This topic details how the shipbuilding industry changed their unpopular image for the better in order to secure brilliant new young workers. What they sought out was a way to change the three elements 'Daunting, Dirty, Dangerous', which ended up making the industry be disliked by the youth. It has changed its motto of 'Daunting, Dirty, Dangerous' that has kept young workers at wide berth to the positive elements 'Tough, Wild, Brave' and introduced a new anime hero to the world in an unprecedented animation series commercial. Mixing the school-based “delinquent manga' anime genre with the industry's main product, and tanker ships, this new anime character 'Shipbuilding Bancho' has caused an explosive response from the youth. The shipbuilding industry's image has been completely reformed, and applications have been flooding the offices of Sanoyas Hishino Meisho.

The goal was to get Sanoyas Hishino Meisho more young workers, by creating an innovative campaign which switches shipbuilding's negative image into a positive message.

In the world of hero anime exists a genre known as the “delinquent manga”. In these types of stories, a charismatic leader known as a 'Bancho' works to rid his school of evil.The Sanoyas Hishino Meisho Company mixed the shape of their main product, tankers, with the characteristic hairstyle of a Bancho, the pompadour, to create a completely new anime character. A 14-second opening song, 1-second episode, and 14-second ending song have been put together to make an unprecedented 30-second animation series commercial.

While the anime is broadcast in the Sanoyas Hishino Meisho Company's headquarters of Okayama, a manga using the Shipbuilding Bancho to explain the job's details was produced and distributed.

This revolutionary anime series commercial has garnered a great response from its target youth. Directly after its first broadcast, listeners uploaded the video to Youtube and the Japanese TV site NicoNico Douga, generating discussion on Twitter, blogs, and Japan's largest bulletin board, 2channel.

Access to the company's site also skyrocketed, vaulting the fame of the Sanoyas Hishino Meisho Company.

Many students who saw the commercial took part in the job description meeting.

The campaign was successful in attracting five times as many job applicants than the previous year. And over 90% of the job applicants had seen our campaign.

'Daunting, Dirty, Dangerous' the 3 elements that actually made young people dislike the shipbuilding industry can be changed into 3 weapons of charm.

What we were seeking was a world that would welcome these three elements as positive elements. That's where the world-renowned culture of Japan, 'Japanimation', comes in. Especially in the world of heroes, the words daunting, dirty, and dangerous can be changed into the positive alternates 'tough, wild, brave', 3 absolute necessary elements needed to create a hit. The anime's targets young students in their 20’s have grown up experiencing the golden age of anime in the 1990s. We decided to insert the shipbuilding industry into a hero anime as we felt this would appeal to the target market, and introduce them to the joy and value that the job possesses.

The 'Daunting, Dirty, Dangerous' motto that describes the shipbuilding work and environment caused students to avoid the shipbuilding industry, causing it to suffer from a lack of new workers.Being unable to gather new, brilliant young workers, the Sanoyas Hishino Meisho Company decided to create a new PR approach to counter this.