Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd. (Tokyo: 7272) announced the March 20, 2014 global release of the first episode of an original entertainment anime series titled "Master of Torque" that portrays the exploits of three young motorcycle riders in a semi-fictional Tokyo set in the near future.

It will be released on a special website and on the official Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd. YouTube channel with four episodes running from spring to the summer of 2014. This anime series is a special entertainment created in Japan for a global audience of all ages and nationalities. It sends a message about the fun of riding motorcycles and the kind of lifestyle they can bring using Yamaha's "MT-09" and "MT-07" models and their product characteristics. This will be communicated within an animated world with a Japan-centric theme in ways not seen before by Yamaha Motor for presenting and expressing the image of its large-displacement motorcycles.

In addition to the series itself, the special site will feature content introducing National Route 246 and other actual locations that appear in the story and interesting aspects of Japanese culture. The series and the website will serve as a platform for presenting an animated world that portrays "Japan" as well as Japanese values and aesthetics to a wide-ranging audience.

Special site: http://global.yamaha-motor.com/showroom/mt

Official YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/YamahaMotorcompany

The world portrayed

Traditionally, promotions to communicate the image and appeal of Yamaha large-displacement motorcycles have shown them in use in the urban areas or natural environments of Europe or North America. As "a visual production from Japan," this series breaks out of that pattern and presents the image of the Yamaha MT-09 and MT-07 and the lifestyles they offer within an animated world with a Japan-centric theme not seen before in past promotions by Yamaha Motor. Another aim of this series is to apply the illustrative touch, use of color and techniques for expressing the motion that Japanese animation has become famous for around the world to bring to life the characters' expressions, the riding scenes and the background settings in ways that create a unique animated world.

*MT-09 product release (announced on June 12, 2013).

http://global.yamaha-motor.com/news/2013/0612/mt-09.html