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Japanese VTuber Usada Pekora’s new plum wine has a label drawn by Madoka’s character designer

Katy Kelly Nov 27, 2020
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Otaku across the generations can appreciate this plum wine, sourced from hundred-year-old plum trees!

Umeshu, or plum wine, is a delicious alcoholic beverage enjoyed throughout Japan. Tart and with a sweet, almost floral aftertaste, umeshu is so well-loved that it’s even lent its flavor profile to KitKat candy bars. It’s also a popular item for collaborations; it’s not unusual to find bottles of specialty umeshu plastered in anime character art.

The latest character to get her own special brand of umeshu is a unique sort, namely in that she doesn’t take a leading role in any anime series or videogames. This anime character is Usada Pekora, one of the virtual YouTubers in Hololive’s stable. With her chunky pastel braids, big bouncy bunny ears, and her adorable squeaky voice, Pekora has stolen the hearts of otaku all over the world simply by uploading footage of herself playing videogames, singing, or just responding to viewers’ messages.

▼ Pekora is a third-generation Hololive VTuber and has over 956,000 subscribers at the time of writing.

Alcohol manufacturer Meiri Shurui produces its own brand of umeshu known as Hyakunen Umeshu, or hundred-year plum wine. Named for the hundred-year-old plum trees which grow the plums used to make the wine, Hyakunen Umeshu has been crowned the number one umeshu in the entire world for its smooth, sweet flavor. Since Pekora has a sugary sweet image of her own, she makes a perfect spokesbunny to tempt you into pouring a glass.

▼ Her favorite food is carrots…is her favorite drink umeshu?

There’s another special aspect to the collaborative umeshu bottle. Rather than ask Pekora’s original character designer, Yuuki Hagure, to contribute a design for the bottle’s label, Meiri Shurui asked Ume Aoki to present her take on the character. Not only does Ume Aoki’s first name, Ume, mean “plum”, but she’s something of a celebrity amongst otaku. Well-versed anime fanatics will recognize her distinctive style from the character designs for Puella Magi Madoka Magica and Hidamari Sketch!

▼ Pekora looks picture perfect on the front of the packaging.

A single bottle of Hyakunen Umeshu (Pekora ver.) contains 500 milliliters (16.9 fluid pounces) of plum wine and costs 3,500 yen (US$33.54) including tax.

Fans of the leporine livestreamer, umeshu connossieurs, or even just appreciators of Ume Aoki’s artwork will want to grab a bottle for themselves…but will have to pray that the company restocks, as the initial run sold out almost immediately. Rest assured, though, that there’ll be plenty of other fun alcoholic beverages to distract you if Pekora’s Hyakunen Umeshu is sold out for good.

Related: Meiri Shurui – Hyakunen Umeshu Pekora ver.
Source, images: PR Times
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