Sega’s 60th anniversary website fully launched today along with the introduction of its ambassador character “Sega Shiro”. The company recently teased something involving Sega Saturn mascot Segata Sanshiro but it was, in fact, Sega Shiro, portrayed by Segata Sanshiro actor Hiroshi Fujioka’s eldest son Maito Fujioka.
Segata Sanshiro was a martial artist mascot who commanded people to play Sega Saturn in various ads for Sega. His catchphrase “Sega Saturn shiro!” means “Play Sega Saturn!” and it also sounded like his name in Japanese, so he made for an overall fun and memorable mascot. Sega continues the punny tradition with the introduction of its 60th anniversary ambassador “Sega Shiro”.
The name is based on his father’s catchphrase, but unlike Segata Sanshiro’s aggressive approach to getting people to play the Sega Saturn, the son is here to have people learn about Sega. Instead of commanding people to play Sega, he goes around telling people about Sega.
Here’s a new video to introduce the ambassador:
The video shows different people talking about what’s the next big thing before getting interrupted by Sega Shiro saying “Sega dayo!” meaning “It’s Sega”. When asked by a student “So what comes after Sega?” he replies “Sega dayo!”. Finally, a classmate asks “What’s Sega and who are you?” which prompts him to bust out with his special theme song.
They also threw in an extra pun for the last “Sega shiro” by using characters for “shiro” (“知ろう”) which means “let’s learn”. His theme song is essentially “Let’s learn about Sega!”. So far he hasn’t taught anything about Sega, but we’ll probably learn more soon as we approach the company’s 60th anniversary.
Sega was first founded on June 3, 1960.
