Kyoto Animation director’s new KitKat anime video shows sweet moment between mother and daughter

True story serves as basis for latest “Kit Kat Creates the Chance” video.

Kit Kats have a strongly sentimental image in Japan. That might seem strange for such a commonplace snack, but the similarity in pronunciation between “Kit Kat” and “kitto katsu,” which means “I believe you’ll succeed” in Japanese, have made the chocolate-covered wafers a popular good-luck charm/gift. More wordplay was added earlier this year with the start of the “Kikkake wa Kit Kat de,” or “Kit Kat Creates the Chance” promotion, which asked fans to submit stories of when Kit Kats helped create a happy moment in their lives.

One of those stories came from a mother and daughter in Osaka, and it was chosen as the basis for the latest Kit Kat Creates the Chance anime video. It’s not long, but it still manages to make an emotional impact, thanks in no small part to animation direction by Naoko Yamada, whose previous directing credits include Kyoto Animation hits such as Sound! Euphonium, A Silent Voice, and K-On!.

As the video opens to the sound of J-pop vocalist Ai’s new song “Start Again,” we see a working mother opening up her office locker and discovering that her daughter secretly put a Kit Kat in her bag. Japanese Kit Kat wrappers have a blank space for you to write a message in, and the daughter’s is “Mom, thank you for everything you do.”

Mom’s eyes tear up at the kind gesture, while the narrating daughter explains “I wrote the feeling I couldn’t say on her Kit Kat, and the next day…”

“…she wrote me back.”

▼ “Hang in there at school!!”

With the mom wearing a mask, the video is clearly set in the ongoing pandemic. But there’s an unmistakable air of hopefulness to it, and Yamada says “It doesn’t have to be anything big, but if this video can serve as inspiration for people to take some small positive step forward, I’d be very happy.”

The video is definitely a nice reminder that you don’t always have to do something immense and dramatic to put a smile on someone’s face. Sometimes just showing someone that you’re thinking of them is enough, and if they’re thinking of you too, that’s something to be happy about.

Source: PR Times
Top image: PR Times
Insert images: YouTube/ネスレ日本公式チャンネル
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