Reporting on TOYOTA X STUDIO4C's "PES (Peace Eco Smile)" at Anime Festival Asia 2012 Exhibition

TOKYO--Nov. 11, 2012: Toyota Motor Sales & Marketing Corporation (TMSM) is currently exhibiting "PES (Peace Eco Smile)," an animation made in collaboration with STUDIO4C, at the Anime Festival Asia (AFA) 2012 in Singapore. It aims to enhance the Japanese content industry by proactively supporting younger designers and artists, and introducing them to the rest of the world. This exhibition is also being supported by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry as a part of the Cool Japan Strategy Promotion Program.

Launched in 2008, AFA is a large-scale Japanese pop culture event for Southeast Asia. Every year it attracts crowds of fans, with 2011's festival visitors setting a new record of over 80,000. This was also the first foray for PES in Southeast Asia and visitors passing our booth were stopped in their tracks by the charming anime. The appearance of the mascot character Su in the venue generated great excitement as well.

The exhibits also feature the iPhone app Backseat Driver, the first project for ToyToyota and made in collaboration with creative unit PARTY to bring fun to car mobility, as well as 86 World Report (created by DNP + Jetman), an app which lets a Toyota 86 car appear in photographs take with your phone. Visitors to AFA hugely enjoyed the sense of realism the app provided.

ToyToyota Project: PES Concept
Human evolution is represented by the history of mobility. Cars bring our mobility to life, but yet all too often, everyone talks about the complicated technological aspects of automobiles rather than just the sheer joy of mobility. TOYOTA has discovered the "TOY" in its corporate name as the origin of this lively and cheerful joy.

As one of the ToyToyota projects aimed at spreading the joy of mobility, TOYOTA and STUDIO4C, a leading Japanese animation studio, have together created an anime series, PES, following a curious alien who explores the joy of driving and the importance of safety.