Segata Sanshiro!

Those were 32-bit times. After the failure of the Sega MegaCD, Sega had to make a splash to take over the video game scene, so it took the initiative and created the first console whose format was CDs: the Sega Saturn. But Sega knew that it had to somehow attract all those people who were most attracted to Sony’s gray console, the PlayStation, and they couldn’t think of anything other than to create a colorful character: Segata Sanshiro, who was the protagonist of twenty of the most peculiar advertisements.

Segata SanShiro is a fictional character, parody of a legendary judo fighter named Sugata SanShiro. This character was a hermit who lived at the top of a mountain training hard with his giant Saturn and only came down to “civilization” to punish anyone who played anything other than the Sega Saturn, beating them up (A very clear message, really).

The name “Segata Sanchiro” is a marketing strategy, since it sounds quite similar to the only phrase that this character generally says: “Sega Saturn Shiro!”, which translated into Spanish means: “You must play Sega Saturn!”, although “Shiro” (white) also refers to the color of the Saturn in Japanese lands, since the console was white.

Despite seeming like a painful and stupid marketing strategy, it allowed the Saturn to continue being sold in Japan until 2000, and a video clip of this character’s song and a video game were even made. Despite this, with the release of Sega’s next console, the Dreamcast, the decision was made to “retire” (in a spectacular way) Segata Sanshiro.