He’s back, and brighter than ever!
The 6th generation of Dotonbori’s most famous sign was unveiled last Thursday in a very public ceremony I managed to miss entirely despite being just around the corner.
Renewing the sign took just under two months all together, it’s now powered by thousands upon thousands of eco-friendly LED’s after dark(6pm onwards), and has a shiny acetate frontage so it still looks nice even when powered off.
During the interim, two temporary signs featuring actress Haruka Ayase stood in for the running man while the work took place.
The new sign is pretty funky, as I thought the LED’s have opened the door for some really cool animations – the sign is essentially a giant TV now. But with that come a couple of problems, firstly: it’s really bright, so taking photos with it is tough, secondly: your photos will probably have some strange wavy effects, similar to when you take a photo of a TV screen. That’s because your camera is catching the on/off flashes our eyes can’t, a longer exposure helps but it’s still a bit of a pain.
Here’s the default animation, it’s simple but nice, I like the whole day/night cycle style. From time to time special sequences pop up with various world backgrounds like The Golden Gate Bridge and The Great Wall of China. As well as the background, the running man himself is also LED covered which means they could change his costume for special occasions if they wanted! I’d like to see some more Osaka themed elements back on there in the future, especially a Hanshin Tigers theme!
[…] have Dotonbori in down town Osaka, famous for bright neon and animatronic signs, most notably the Glico Running Man. I regularly stop by here to people watch on my way home from […]