more animated installments, but Kirin and TRIGGER have honored Shufuren's request to put an end to the furthering of the campaign. Meanwhile, ASK is requesting that companies consider holding their web advertisements to the same standards as their television ads.

Source: Togetter, Otakomu

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Kara Dennison is responsible for multiple webcomics, blogs and runs interviews for (Re)Generation Who and PotterVerse, and is half the creative team behind the OEL light novel series Owl's Flower. She blogs at karadennison.com and tweets @RubyCosmos.