An odd Japanese Shiren the Wanderer DS 2 commercial.

I’m not sure what I expected from Chunsoft and Sega’s StW commercial, but this certainly wasn’t it! While the U.S. is making history by electing its first black president, Japan is doing the same by featuring Jero, its first black “enka” singer, in promotions for, uh, a remake of a Game Boy roguelike that never left the country.

Jero’s Japanese grandmother introduced him to enka, Japan’s country music equivalent, when he was only six years old. He moved to Japan and became an English teacher there after graduating from the University of Pittsburgh. Victor Entertainment signed Jero after seeing him perform at an amateur karaoke contest.

A self-proclaimed gamer, Jero has a new single entitled “Shiren” for Chunsoft’s upcoming Mystery Dungeon game, which he performs a bit of in the above commercial. Victor Entertainment has no qualms playing up Jero’s “urban-ness,” as you can see in this music video for his first single, “Umiyuki”:

Naturally, dozens of Jero’s Japanese fans commented on his blog today to congratulate him on Obama’s victory.

See also: A somber song from Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer’s soundtrack

tags / chunsoft / sega / mystery dungeon / shiren the wanderer / shiren / ec / commercial / jero / enka