Thank you so much for watching! If you enjoyed the documentary and would like to help the channel grow, consider becoming a member on Patreon! The bigger we grow the community, the more time I will be able to dedicate to the channel and push out new content quicker! Here's the link: patreon.com/devnul
Dude you are a freaking madlad, this has so much important information I've never knew about pepsiman, this is insane, thank you for making this amazing research!
Heh. I worked on Pepsiman at ILMCP. When it was decided to stop producing the commercials, representatives of Onuki came to ILM to plead with the company to keep doing them. It was a half-hour discussion, but it boiled down to them saying "Please don't stop" and the president of ILM saying "We're no longer interested" over and over and over again. They were clearly frightened of having to tell Onukisan we were passing on future commercial projects.
ILMCP was in demand to create the best commercial spots in the world back then. I remember the marketing team from one big name product manufacturer was such a pain to deal with, the ILM execs essentially fired them as a client. Would have been a beautiful spot, but was not worth the aggravation, and my hats off to ILM for realizing life is too short to deal with such poor behavior.
I partly grew up in Japan so Pepsiman was always around as a kid. I loved the commercials and had a few of the bottle caps. I was surprised to hear that in the States the video game was so popular and that anyone else had interest in this. Seeing Pepsiman fills me with a lot of nostalgic joy. We had so many of the caps around my obachan's home which is now gone. Thanks for this
Honestly didn’t know Pepsiman Twist was considered his own character, and the Pepsiwoman in Dead or Alive idea is brilliant lol! That and Pepsiman in Virtua Fighter would be great marketing!
There was a gaming store near my home in Peru run by someone who frequently visited Japan, so it had a lot of JP game imports; as well as a handful of classic anime and gaming merchandise. But something that kept catching my attention were a lot of those Pepsiman bottle caps which were sold in batches. It was unreal seeing those in person honestly. If I wasn’t so tight on money back then I could’ve bought a handful of them. Hopefully the store reopens again soon (it became online-only post quarantine) so that I could see them again. Sadly I didn’t see any copies of the PS1 game. Though if any ever came to the store, there were most likely already sold. Anyway, loved the video, it was a blast to watch. Didn’t know the ads aired in LATAM because I have no memory of ever seeing them. (Likely was around 5yo at the early 00s)
Thanks for this. My grandfather was one of the earliest workers for Pepsi in Canada, and unfortunately a lot of my life was drinking the Pepsi family of drinks all day and wearing free Pepsi jackets, hats, and scarves. My childhood was basically being a Pepsi slogan all day because my family was too poor to afford clothes and we had to take any hand-me-downs we could get. I know a lot of Pepsi's secrets, but I was always curious about Pepsiman's origins yet I could never find out anything about it even though I was the biggest Pepsi guy in the 2000's. I guess it was because it was made by their Japanese branch, and my grandfather was more into the manufacturing and not corporate side of things.
You’re so welcome! I’m glad you enjoyed the documentary, and I really appreciated hearing your story! I wonder what Pepsi secrets you could share? I’m always on the lookout for ideas for new content
In the part of the world where I grew up, Pepsiman was super popular, almost on par with Crash Bandicoot, which is no joke. I think what made it that way was due to piracy back then, since video games were (and still are, to a certain extent) very expensive. I was super surprised that people didn't know about the character until later on! This review was fantastic, and super insightful into a character that I remembered playing on some Playstation emulator on my cousin's laptop.
That’s so cool! If you don’t mind my asking, what part of the world did you grow up in? That’s so interesting to hear that Pepsiman was as iconic a video game mascot as Crash Bandicoot!
@@Devnul I used to live back in the Middle East, his popularity was honestly no joke! The crazier part was that if you asked people back then about who Mario was, they wouldn't even recognize him.
Those two were my childhood! I'm from South America and I also believe that piracy of PS1 games contributed to the popularity of them. Like there's no other way in which a videogame like Pepsiman would have arrived to Bolivia in original copies.
That the bent or misshaped the cans at the end, based on how pepsiman got stuck, or as we learn the other way around, is actually rather hillarious and genious.
It's incredible that you don't have at least 1M views: amazing edition, well scripted and even exclusive info and interviews It was like watching a movie, simply amazing
I remember being a kid and finding out about Pepsiman some time around 2012. I remembered thinking he was so fascinating and wanted to find out more about him. My search didn't go far, I found out about the video game and it's Japanese origin and left it at that. I'm so glad that a full decade later that curiosity has finally been satisfied.
If nothing else, I’m glad that I made this documentary so that you could find out all the info that you’d be searching for. It’s very nice to hear! Thanks for watching
Dude, Thank You, I love you, Pepsiman is my favourite comic(al) character of all time, I’ve dug up Reddit through Twitter, searching for every bit of information about him. This alone would make this video magnificent by default, but the fact, that you uploaded the videos in HD, which I used to watch endlessly in potato quality is by far one of the best things happening to me this dastardly year. Thank You🙏
this was an incredible documentary, and its on one of my favorite obscure topics as well! your channel really deserves more hype, the effort put into this is really admirable and I'm so glad this exists to uncover and preserve the history of pepsiman. Looking forward to future videos!
This is consistanly one of the most wonderfully assembled youtube Docs I have seen. You did an amazing job showing the craftsmanship, whimsy and pepsi that went into making that icon!
Extra Clarification : The Mirindaman thing seems to be a sort of Red Herring. AFAIK, Mirindaman never was shown in any ads here in the Philippines, same thing at those Mirinda cans with a recolored Pepsiman on there. However, also not a single Pepsiman ad was also shown in the Philippines as well. Also Mirinda was also bought by Pepsi in the 2000's. So my hunch is that Mirindaman is a sort of things thats either a hoax, or it was only for very specific countries.
I love this docu series you did, and all the other ones you did as well. This ESPECIALLY is awesome because I love Pepsiman and I've always been a fan of his. You uploading all the ads (including the "lost" ones) in HD and putting out this amazing documentary discussing EVERYTHING about the character is just the icing on the cake. I showed this to my friend and he loved it too! I dunno if you do requests, but I'd love to see you cover Segata Sanshiro, the commercial mascot of Sega Saturn in the 90s. I feel covering him would bring a lot of attention to your channel, due to how popular the character still is. Would love to see your channel explode in popularity, because for a man of your talent to have less than 5K subs is criminal!
Thank you so much for your kind words! I’m very happy you enjoy the content, and there’s plenty more where that came from! Segata Sanshiro sounds very interesting, I’ll add that topic to my list! I have a big backlog of topics I’d like to cover, but that does sound like a great one. I love discovering the back story of commercial mascots, and the weirder the better haha
It is one of my favorite commercials that I often watch as a child. The game is second-hand and still sells for close to $100 at auctions and game shops
My God this is in depth. The interviews and translated excerpts REALLY put this over the edge of amazingly high-effort. Ended up being a super fascinating look into the world of advertising and film production and VFX
Thank you! I agree, I started off trying to make a simple video about Pepsiman and the more I discovered, the more I realized that this project has to be the ultimate Pepsiman documentary. I figured, If I’m not gonna do it, I don’t know who else will 🤷🏻♀️
Hi Devnul! Just wanted to thank you for this excellent documentary and deep dive into Pepsiman. I made a short game jam game featuring Pepsiman as a character, and this documentary was unironically super helpful in nailing the character. Without it, I wouldn't have been able to write him nearly as well. It was just a short engine test, but I figured I'd thank you in the comments here, too. Also - I made sure to add this documentary and your channel to the "Special Thanks" part of the credits, too - I cannot understate how wonderful this was! Have a lovely weekend!
first time ever to leave my comments on youtube. Great documentary~~as work in the commercial business, Pepsiman campaign is legend! Enjoyable to watch~~
I learned far more than I expected, but am very pleasantly surprised. I found out about Pepsiman when the game started to become (in)famous on the internet and found the concept itself quite interesting... and I will admit I noticed the products more afterwards. Oh, and 19:16 is my new dynamic background for teleconferences. I'm not even kidding.
It seems that it was broadcast not only in Japan but also in South Korea, I heard that the version where the graveyard appears is limited to South Korea.
Fascinating! Yeah, that spooky Halloween themed Pepsiman commercial was a mystery to me, because it seems neither ILM nor The Orphanage worked on it. Makes sense that it was a South Korea exclusive
I grew up in South Korea and I can confirm that they were aired in Korea as well. In fact, Pepsiman was so successful and popular, basically every kid at my school was running around in the hallways doing “shwaaaaaa” 😂
Omg could you imagine lewd Pepsiwoman figurines lining a shelf with other anime figures? Lol 😂 sadly I’ve actually never seen ANY Pepsiwoman merch before! I wonder if it exists
A great documentary on such an odd but fun character. Great interviews with the minds behind it and I loved the excerpts used from the book. Plus getting quality versions on the commercials is a nice bonus as well.
Also,i think i figured out what they meant with the "Now it's Pepsi!" thing in those commercials and the PS1 game. I think that means "First it was Coke, and now it's Pepsi!" As for the "Fuct" thing, i can't figure out. Maybe it has something to do with the words Action Figure and how japanese people make new words out of the half of 2 english words.
In terms of “Now It’s Pepsi!”, your theory definitely makes sense. I know Takuya Onuki wrote elsewhere in his book that “Now Pepsi” was inspired by the English phrase “Now Playing” that you’d see at movie theaters. Not sure if there was much more behind that, other than it sounded like a cool English phrase, since Pepsiman was supposed to be an “American” superhero lol. Great theory about where “Fuct” came from too. I wonder what words it might be mashing up?
I just watched a guy spent an hour talking about Pepsi and I lost it after I found out one if the commercials were shot in Fremont a town I lived in as a kid.
Pepsi was already the sponsor of Fighting Vipers (alongside a few other games) in the arcades, so the appearance of Pepsiman was a nod to that. The deal with Sega was tied to their arcade centers, which is probably why it only applied to Japan.
Wow! Fascinating, I never knew that. Makes total sense though. It was very difficult to find info on Pepsimans relationship to arcades. How did you find this info? I’m guessing you are very familiar with Sega’s Japanese arcades
@@Devnul Well I am old enough to know that era of Sega and their arcade games quite well, sadly… Pepsi was sponsoring one of the characters (Picky), with billboards in his stage and a cool Pepsi logo on the back of his skateboard. They also sponsored fighting game tournaments that year (while Kirin sponsored racing games). Not entire sure but my understanding is Pepsiman commercials were introduced on television in between the arcade release and the Saturn version, hence his introduction in the Saturn version. As part of the marketing deal with Pepsi, Sega and Atlus also had special "purikura" (print club) collaborations with Pepsiman in Sega’s arcade centers during the year 1996. Some booths allowed you to add Pepsiman in your photos etc. You can still randomly find some sticker catalogues from that era on Japanese auction sites from time to time. I did not live in Japan back then so I discovered the existence of Pepsiman through the home port of Fighting Vipers and, to be honest, I am still in a bit of a shock and denial about the whole "Pepsiman is much more well known for the crappy PS1 game than Fighting Vipers" revelation from this video haha.
@@chazmaru9583 wow that is fantastic, thank you so much for this info!! I wish I knew this stuff earlier so I could’ve included it in the video! I really attempted to cover all my bases, but with so much vague or straight up false info about Pepsiman circulating on the English-speaking internet, it was a lot to unpack. Though I can say pretty confidently, at least for the general audience in the United States, most people know Pepsiman from the “crappy PS1 game” lol
@@Devnul No big deal, it does not change the gist of your video (expect the part that bruises old Sega fans’ feelings). My bad, the FV character who had a Pepsi skateboard on his back was named Picky.
Just watched this after rewatching the HD commercials you uploaded recently. This history is very good. I didn’t know about the arcade game until I watched this.
@@Devnul Yeah. I had to do some heavy digging too. After I watched the AVGN Pepsiman episode, I wanted to learn more about it. I also thought it was cool to see Mike Butters reprise his role in that video
Mr. Devnul, Hello and "Schwaaah!" from a mere three years later in 2024. I am a longtime Pepsiman fan, and on a very strange quest of sorts. I am a major fan of the UA-cam web series Death Battle, a fictional series that takes characters from media and analyzes them both using real world science and math to find out which one could win in a fight to the death. I am going to be presenting a matchup to the creators Ben and Chad that involves Pepsiman (if you're really curious, his opponent in my presentation is the superhero Squirrel Girl from Marvel Comics), and in doing so I have been heavily scouring the Internet for more information and official media on this wonderful character. This documentary has been nothing short of fascinating and invaluable in learning about this character's history and everything I had never learned before about him. I will be referencing this video when I present it, and I needed to extend my utmost thanks to you for this absolutely phenomenal production of Pepsiman. P.S. I have no relation to Paul Hill, Paul Rodriguez, or Mike Butters' Paul character. It seems that something about the "P" word really draws in a lot of Pauls!
I still remember the Pepsiman commercials in Japan.The commercials were very funny with pretty strong impact. In the late 1990s I was entering the 20s.Thanks for showing up the history of Pepsiman.
I've seen these commercials ever since they played on American broadcast tv some of them have there own version for Japanese broadcast television and some for American broadcast television, and from I remembered Pepsi women has been exclusive to Japan, and some of the merchandise also made it way to American too.
Nice video! I'm from Peru and while I was growing up in the early 2000s, pirated PS1 games were easy to find in local markets, and the pepsiman game was pretty common there.
You joke about their obscurity, but KID developed the legendary visual novel Ever17, which kickstarted the career of Zero Escape writer Kotaro Uchikoshi - and he got his start making 3D models for the Pepsiman game.
Pepsiman, Segata Sanshiro and Mac Tonight Will be renembered as the best era of their brands. This vídeo is so good! You managed to find every single piece of Lost media about this rare but funny mascot! And You got My subscription for that. I'm looking foward to ser your next vídeos!
I'm so glad you uploaded this I'm a big fan of Pepsiman and was curious to know his origins, background etc. He's such a unique product mascot with so much personality! I really enjoyed the commercials. I really hope to get one of the bottle caps one day, they look so awesome! Props to everyone who worked and helped with this video and the creator of Pepsiman Takuya Onuki for giving us this awesome Superhero!
Thank you for this thoughtful comment! I appreciate it!! If you’re in the market for Pepsiman bottle caps, I’d recommend checking out Sendico. I’m pretty sure I saw a few on there while I was researching this video!
Thank you for making this awesome video, really bringing me new knowledge about myself. Quite surprise you didnt bring mike butters (TV guy in pepsiman game) but i really appreciate that you brought these awesome people who help creating the advertisement for their insight which is very interesting and cool. Been a fan since a kid for the character that i come up with this name, though unfortunately they didnt extend pepsi contract in my country, so no pepsi here. Also, thank you for uploading Pepsiman ads in HD, been looking for them.
I actually asked Mike Butters for an interview, but he wanted to get paid a stipend and I did not have much money at all to make this. Cant blame the man though, he’s a professional who wanted to be compensated for his time. Everyone else who appears in this doc volunteered.
Pepsiman was relatively popular in Brazil in the early 00's between gamers, thanks to rampant piracy at the time, haha. Thanks for this amazing documentary, it's really well made and interesting!
Thank you for this incredible investigative piece. 100% knew I was subscribing on Patreon as soon as I heard you mention you had one. Can’t wait to dive into the Book of Pepsi translation and other goodies 😀
Really great content! I went from thinking that Pepsiman was just some weird ad from Japan to really seeing what Onukisan saw in him, but I learnt so much about not just Pepsiman, but advertising as well. Awesome video!
I love how at the end of each commercial, the can is deformed in a way that matches Pepsi Man's bodily injuries: Pepsi Man fails to jump through a window so the top is crumpled, Pepsi Man gets sprayed in the face by a kid with a water gun so the can's covered in condensation, He flattens his face on a window pane so half the can is flattened, etcetera. That's hilarious.
What an awesome documentary! Thanks for so much effort in contacting people involved in creating those commercials. I seem to have missed the bit on how exactly you got the high quality versions of the commercials, or you forgot to mention it in your documentary? Thanks again! Also some trivia. The American guy from the FMV's of Pepsiman game recently appeared in the AVGN episode where he reviews the Pepsiman game. I was quite surprised!
I do remember Pepsiman from my childhood, it was one of those pirated games that came in other languages that as a we didn't knew. In LATAM is a complete hit that everyone that had a PSX knew about.
im glad you addressed the quality. you litterally had me thinking that i just experienced the mandela affect looking at how high quality the videos were coming out. you gotta give a warning before you break to timeloop man
My man. Ever since I heard of pepsiman I fell in love lol. I’d really like to bring pepsiman back. Pepsi at least acknowledged him on Twitter, so there’s hope. I should start a discord for pepsiman history…
Wow! I thought I'd check your channel out after your comment you left on my video and after only 10 minutes in, I'm blown away! Such an incredible amount of research here, you are certainly going far on youtube my friend!
The interview with Paul is fantastic. I only learned about pepsiman recently, but those commercials are amazing works of absurd pop art. Onuki is kindof a genius.
My favorite bit of weird Pepsiman trivia is the PS1 game is the first game dev credit for Kotaro Uchikoshi, who went on to become known for his cult classic mind-screwy adventure games and visual novels.
That is super interesting! Thank you for the info! I’m considering someday making a follow-up video about Pepsiman with all the weird things I’ve learned about him since I made this vid lol
This is the video I never knew I needed for all the things I never knew I didn't know about Pepsiman! (Also, this may be a bit far-fetched, but is there any chance you have the original 3d model for Pepsiman or would know where to find it? It would be incredibly cool to be able to use an accurate one rather than a close copy for fan projects!)
If they made more Pepsiman characters here's how I think they'd do them. If they made one for Pepsi MAX (or "Pepsi Zero Sugar" now), I think it would look like normal Pepsiman but to represent the MAX can which is black, he would wear cool guy sunglasses and a black leather jacket. For cherry flavored Pepsi, I'd imagine it look like Pepsiwoman (thickness and all) only instead of the yellow mask she and Pepsiman Twist wore, she'd wear some red clothing to represent the cherry flavoring. Anyway, these are just a few examples of how I think some other characters would look. What do you guys think, and what other Pepsiman related characters would you come up with?
The dancing baby (Baby Cha Cha) was actually a tech demo for Character Studio, a character rigging and animation module inside 3Ds Max R2.0 back in the 90´s. Search for 3Ds max Baby cha cha. There you can see better rendering and motion capture tests too.
@@Devnul Yeah, and they not even bothered to LookDev it to match the real backplate. Also, if you wanna to see an ogre, a couple of velociraptors and more doing the same dance search for "3D Studio Max Character Studio Demo". Great Pepsiman documentary there. Best.
Thank you so much for watching! If you enjoyed the documentary and would like to help the channel grow, consider becoming a member on Patreon! The bigger we grow the community, the more time I will be able to dedicate to the channel and push out new content quicker! Here's the link: patreon.com/devnul
The Gameboy Advance intro hooked me
Who's the redhead in the Pepsi commercial?..lol Cool documentary too. Thanks.
I approve of this video
Just discovered Pepsi Man, Amazing work on this documentary. 🌜
😮😅 4:43
Dude you are a freaking madlad, this has so much important information I've never knew about pepsiman, this is insane, thank you for making this amazing research!
Thank you so much for your kind words! I plan on doing more deep dives like this in the future, so stay tuned 😎
@@Devnul pepsiman has a level editer
@@baxterbunny4403 editer lol
@@Devnul Any chances of Decensoring the HD version of the Commercial with the “Coke” branding? (it’s obviously not Coke branding).
Heh. I worked on Pepsiman at ILMCP. When it was decided to stop producing the commercials, representatives of Onuki came to ILM to plead with the company to keep doing them. It was a half-hour discussion, but it boiled down to them saying "Please don't stop" and the president of ILM saying "We're no longer interested" over and over and over again. They were clearly frightened of having to tell Onukisan we were passing on future commercial projects.
I honestly don’t blame Onuki for wanting more, you guys really did do some great ads that have truly stood the test of time.
I know this is a random question, but do you know where the burger commercial was filmed? The one with the arby's in the one shot?
@@Meepok1 I believe it was in Hollywood. I want say on Highland Blvd, but I could be wrong.
ILMCP was in demand to create the best commercial spots in the world back then. I remember the marketing team from one big name product manufacturer was such a pain to deal with, the ILM execs essentially fired them as a client. Would have been a beautiful spot, but was not worth the aggravation, and my hats off to ILM for realizing life is too short to deal with such poor behavior.
@@Meepok1 5926 Sunset Blvd.
I can definitely say; Bring back Pepsiman, and business is *_BOOMING._*
PEPSI MAN
@@Goofyballs093 whats up
@@JaimeDuendeDeGongora HOLY PEPSIIII MANNNNNN MY FAVORITEEEEEEEE
PEPSI.
You could say it's, Pepsi
I partly grew up in Japan so Pepsiman was always around as a kid. I loved the commercials and had a few of the bottle caps. I was surprised to hear that in the States the video game was so popular and that anyone else had interest in this. Seeing Pepsiman fills me with a lot of nostalgic joy. We had so many of the caps around my obachan's home which is now gone. Thanks for this
Honestly didn’t know Pepsiman Twist was considered his own character, and the Pepsiwoman in Dead or Alive idea is brilliant lol! That and Pepsiman in Virtua Fighter would be great marketing!
When I woke up this morning I wasn't expecting to watch an hour and ten minutes of Pepsiman content but I'm so glad I did
You are now one of the nation’s leading Pepsiman scholars. Truly something to be proud of!
@@Devnul LETS GOOOOOO
Bro you are a criminally underrated UA-camr. I really hope this gives you the big algorithm push you deserve.
YO thank you 🙏 that means a lot. I hope so too! I am at the will of the almighty Algorithm lol
this video is extremely underrated, i didn't know there was anybody else that cares this much about pepsiman but i'm glad there is
I care a lot about many niche subjects lol. I am planning on doing more deep dives like this in the future
55:40 That censored Coke Cola truck is amazing 😂
It actually cave pizza not coca cola
@@fybthe1987 no it's coke-a-cola they just changed it later on to not get sued by coke-a-cola since it's clearly a jab at them.
This documentary was honestly better than I was expecting it to be. Really interesting history. Great job.
Thank you kindly! Glad it was a pleasant surprise ☺️
There was a gaming store near my home in Peru run by someone who frequently visited Japan, so it had a lot of JP game imports; as well as a handful of classic anime and gaming merchandise. But something that kept catching my attention were a lot of those Pepsiman bottle caps which were sold in batches. It was unreal seeing those in person honestly. If I wasn’t so tight on money back then I could’ve bought a handful of them. Hopefully the store reopens again soon (it became online-only post quarantine) so that I could see them again. Sadly I didn’t see any copies of the PS1 game. Though if any ever came to the store, there were most likely already sold. Anyway, loved the video, it was a blast to watch. Didn’t know the ads aired in LATAM because I have no memory of ever seeing them. (Likely was around 5yo at the early 00s)
Thank you for this awesome, thoughtful comment! I envy you seeing a bunch of Pepsiman bottle caps in a store, that’s quite an experience haha
This is the best Pepsiman video I've ever seen
My older sister had a friend in 2000 who burnt her a copy the pepsiman game. It’s always felt like endless runners were inspired by it
Thanks for this. My grandfather was one of the earliest workers for Pepsi in Canada, and unfortunately a lot of my life was drinking the Pepsi family of drinks all day and wearing free Pepsi jackets, hats, and scarves. My childhood was basically being a Pepsi slogan all day because my family was too poor to afford clothes and we had to take any hand-me-downs we could get. I know a lot of Pepsi's secrets, but I was always curious about Pepsiman's origins yet I could never find out anything about it even though I was the biggest Pepsi guy in the 2000's. I guess it was because it was made by their Japanese branch, and my grandfather was more into the manufacturing and not corporate side of things.
You’re so welcome! I’m glad you enjoyed the documentary, and I really appreciated hearing your story! I wonder what Pepsi secrets you could share? I’m always on the lookout for ideas for new content
broke: Lady Dimitrescu
woke: PEPSIWOMAN
Her anatomical details are paramount in precision
Yessir, bring back Pepsiwoman
Absolute shame she only got one commercial.
Fuck pepsiwoman. What about pepsiman?
In the part of the world where I grew up, Pepsiman was super popular, almost on par with Crash Bandicoot, which is no joke. I think what made it that way was due to piracy back then, since video games were (and still are, to a certain extent) very expensive. I was super surprised that people didn't know about the character until later on!
This review was fantastic, and super insightful into a character that I remembered playing on some Playstation emulator on my cousin's laptop.
That’s so cool! If you don’t mind my asking, what part of the world did you grow up in? That’s so interesting to hear that Pepsiman was as iconic a video game mascot as Crash Bandicoot!
@@Devnul I used to live back in the Middle East, his popularity was honestly no joke! The crazier part was that if you asked people back then about who Mario was, they wouldn't even recognize him.
Those two were my childhood! I'm from South America and I also believe that piracy of PS1 games contributed to the popularity of them. Like there's no other way in which a videogame like Pepsiman would have arrived to Bolivia in original copies.
That the bent or misshaped the cans at the end, based on how pepsiman got stuck, or as we learn the other way around, is actually rather hillarious and genious.
That’s the brilliant kind of Takuya Onuki! Thank you so much for watching!
It's incredible that you don't have at least 1M views: amazing edition, well scripted and even exclusive info and interviews
It was like watching a movie, simply amazing
Thank you SO much Facu, that’s certainly high praise!! If you’d like to help the channel grow, just share this video around and spread the word!
I remember being a kid and finding out about Pepsiman some time around 2012. I remembered thinking he was so fascinating and wanted to find out more about him. My search didn't go far, I found out about the video game and it's Japanese origin and left it at that. I'm so glad that a full decade later that curiosity has finally been satisfied.
If nothing else, I’m glad that I made this documentary so that you could find out all the info that you’d be searching for. It’s very nice to hear! Thanks for watching
This video is masterfully researched. I've been a fan of the character since 2010 and I had no idea of how much I did not know about it. Great work!
Thank you so much! ☺️
Dude, Thank You, I love you, Pepsiman is my favourite comic(al) character of all time, I’ve dug up Reddit through Twitter, searching for every bit of information about him. This alone would make this video magnificent by default, but the fact, that you uploaded the videos in HD, which I used to watch endlessly in potato quality is by far one of the best things happening to me this dastardly year. Thank You🙏
You’re very welcome Tren, I’m happy I could brighten your dark and dastardly year with the power of Pepsiman :)
this was an incredible documentary, and its on one of my favorite obscure topics as well! your channel really deserves more hype, the effort put into this is really admirable and I'm so glad this exists to uncover and preserve the history of pepsiman. Looking forward to future videos!
Thank you so much for the kind words 🙏 I got lots more content coming your way!
This is consistanly one of the most wonderfully assembled youtube Docs I have seen. You did an amazing job showing the craftsmanship, whimsy and pepsi that went into making that icon!
Extra Clarification : The Mirindaman thing seems to be a sort of Red Herring. AFAIK, Mirindaman never was shown in any ads here in the Philippines, same thing at those Mirinda cans with a recolored Pepsiman on there. However, also not a single Pepsiman ad was also shown in the Philippines as well. Also Mirinda was also bought by Pepsi in the 2000's. So my hunch is that Mirindaman is a sort of things thats either a hoax, or it was only for very specific countries.
That’s fascinating, thanks for that insight into Mirindaman! It was really hard to find any info on that topic in particular
I love this docu series you did, and all the other ones you did as well. This ESPECIALLY is awesome because I love Pepsiman and I've always been a fan of his. You uploading all the ads (including the "lost" ones) in HD and putting out this amazing documentary discussing EVERYTHING about the character is just the icing on the cake. I showed this to my friend and he loved it too!
I dunno if you do requests, but I'd love to see you cover Segata Sanshiro, the commercial mascot of Sega Saturn in the 90s. I feel covering him would bring a lot of attention to your channel, due to how popular the character still is. Would love to see your channel explode in popularity, because for a man of your talent to have less than 5K subs is criminal!
Thank you so much for your kind words! I’m very happy you enjoy the content, and there’s plenty more where that came from! Segata Sanshiro sounds very interesting, I’ll add that topic to my list! I have a big backlog of topics I’d like to cover, but that does sound like a great one. I love discovering the back story of commercial mascots, and the weirder the better haha
It is one of my favorite commercials that I often watch as a child.
The game is second-hand and still sells for close to $100 at auctions and game shops
My God this is in depth. The interviews and translated excerpts REALLY put this over the edge of amazingly high-effort. Ended up being a super fascinating look into the world of advertising and film production and VFX
Thank you! I agree, I started off trying to make a simple video about Pepsiman and the more I discovered, the more I realized that this project has to be the ultimate Pepsiman documentary. I figured, If I’m not gonna do it, I don’t know who else will 🤷🏻♀️
King grindset
Coke Polar Bear: I am the greatest soda mascot
Pepsi Man: BITCH, PLEASE!!
Then the pepsiman theme starts playing outside the polar bears home
This is insanely high level work and it was super interesting. I ended up learning quite a bit. Very eager to see more from you!
Thank you so much Jonii!! Glad you enjoyed it, I have plenty more content coming your way in the future :)
Hi Jonii!
Hi Devnul! Just wanted to thank you for this excellent documentary and deep dive into Pepsiman. I made a short game jam game featuring Pepsiman as a character, and this documentary was unironically super helpful in nailing the character. Without it, I wouldn't have been able to write him nearly as well.
It was just a short engine test, but I figured I'd thank you in the comments here, too. Also - I made sure to add this documentary and your channel to the "Special Thanks" part of the credits, too - I cannot understate how wonderful this was!
Have a lovely weekend!
I think it's time. The world is ready for PepsiMan to come back.
Anyone else here because of Quinton?
Anyways this is really cool. I had never heard of pepsiman before this video
I'm here for Quinton
Welcome! I hope you enjoy your stay ☺️
first time ever to leave my comments on youtube. Great documentary~~as work in the commercial business, Pepsiman campaign is legend! Enjoyable to watch~~
Thank you so much Ms Lee! It’s an honor for my documentary to be your first UA-cam comment! Thanks for watching
I learned far more than I expected, but am very pleasantly surprised. I found out about Pepsiman when the game started to become (in)famous on the internet and found the concept itself quite interesting... and I will admit I noticed the products more afterwards.
Oh, and 19:16 is my new dynamic background for teleconferences. I'm not even kidding.
Such a detailed documentary on such an obscure topic... This is what makes the internet so great.
Thank you so much! Really appreciate the kind words and support
It seems that it was broadcast not only in Japan but also in South Korea, I heard that the version where the graveyard appears is limited to South Korea.
Fascinating! Yeah, that spooky Halloween themed Pepsiman commercial was a mystery to me, because it seems neither ILM nor The Orphanage worked on it. Makes sense that it was a South Korea exclusive
I grew up in South Korea and I can confirm that they were aired in Korea as well. In fact, Pepsiman was so successful and popular, basically every kid at my school was running around in the hallways doing “shwaaaaaa” 😂
It's just that Japan created Pepsiman and it was broadcast in Korea as well.
I hope Pepsi brings him back someday.
I knowwww
Really wish their was "the fuct of pepsiwoman" action figure
Omg could you imagine lewd Pepsiwoman figurines lining a shelf with other anime figures? Lol 😂 sadly I’ve actually never seen ANY Pepsiwoman merch before! I wonder if it exists
@@Devnul One of the tiny can-pushing toys is Pepsiwoman.
@@Devnul high time we start posting pictures now and we'll see big it'll blow up
A great documentary on such an odd but fun character. Great interviews with the minds behind it and I loved the excerpts used from the book. Plus getting quality versions on the commercials is a nice bonus as well.
Thank you so much for this mini review! It’s always so awesome to hear detailed feedback like this 🙏
came here from quinton and i can already tell this is going to be a great video and channel.
Thank you so much for checking out the channel! I actually just have a new big vid released if you wanna check it out 👀
Fantastic documentary! Here from Quinton Reviews, and I really hope you get the bump you deserve!
Thank you so so much! I sure hope so too 😅 thanks for the kind words!
I listened to this while applying for a job, and it was an interesting experience.
Came from Quinton reviews. Great stuff!
Thanks for watching! I hope you enjoy your stay ☺️
Also,i think i figured out what they meant with the "Now it's Pepsi!" thing in those commercials and the PS1 game. I think that means "First it was Coke, and now it's Pepsi!" As for the "Fuct" thing, i can't figure out. Maybe it has something to do with the words Action Figure and how japanese people make new words out of the half of 2 english words.
In terms of “Now It’s Pepsi!”, your theory definitely makes sense. I know Takuya Onuki wrote elsewhere in his book that “Now Pepsi” was inspired by the English phrase “Now Playing” that you’d see at movie theaters. Not sure if there was much more behind that, other than it sounded like a cool English phrase, since Pepsiman was supposed to be an “American” superhero lol. Great theory about where “Fuct” came from too. I wonder what words it might be mashing up?
I just watched a guy spent an hour talking about Pepsi and I lost it after I found out one if the commercials were shot in Fremont a town I lived in as a kid.
Pepsi was already the sponsor of Fighting Vipers (alongside a few other games) in the arcades, so the appearance of Pepsiman was a nod to that. The deal with Sega was tied to their arcade centers, which is probably why it only applied to Japan.
Wow! Fascinating, I never knew that. Makes total sense though. It was very difficult to find info on Pepsimans relationship to arcades. How did you find this info? I’m guessing you are very familiar with Sega’s Japanese arcades
@@Devnul Well I am old enough to know that era of Sega and their arcade games quite well, sadly… Pepsi was sponsoring one of the characters (Picky), with billboards in his stage and a cool Pepsi logo on the back of his skateboard. They also sponsored fighting game tournaments that year (while Kirin sponsored racing games). Not entire sure but my understanding is Pepsiman commercials were introduced on television in between the arcade release and the Saturn version, hence his introduction in the Saturn version.
As part of the marketing deal with Pepsi, Sega and Atlus also had special "purikura" (print club) collaborations with Pepsiman in Sega’s arcade centers during the year 1996. Some booths allowed you to add Pepsiman in your photos etc. You can still randomly find some sticker catalogues from that era on Japanese auction sites from time to time.
I did not live in Japan back then so I discovered the existence of Pepsiman through the home port of Fighting Vipers and, to be honest, I am still in a bit of a shock and denial about the whole "Pepsiman is much more well known for the crappy PS1 game than Fighting Vipers" revelation from this video haha.
@@chazmaru9583 wow that is fantastic, thank you so much for this info!! I wish I knew this stuff earlier so I could’ve included it in the video! I really attempted to cover all my bases, but with so much vague or straight up false info about Pepsiman circulating on the English-speaking internet, it was a lot to unpack. Though I can say pretty confidently, at least for the general audience in the United States, most people know Pepsiman from the “crappy PS1 game” lol
@@Devnul No big deal, it does not change the gist of your video (expect the part that bruises old Sega fans’ feelings). My bad, the FV character who had a Pepsi skateboard on his back was named Picky.
Just watched this after rewatching the HD commercials you uploaded recently. This history is very good. I didn’t know about the arcade game until I watched this.
I learned so much about Pepsiman while I was researching this documentary! It’s amazing how hidden and obscure some of this info was
@@Devnul Yeah. I had to do some heavy digging too. After I watched the AVGN Pepsiman episode, I wanted to learn more about it. I also thought it was cool to see Mike Butters reprise his role in that video
PepsiMan deserves a revival, complete with a new videogame.
Mr. Devnul,
Hello and "Schwaaah!" from a mere three years later in 2024. I am a longtime Pepsiman fan, and on a very strange quest of sorts. I am a major fan of the UA-cam web series Death Battle, a fictional series that takes characters from media and analyzes them both using real world science and math to find out which one could win in a fight to the death. I am going to be presenting a matchup to the creators Ben and Chad that involves Pepsiman (if you're really curious, his opponent in my presentation is the superhero Squirrel Girl from Marvel Comics), and in doing so I have been heavily scouring the Internet for more information and official media on this wonderful character. This documentary has been nothing short of fascinating and invaluable in learning about this character's history and everything I had never learned before about him. I will be referencing this video when I present it, and I needed to extend my utmost thanks to you for this absolutely phenomenal production of Pepsiman.
P.S. I have no relation to Paul Hill, Paul Rodriguez, or Mike Butters' Paul character. It seems that something about the "P" word really draws in a lot of Pauls!
I still remember the Pepsiman commercials in Japan.The commercials were very funny with pretty strong impact.
In the late 1990s I was entering the 20s.Thanks for showing up the history of Pepsiman.
My pleasure! I’m glad Pepsiman’s origins have finally been discovered
I've seen these commercials ever since they played on American broadcast tv some of them have there own version for Japanese broadcast television and some for American broadcast television, and from I remembered Pepsi women has been exclusive to Japan, and some of the merchandise also made it way to American too.
Legend has it that Pepsiman was Galactus' original herald.
Here from the Long bois list
Nice video! I'm from Peru and while I was growing up in the early 2000s, pirated PS1 games were easy to find in local markets, and the pepsiman game was pretty common there.
That’s super interesting, thanks for the insight!
Now I can't get the "Pepsimaaaan" out of my head
Great video!
ILM alwyas shows up where you least expect it. fascinating company, with such a rich history. Awesome video man.
You joke about their obscurity, but KID developed the legendary visual novel Ever17, which kickstarted the career of Zero Escape writer Kotaro Uchikoshi - and he got his start making 3D models for the Pepsiman game.
My apologies , I was quite unfamiliar with KID’s work 😅
Came from QuintionReviews! Good stuff, you got yourself a new subscriber!
Thank you so much!! I really appreciate the kind words
My dad wondering who’s chasing us at 95 mph
Pepsi man:
I really loved this Pepsi man anime arc so many ups and downs but man what a journey
Pepsiman, Segata Sanshiro and Mac Tonight Will be renembered as the best era of their brands. This vídeo is so good! You managed to find every single piece of Lost media about this rare but funny mascot! And You got My subscription for that. I'm looking foward to ser your next vídeos!
I may do a video on every one of those topics someday - I got a whole list I’m working through, so stay tuned! :)
This was brilliant. So insightful, well paced and heartwarming!!
I'm so glad you uploaded this I'm a big fan of Pepsiman and was curious to know his origins, background etc. He's such a unique product mascot with so much personality! I really enjoyed the commercials. I really hope to get one of the bottle caps one day, they look so awesome! Props to everyone who worked and helped with this video and the creator of Pepsiman Takuya Onuki for giving us this awesome Superhero!
Thank you for this thoughtful comment! I appreciate it!! If you’re in the market for Pepsiman bottle caps, I’d recommend checking out Sendico. I’m pretty sure I saw a few on there while I was researching this video!
Thank you for making this awesome video, really bringing me new knowledge about myself.
Quite surprise you didnt bring mike butters (TV guy in pepsiman game) but i really appreciate that you brought these awesome people who help creating the advertisement for their insight which is very interesting and cool.
Been a fan since a kid for the character that i come up with this name, though unfortunately they didnt extend pepsi contract in my country, so no pepsi here.
Also, thank you for uploading Pepsiman ads in HD, been looking for them.
I actually asked Mike Butters for an interview, but he wanted to get paid a stipend and I did not have much money at all to make this. Cant blame the man though, he’s a professional who wanted to be compensated for his time. Everyone else who appears in this doc volunteered.
OMG thank you for making this. It's such a rarity to come across anyone who knows wtf this is! I can't wait to watch!
Pepsiman was relatively popular in Brazil in the early 00's between gamers, thanks to rampant piracy at the time, haha.
Thanks for this amazing documentary, it's really well made and interesting!
Thank you for this incredible investigative piece. 100% knew I was subscribing on Patreon as soon as I heard you mention you had one. Can’t wait to dive into the Book of Pepsi translation and other goodies 😀
Thank you SO much!! I really appreciate it ☺️ I have plans for a lot of fun bonus content on Patreon, so I hope you enjoy!
Finally a proper Pepsiman video
I was not prepared for how wholesome this was
Right up until the scrapped commercial storyboards.
Really great content! I went from thinking that Pepsiman was just some weird ad from Japan to really seeing what Onukisan saw in him, but I learnt so much about not just Pepsiman, but advertising as well. Awesome video!
Thank you so much! I appreciate the kind words and thanks for watching! I’m glad you could really get something from it
I love how at the end of each commercial, the can is deformed in a way that matches Pepsi Man's bodily injuries: Pepsi Man fails to jump through a window so the top is crumpled, Pepsi Man gets sprayed in the face by a kid with a water gun so the can's covered in condensation, He flattens his face on a window pane so half the can is flattened, etcetera. That's hilarious.
What an awesome documentary! Thanks for so much effort in contacting people involved in creating those commercials. I seem to have missed the bit on how exactly you got the high quality versions of the commercials, or you forgot to mention it in your documentary? Thanks again! Also some trivia. The American guy from the FMV's of Pepsiman game recently appeared in the AVGN episode where he reviews the Pepsiman game. I was quite surprised!
I cannot disclose my source exactly, but in the documentary you might be able to figure out where they came from anyways haha
I do remember Pepsiman from my childhood, it was one of those pirated games that came in other languages that as a we didn't knew.
In LATAM is a complete hit that everyone that had a PSX knew about.
im glad you addressed the quality. you litterally had me thinking that i just experienced the mandela affect looking at how high quality the videos were coming out. you gotta give a warning before you break to timeloop man
Hahaha my apologies, I didn’t want to make you question your memory. But yeah, it was super awesome discovering those vids in high quality!
There’s nothing better than watching this documentary while cracking open an ice cold can of Pepsi
Schwaaa! 🥤
Underated man. You had me learn more stuff then I could learn by my self for 3 years
Thank you so much! I appreciate the kind words and I’m glad you enjoyed
This needs some more views. Great video man!
Thanks Kimi!! I appreciate the kind feedback ☺️
So Pepsiman was the test drive of CGI before the Star Wars prequels. 🤔
My man. Ever since I heard of pepsiman I fell in love lol.
I’d really like to bring pepsiman back. Pepsi at least acknowledged him on Twitter, so there’s hope. I should start a discord for pepsiman history…
If you do end up starting that Pepsiman discord, let me know! Sounds like it’d be fun
I swear to god i want to start a petition in order to bring Pepsiman Back
Excellent job man, it was really great seeing the Pepsiman ads in HQ.
Well done! 👍
Wow! I thought I'd check your channel out after your comment you left on my video and after only 10 minutes in, I'm blown away! Such an incredible amount of research here, you are certainly going far on youtube my friend!
Omg, thank you so much! I was actually binging a lot of your content last night 😂 your stuff on the Mother series is awesome!
Absolutely underrated. We need more people to learn more about our lord and savior.
Here from Quinton Reviews
Hope you enjoy your stay!
The interview with Paul is fantastic. I only learned about pepsiman recently, but those commercials are amazing works of absurd pop art. Onuki is kindof a genius.
This deserves wayyyyyyy more attention.
you deserve a corvete for your work.
Omg thank you!! I appreciate the kind words
20 years ago. I beat the Pepsiman game for the first time after I drink Pepsi.
My favorite bit of weird Pepsiman trivia is the PS1 game is the first game dev credit for Kotaro Uchikoshi, who went on to become known for his cult classic mind-screwy adventure games and visual novels.
That is super interesting! Thank you for the info! I’m considering someday making a follow-up video about Pepsiman with all the weird things I’ve learned about him since I made this vid lol
@@DevnulI hope you make it!
Mike Butters genuinely looks like he's having a ton of fun in those FMVs, considering they told him to go nuts,he was a guest star in the AVGN episode
I would’ve loved to chat with Mike Butters about it - regardless, thanks for watching! Appreciate it!
THIS IS A MASTERPIECE
THANK YOU
This deep dive was a delight to watch!
Thanks for sharing!
This is the video I never knew I needed for all the things I never knew I didn't know about Pepsiman! (Also, this may be a bit far-fetched, but is there any chance you have the original 3d model for Pepsiman or would know where to find it? It would be incredibly cool to be able to use an accurate one rather than a close copy for fan projects!)
Sadly I do not, but there may be some folks out there who do! I imagine someone might have been able to rip the model from the original PSX game
Thanks anyways for responding and the great video, I'll keep looking!
HERE BEFORE ITS VIRAL!!!
Wow, that was incredible! Thank you for all that amazing insight!
Thank YOU for watching!!
This video makes me 11.3% happier today.
I love everything about this video :D
And I love everything about this comment! :D it made me 11.3% happier today! Thanks for watching!
This is a great video, answered a lot of questions about my favorite 90s icon.
Thank you kindly! Pepsiman deserves to have his story known
If they made more Pepsiman characters here's how I think they'd do them. If they made one for Pepsi MAX (or "Pepsi Zero Sugar" now), I think it would look like normal Pepsiman but to represent the MAX can which is black, he would wear cool guy sunglasses and a black leather jacket. For cherry flavored Pepsi, I'd imagine it look like Pepsiwoman (thickness and all) only instead of the yellow mask she and Pepsiman Twist wore, she'd wear some red clothing to represent the cherry flavoring. Anyway, these are just a few examples of how I think some other characters would look. What do you guys think, and what other Pepsiman related characters would you come up with?
I could imagine a Crystal Pepsi Man/Woman (for Diet ones) for Crystal Pepsi
DUUUDE!! I HAD THAT IDEA A COUPLE OF DAYS AGO!!
What about a villain for him to fight?
@@BradyTheAlien pepsi man could fight "Other drink" man
Or how about Mr. Coffee?
The dancing baby (Baby Cha Cha) was actually a tech demo for Character Studio, a character rigging and animation module inside 3Ds Max R2.0 back in the 90´s. Search for 3Ds max Baby cha cha. There you can see better rendering and motion capture tests too.
Wow that’s bizarre that they would use footage from a tech demo in a television show lol thanks for this info!
@@Devnul Yeah, and they not even bothered to LookDev it to match the real backplate. Also, if you wanna to see an ogre, a couple of velociraptors and more doing the same dance search for "3D Studio Max Character Studio Demo". Great Pepsiman documentary there. Best.
WOWSERS! Thank you for all of this! This is truly one curious subject.