Yamaha MT-09 video: The baffling world of Japanese marketing

ADVERTISING is often rightly slammed for its overwrought attempts at pulling emotional strings but the ads we get over here are nothing compared to the new way Yamaha is trying to flog its bikes in Japan, with its own newly-revealed anime series.

‘Masters of Torque’ is a series of five minute episodes which, according to Yamaha, ‘portrays the exploits of three young motorcycle riders in a semi-fictional Tokyo set in the near future’.

The first episode, bafflingly entitled ‘Idle Roughness,’ appears to centre on our hero, Dan, escaping from a long day at the office and moonlighting as some sort of courier. On an MT-09 Street Rally, of course. After that it just gets weird, with a Bond-style bad guy, references to exoskeletons and three more MT-09s.

Being in Japanese probably doesn’t help, although there are English subtitles. Maybe episode two, ‘Understeer,’ (no, really, that’s what it’s called) will make it all clearer. We’re guessing episodes three and four will be titled ‘Carb Icing’ and ‘Weeping Fork Seals.’