In Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - Solid State Society, members of the Section 9 special police force will be driving the Nissan Sport Concept and the Infiniti Kuraza. Is it art imitating life, life imitating art, or the first step in a new type of advertising in anime?

Here in the US, a lot of television networks have recently been complaining about the Tivo and other recording technologies that allow viewers to easily skip advertisements. Is the next step putting ads inside the shows themselves? Having two “real world” Japanese cars in an extremely popular Japanese series seems like a great way to promote your product if you’re Nissan. The cars perfectly fit the atmosphere of Ghost In the Shell too, so the producers of the show are happy.

Hollywood has been doing this kind of thing for a while now (notice how many GM cars you see the next time you watch Matrix:Reloaded). But this is new for anime, probably new for animated features in general. As long as it’s done tastefully as it was here, I really don’t mind seeing more of this.

Autoblog has a great set of still pictures from the anime and shots of the real cars too, as well as the press release. Learn more about it at AutoBlog

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