Tag: Manga series

Tokyo, Japan – Apple’s latest ‘Shot on iPhone’ film in Japan has adapted the 1986 suspense drama manga series ‘Midnight’ by legendary mangaka Osamu Tezuka, and was conceptualised by TBWA\Media Arts Lab Tokyo.

The film was shot entirely using the iPhone 15 Pro, and was directed by popular Japanese director Takashi Miike. ‘Midnight’ is a thrilling, suspense drama about a taxi driver who encounters strange passengers while making his night rounds. In Apple’s latest film, the driver is pulled out of his way to help a female truck driver, Kaede, who is running from a hitman.

Primarily filmed in dark streets of Tokyo, “Midnight” illustrates the robust low-light and cinematic capabilities of iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max. From capturing crisp details of the characters under the colorful city lights to the stabilization of the live-action fighting shots, iPhone 15 Pro has the best features for creating films right in the palm of your hand. 

Moreover, the film combines live-action shots with CGI and pioneers the use of the LiDAR scanner on iPhone in film post-production, in order to create the 3D model base for the Taxi and its iconic fifth wheel.

“Mr. Tezuka is something of a god among manga artists so it was an honor to take on the challenge of expressing his work using only iPhone. As we were shooting, I naturally began to challenge myself to think about how we could make a work unique to iPhone, beyond the usual approach to a film. I truly felt that the iPhone has the power to do things that a conventional movie camera can’t,” Miike said.

The “Midnight” film premiered on YouTube on 6 March, and will be released on apple.com/jp, Abema TV, and Apple TV on 7 March. The full film and the behind-the-scenes will play in select taxis all around Tokyo after 10 PM until morning. The campaign will also be supported by broadcast, magazine, OOH, DOOH, digital and social.

Tokyo, Japan – Integral Ad Science (IAS), the global digital ad verification company, pushes for the awareness of ad verification by using everyone’s favorite medium – Manga comics. 

IAS launched its first Manga info book titled ‘Understanding Ad Verification with Manga!’ in an aim to raise awareness and deepen understanding of ad verification specifically for Japanese marketers, by introducing the basic concepts and approaches of ad verification.

With an even stronger digital activity today, the presence of fraudulent ads is fast becoming a pressing issue, and proper ad verification is looked to as one of the best possible solutions to combat this. Ad verification is a process that enables advertisers to verify if ads are placed in the right context, such as being situated on the right websites and therefore, displayed among the right audiences.

Digital ad verification is the company’s prime solution. The specially crafted manga series by IAS is an easy-to-understand overview of the basic concepts of ad verification, solutions, and use cases, seeking to support those in the field of digital advertising, as well as those at companies and agencies who are working to optimize and improve the health of their advertising.

It centers around the main character, Rinosuke Adobe, a young digital advertising manager at a fictional automobile manufacturer, and his team member, Tsugumi Suehiro, and their journey in solving problems such as brand risk and ad fraud by using ad verification.

“Although awareness of ad verification as a solution to media quality issues such as brand safety, ad fraud, and viewability in the digital advertising ecosystem is growing in the Japanese market, efforts to understand and implement the solution are still in their early stage,” said IAS.

Takeshi Yamaguchi, IAS Japan’s sales director, said, “Japanese digital ad budgets continued to grow even throughout the challenges of H2 2020, while ad fraud rates have also increased. IAS created this manga comic book to help creatively communicate the importance of ad verification and present the verification solutions in an easy-to-understand format for our partners.”

The new manga booklet is available for free download on the IAS website.

Japan has been bolstering its efforts on creating a safe environment for ad publication. The country has launched the Japan Institute for Certification of Digital Advertising Quality (JICDAQ), a third-party organization that provides third-party certification of the quality of digital advertising. Aside from this, a report by the Cabinet Office’s Digital Market Competition Council has also been released that outlines issues and recommendations for ensuring the fairness of transactions and improving transparency for the sound development of digital advertising.