UQ mobile | 紀香の誕生日 | 2017
Now That's a Move I Didn't See Coming / UQ mobile "Norika's Birthday"
The moment Norika showed up on screen, I went "huh?"—and then about two seconds later it hit me with a full "whoa!" I'd been watching the UQ Three Sisters series because I love Mikako Tabe, so having Fujiwara Norika suddenly turn up was a real shock. This feels like one of those ideas that must have felt amazing the second someone thought of it.
The insight
This really feels like a proper piece of creative thinking. The wordplay runs from "Norika" to "Norika-kaeru" (which sounds like both "Norika turns into a frog" and norikaeru, meaning "to switch providers")—and instead of leaving it as just a pun, they had the courage and the nerve to actually cast the real Fujiwara Norika for it. The UQ Three Sisters series has built up brand recognition with its quirky, almost still-image style of direction, but the guest episodes always bring the extra fun of wondering who's going to show up next.
The idea
It's part of the web-only commercial series "UQ Train," where the UQ Three Sisters play train conductors solving passengers' problems. Fujiwara Norika appears as a guest passenger coming to them with a phone-related worry. They took what's basically a dad joke—pairing a frog visual with the sound of "Norika"—and turned it into a full-on video without any hesitation.
Afterthought
Near the very end, there's a shot of Norika with Mei Nagano standing to her left—that one's especially good. It just feels great to watch, and the contrast between "stillness and motion" running through this whole series is addictive every time. I want to applaud both the spark of inspiration behind this idea and the sheer drive it took to actually make it happen.
