McDonald's: Anime Artist Acky Bright Talks WcDonald's Collaboration

McDonald's has been going "all-in" on their current anime initiative, creating an entire universe of characters in its "WcDonald's" world. Set to launch a real-life WcDonald's next month in California and creating four short anime segments with Studio Pierrot, best known for the likes of Naruto and Bleach, the fast food chain didn't stop there. McDonald's employed talented artist Acky Bright to help create this new world and we here at ComicBook.com had the opportunity to talk with him about forging a new anime universe.

To start our interview, we asked Acky about his approach to creating over twenty new anime characters for the WcDonald's campaign, "I was aware that this campaign would be global and that many people all over the world would look at these characters, so it wasn't just a domestic audience. I really wanted to pay attention to how diverse, cultural, and international aspects could be placed into all the characters so that anyone from any background could find their favorite character."

With the new WcDonald's campaign, Bright had a big challenge ahead of him not just in forging a variety of characters, but touching on several genres from the anime medium. Acky explained that his background as an artist helped in forging figures that called upon genres including shonen, seinen, shojo, mecha, and more, "I have a traditional manga background as well as work on DC Comics and graphic novels. Compared with artists who strictly do manga, I have a more broad artistic background. What I pay attention to here is what the story demands, what the stories' themes are whether they're romance or action. I created something that the theme would demand and I put all the ingredients in to compliment the story." 

An Anime Golden Arches Age?

Of the many anime characters that Bright created, we drilled down which of the menagerie of McDonald's figures he most preferred, "I think I like Mr. Bev the best. Also, the Berg, simply because he has a hamburger head. I'm actually drawing him as we speak!"

With McDonald's entering the anime game, we asked Acky, a veteran in the medium, whether he believed we were in a golden age for anime. Bright responded by saying that we're almost there, but not quite yet, "I go to Anime Expo and anime conventions quite often. I really feel the heat has been hotter every year, but nevertheless, I feel that the golden age is about to arrive. It's not there yet, but in America, there are a lot of people who haven't seen manga or anime. Doing this kind of campaign with McDonald's, I am expecting that anime and manga will be seen by more people, which might make them fans in the future. In that sense, this campaign is very meaningful." 

To cap off the interview, Acky Bright had a message for fans who might be traveling to 'WcDonald's' soon, "I just want them to have fun. Eating the chicken nuggets and the fun manga, I want everyone to have fun. Eating something delicious while looking at something interesting and fun, it's very simple but it's also very needed, to appreciate the simple things. It's wonderful that this campaign can provide such a moment." 

If you want a refresher on the upcoming anime shorts, and the first short that has been released as a part of WcDonald's, here is a breakdown of Pierrot episodes inspired by Acky Bright's creations:

• The Race to WcDonald's (Out Now): A rivalry strong enough to withstand the test of time as our two heroes embark on an epic race to WcDonald's.
• Love from Across the Booth (drops March 4): Our two protagonists discover the WcDonald's Sauce and WcNuggets aren't the only perfect pairing.
• WcNuggets Space Frontier 3000 (drops March 11): A team of WcDonald's pilots must protect the last WcNugget against an ominous force.
• The Wisdom of the Sauce (drops March 18): Three women are transported to a distant land to unravel the mystery surrounding the elusive sauce before it's gone forever.