Advertising / Hungry Days

HUNGRY DAYS is a series of animated ad campaigns by Nissin showing teens doing all the hallmarks of youth: Experiencing life, love, personal struggle, and forming close bonds. There's a catch, though: instead of an original cast, each commercial focuses on High School AU versions of famous characters you've come to know and love. So if you've been meaning to see what Klara is like as a model or Kiki and Tombo do in their teenage years, this is the campaign for you.

The campaign launched in 2017, connected through a "youth" theme. Eisaku Kubonouchi (author of Cherry and Chocolat) serves as character designer for the project, and BUMP OF CHICKEN provides the theme song "Commemorative Photo". The "Finale" commercial features the song "I Don't Wanna Miss a Thing" by Aerosmith. The first season of ads was animated by Tatsunoko Production and featured four main stories, each serving as a oneshot for a series along with a heavy focus on romance. A second season of ads launched in 2019, this time animated by Studio Shaft and devoted entirely to the cast of One Piece.

Season 1 Shorts

• Kiki's Delivery Service: Youth - Kiki works up the courage to confess to Tombo after worrying they may drift apart.
• Heidi, Girl of the Alps: Youth - Heidi's been friends with the ever-popular Klara, but the more popular Klara gets, the more Heidi starts to feel inadequate.
• Sazae-san: Youth - Masao is determined to tell Sazae his feelings at the school festival, no matter how many people are watching.
• Finale - The apocalypse is coming, but one boy wants to tell his crush what she means to him before it's all over.

Season 2 Shorts

• One Piece: Youth - Zoro's Story - A staunch kendo club member, Zoro is devastated when Mihawk, the club's leader, easily knocks him out in a tournament. He decides to put everything into improving his skills, but during one of his training sessions, he meets a certain straw-hatted student...
• One Piece: Youth - Nami's Story - Ever the hardworking young woman, Nami juggles between school, working part-time at Arlong's restaurant, and studying to become a navigator. When that work catches up to her, however, she feels like she has no-one else to turn to, but a friend of hers manages to cheer her up.
• One Piece: Youth - Vivi's Story - Though she enjoys her life at school and her new friends, Vivi has to transfer out in spring due to her father's work. The Straw Hats decide to put something together to give her a proper sendoff.
• One Piece: Youth - The Climatic Calvary Battle Story - Sports day hits its zenith: a massive mock calvary battle between the pirates and the marines is well underway. Who will come out on top during this tumultous "war" remains to be seen.

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In general:

• Adaptational Attractiveness: As a consequence of having the character designs of Eisaku Kubonouchi, every character gets a rather big glow-up, even Gonkish characters like the Fishmen or simple characters like the Sazae-san cast. Luffy at the end of the One Piece shorts is this in glorious fashion, especially after being The Faceless for so long.
• All There in the Manual: Most information relating to the characters and their setting is on the official page, though you can get the gist of it from the commercials.
• High School AU: Save for Finale, most of the commercials take place in one for a different series.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Each commercial follows the "[X]: Youth" format, with "X" being the title of the series parodied.
• Localized Name in a Non-Localized Setting: Inverted with the Heidi and One Piece shorts. Despite now taking place in Japan, you've still got names like Heidi and Luffy among the people living there.
• Once a Season: Both seasons end with a commercial where the whole setting is thrown into chaos.
• Mythology Gag: The commercials are absolutely packed with these despite their 30 second length.
• What Were They Selling Again?: Let's face it, if you didn't see the Nissin logo at the start, you wouldn't have known it was a cup ramen commercial. The Vivi commercial is one of the few that actually features Nissin noodles. It actually got to the point that some people thought the Kiki ad was a sequel.

Tropes applying to the first season:

• Adaptational Nationality: The typically Swiss cast of Heidi is relocated to Japan, with only Klara appearing to keep her nationality as a foreigner.
• Back for the Finale: All the previous couples are hidden among the fleeing crowds during Finale, though considering how much wreckage gets turned up, it's more likely they're Back for the Dead.
• The End of the World as We Know It: No amount of meteors, lasers, crashing buildings, or rampaging Kaiju is going to stop one couple from getting together.
• The Oner: Finale combines this with an Orbital Shot to show how much chaos is going around the central couple while they're confessing.
• Promoted to Love Interest: In Kiki's Delivery Service, Tombo was just a new acquaintance of Kiki's that grew into a friend, though it's implied Tombo's nursing a crush on her. Here, Kiki actively makes strides to get together with him.
• Shout-Out: Finale uses the Aerosmith song "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing", which was made for use in a different sort of apocalypse than this one.

Tropes applying to the One Piece ads:

• Adaptational Species Change: Pretty much all the nonhuman characters in the series were turned into regular people here. Brook, who was already human before his death, is reverted back to his living appearance.
• Blithe Spirit: Luffy seems to play this role for the rest of the crew. He tends to pop up irregularly, giving each member encouragement when they need it and generally being disconnected from them otherwise.
• The Cameo: Plenty of characters from throughout the series show up during the commercials, even if they never appeared in the arcs the videos were based on. The official site has detailed sheets for each one.
• Cherry Blossoms: Vivi's story starts and ends with these flowers. She's brought under a cherry tree when Nami first introduces her to the Straw Hats, and they later do their raised-arm salute under the same tree in the goodbye video they sent her.
• The Faceless: Luffy until the end of the One Piece episodes is this whenever his body is shown, usually seen from the back or having his hat obscure his face.
• He Who Must Not Be Seen: In many of the commercials, we hear Luffy, but he's just off screen. That doesn't mean we don't get to see him interact with the rest of the cast, though. He's finally seen at the very end in the final episode.
• Japanese School Club: Zorro's part of the Kendo club in this universe.
• Mean Boss: Rather than be the leader of a gang, Arlong is the boss of a restaurant Nami works at. He still gives her a hard time, though.
• Mundane Made Awesome: A calvary battle between the pirates and marines is their stand-in for the Whitebeard War. It's exactly as intense as you think it is.
• My Greatest Failure: Zoro loses to Mihawk in a local kendo tournament, and spends a lot of his time outside school training so he can't lose to him again.
• Quiet Cry for Help: Nami's commercial has her mewling out for no one in particular after being overwhelmed with her work and social pressure, as an analogue to her moment of weakness in Arlong Park. And just like that time, Luffy gives her his hat and answers her plea.
• Shout-Out: In Vivi's commercial, one can spot Buggy at the school festival with relaxed wavy hair and Arthur Fleck's red suit, dancing.
• Shown Their Work: Everywhere. There are Easter Eggs and references to goals, relationships, characters arcs in their specific story arcs, recognizable mannerisms, specific moves, specific islands, brands that exist in the universe of OP, animals, etc. Some might even be hard to decipher such as Charlotte Pudding threatening Gin with a harpoon, Law, and Jinbei. In chara bios for the Strawhats, there's even a Shout-Out to the 4Kids dub with Sanji sucking on a lollipop.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Because it's a sports event rather than a superpowered war, Ace only "dies" in the sense that he was taken out of the game.
• Workaholic: In her preparation to become a navigator, Nami fell into these habits. She has a full plate already with her work in Arlong's restaurant along with her school loads, but she eschews free time altogether by studying navigation when she gets home.