Summary
- McDonald's embraces anime culture with its new promotion, changing its brand to that of its anime counterpart, WcDonald's.
- Studio Pierrot will produce a WcDonald's anime series with original characters in the form of weekly shorts.
- Exclusive extras like Savory Chili WcDonald's Sauce and manga adaptations on takeout bags add to the excitement.
The anime counterpart to McDonald's is officially coming to life in an incredible promotional campaign. It's fairly common in anime to see a knockoff version of a popular store or restaurant appear in various series to avoid copyright issues. However, no other chain has been spoofed more than McDonald's by renaming the popular fast food place to "WcDonald's" or similar names in several popular shows and movies including InuYasha, Cowboy Bebop: The Movie and Assassination Classroom. Now, McDonald's is officially ing in on the fun with a fantastic promotion that will bring the infamous restaurant spoof to life.
According to McDonald's on X, the iconic restaurant chain has officially flipped its iconic Golden Arches upside down and rebranded itself as WcDonald's to celebrate the long-running history of its anime counterpart. This includes changing things around on their cups and bags to signify that McDonald's no longer exists: only WcDonald's. The promotion has officially begun on February 26th.
This isn't the first time the company has teamed up with the world of anime as they dipped their toes into the Pokémon craze with exclusive trading cards. However, it's an incredible way to show self-awareness for one of the funniest running gags in anime history. What's more, there is a WcDonald's anime coming.
WcDonald's to Get an Official Anime as Part of Its Promotion
Studio Pierrot Leads the Series Production
"Four anime shorts produced by the iconic studio will be released weekly for fans to check out every Monday, exploring the adventures of Midnight, Flurry, Burg, WcDizer 3000, and more in a yet-to-be-revealed original story."
Perhaps the best part about this whole promotion is that McDonald's, in Tokyo Ghoul and Yu Yu Hakusho animation team at Studio Pierrot to produce an official anime series based on a line of original characters. Four anime shorts produced by the iconic studio will be released weekly for fans to check out every Monday, exploring the adventures of Midnight, Flurry, Burg, WcDizer 3000, and more in a yet-to-be-revealed original story. The fact that McDonald's is willing to go above and beyond to make this promo as unique as possible is an incredible showing of dedication to how popular anime has become over the years and capitalizing on it in the best way possible.
McDonald's Isn't Stopping at Just an Anime
On top of an official anime produced exclusively for McDonald's, the chain is also expected to keep delivering incredible extras to keep people coming back for more. For starters, a brand-new sauce created exclusively for the WcDonald's promotion called the Savory Chili WcDonald's Sauce will be available for a limited time. Also, releasing weekly alongside Studio Pierrot's anime will be a series of manga adaptations with excerpts on officially licensed takeout bags, designed by manga artist Acky Bright. When asked about his time teaming up with the chain, Bright responded by stating "I loved being able to use my artwork to bring to life the dynamic, vibrant world of WcDonald's to people around the world."
Fans will be able to watch the first episode of McDonald's official WcDonald's anime on February 26th by scanning an official QR Code that comes with every order or going to WcDonalds.com. The promotion is expected to run for a month as each story releases, but it's currently unknown when McDonald's will officially return to their original Golden Arches. WcDonald's has become legendary among anime fans for how funny a simple name change can avoid copyright for its stories, and the fact McDonald's is bringing it to life makes it their most incredible promotional campaign in years.
Sources: McDonald's on X, McDonalds.com, Reddit, WcDonalds.com
