April 16 is the birthday of Iroha Isshiki, the sly major supporting character from the My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU (Oregairu) light novel and anime series. To mark the occasion, a new short story by author Wataru Watari, written as a collaboration with Japan’s I LOHAS water brand, was released on the I LOHAS website.
In addition to the short story, six illustrations by Oregairu illustrator Ponkan8 were produced as part of the collaboration. The illustrations depict Iroha holding an I LOHAS bottle, with each illustration advertising a different river source like Hokkaido and Aso. The words in the illustrations roughly translate to: “I LOHAS is like natural water that was fostered by the forest drop by drop. Will you drink it, Senpai?”
This new short story marks the second such collaboration, with a previous short story published in 2020.
The Oregairu light novels began in 2011, with Volume 14.5 set to release on April 20. The light novels were also adapted into manga, video games, and a three-season anime series that ended in 2020.
Crunchyroll describes the series as:
So exactly what’s going to happen when Hachiman Hikigaya, an isolated high school student with no friends, no interest in making any and a belief that everyone else’s supposedly great high school experiences are either delusions or outright lies, is coerced by a well meaning faculty member into joining the one member “Services Club” run by Yukino Yukinoshita, who’s smart, attractive and generally considers everyone in her school to be her complete inferior?
As for I LOHAS, the brand was created by The Coca-Cola Company, with its product line including sugar-free flavored water and sparkling water in addition to regular mineral water. The Cola-Cola Company describes the brand as: “I LOHAS, created in and for Japan, is an innovative twist on a classic source of hydration. Combining natural water sources with purifying techniques, this brand has become one of the largest in the Japanese water category.”
Source: I LOHAS Twitter, website
