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 Designers of Nissan Motor's GT-R supercar, for example, borrowed
from the popular "Gundam" sci-fi anime franchise to give the
pug-nosed $100,000 model a mechanical, robot-like appearance, with a
squared off rear and round tail lamps.
"Take a look at the car's window and roof line. It doesn't flow
smoothly from front to rear, it's bent. We wanted to express the
awkward but cool, powerful shape of the Japanese anime robot,"
global design chief Shiro Nakamura told Reuters.
"We wanted to set us apart from Porsche, Ferrari and other supercars,
which are designed to mimic the streamlined beauty of a hunting
animal, like a jaguar."
Nakamura, who has also designed for General Motors and Isuzu Motors,
wants Japanese cultural aesthetics to help Nissan cars stand out
from the crowd, noting that "globally, cars from the mainstream
brands have started to look more and more alike."
"We stress Japan because we're a Japanese brand," he added. "Unless
you derive design and styling from your own cultural DNA, there's no
chance for continuity, and you lack confidence."
Nissan and others hope that efforts such as these can help them
differentiate in a market where so many of today's cars are
difficult to tell apart.
"Efficiencies of mass production, economies of scale, brand
globalization, a risk-averse corporate culture, a car's ergonomics,
and infrastructure and regulatory constraints all play into this
phenomenon," said Richard Kong, managing partner at Montaag, a
California-based design firm, who was previously a chief designer at
Ford's Lincoln brand and also worked at BMW's design subsidiary.
PIKACHU TO MONKEY D LUFFY
Others, too, are searching for that J-factor.
At Toyota Motor, the front grille and angled LED headlamps on the
latest version of the hybrid Prius C are said to make the hatchback
look a little like Pikachu, the tough but cuddly hero of "Pokemon",
another popular, long-running Japanese anime series.
However, Toyota's global design chief Tokuo Fukuichi said the
resemblance was not necessarily intended, and was more to do with
engineers' efforts to improve the car's aerodynamics.
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For Toyota, and especially its premium Lexus brand, the J-factor is
more in the car's functionality than its styling, Fukuichi said:
"the way the doors open and shut and how knobs and switches and the
steering wheel feel when you touch them."
"Ahead of how the car looks we try to put the importance of
visibility to reduce blind spots, for example. We stress the
craftsmanship. That's our DNA and J-factor," he said, referencing a
national culture where a bullet train stops at the platform within
just 10 cms of where it should, and the conductor apologizes if the
train is 30 seconds late.
At Nissan, Nakamura has experimented with a modern interpretation of
Japanese pop culture's affinity for cuteness.
He says he has been told that the Nissan Juke, a mini-SUV, looks not
unlike Monkey D. Luffy, a piratical lead character with a large grin
in Japanese anime "One Piece". He says he has no issues with this,
though any likeness was unintended.
"That ... cutesiness is also Japanese pop culture DNA (that) we try
to convey in some of our cars while keeping them modern," Nakamura
said, referencing also the Cube microvan, which is boxy and squat
but has a modern look and an asymmetrical wraparound rear window.
"Symmetry is a Western concept," he said. "Japanese are more
comfortable with imbalance."
(Reporting by Norihiko Shirouzu and Naomi Tajitsu; Editing by Ian
Geoghegan)
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