Top Gun: Maverick is hoping to win over Japanese audiences by hitching its wagon to some of Japan's most popular horse girls.
The Twitter account for the popular multimedia franchise Uma Musume, announced that one of its "horse girls," Mayano, has been officially appointed as a Top Gun pilot. Uma Musume is a series focused around a group of anime girls who are actually the reincarnated spirits of famous real-world racing horses from throughout history. The character of Mayano wears a flight jacket and is inspired by the thoroughbred race horse Mayano Top Gun, who won multiple high profile races in Japan throughout the '90s. The official Japanese Twitter account for Top Gun: Maverick responded by thanking Mayano, and then replied with one of Tom Cruise's famous lines from the original Top Gun. Both Twitter accounts have teased further crossover promotions in the coming weeks.
The original Top Gun was released in 1986, and despite being greeted with mediocre reviews from critics, went on to become a huge hit, generating over $350 million USD at the box-office over a $15 million dollar budget. The film starred Tom Cruise as the reckless but talented fighter pilot Pete "Maverick" Mitchell and Val Kilmer as his rival, Tom "Iceman" Kazansky. The film has since been praised for its action and over-the-top machismo, as well as its soundtrack, which features hits from Kenny Loggins and Berlin. In 2015, the Library of Congress inducted the movie into the National Film Registry, which preserves works that are deemed "culturally important" to the nation.
The long-awaited sequel to the movie, Top Gun: Maverick was originally scheduled to open in the United States this fall, but due to the on-going COVID-19 pandemic, its premiere has been rescheduled for 2022. The film sees Cruise and Kilmer reprising their roles from the original movie, and also stars Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly and Jon Hamm.
Uma Musume began as an iOS and Android game which was first released in 2018. As stated previously, the series features a group of girls who are the reincarnated spirits of famous race horses. The girls enroll in a prestigious academy where they not only compete in races, but also learn how to be pop idols. The series was adapted into an anime series by Shirobako and Aquatope of White Sand studio P.A. Works in 2018. A second season of the anime, which was produced by Studio Kai, aired in Japan in early 2021. Studio Kai is also producing Fuuto Pi, the upcoming spinoff anime of Toei's popular Kamen Rider tokusatsu series.
Source: Twitter