The archive · Advertising · Marketing decision · 2024–2025
Otsuka's BodyMainte treats Comiket as the big game day — ACC 2025 Film Grand Prix
BodyMainte's 120-second film follows a doujin creator and her fan through the days before Comic Market 105 — 'Maintenance is love' wins Japan's top TV-CM prize.
Otsuka Pharmaceutical (大塚製薬) · BodyMainte (ボディメンテ)
What it had to solve
Otsuka's BodyMainte drink supports people who manage their health around days they cannot miss. In 2023 it launched the platform 'THE DAY. — finish preparing for that day.' For the second installment the team chose winter Comiket (Comic Market 105): creators face a shorter preparation window than in summer and need stamina for the event itself.
How it works
BodyMainte is Otsuka Pharmaceutical's drink built on lactic-acid bacteria B240 and conditioning-support ingredients, marketed to people who manage their health around days they cannot miss. In 2023 the brand launched the platform 'THE DAY. — finish preparing for that day.'
For the second film, the team chose winter Comiket (Comic Market 105), the world's largest doujinshi fair. The 120-second spot follows a creator (Mugi Kadowaki) who works at a day job and draws at night while a fan (Mio Tomita) replies with 'take care of yourself' and later joins the event as staff. The narration closes: 'People I've never met worry about my health — there is no other world like this. Maintenance is love.'
The film was shot partly at Tokyo Big Sight, uses the Sakura Wars anthem 'Geki! Teikoku Kagekidan', and aired nationwide from November 16, 2024. In October 2025 it won the Grand Prix in the Film A (TV CM) category at the 65th ACC TOKYO CREATIVITY AWARDS, and it also took an encouragement prize at the 62nd Galaxy Awards.
Why it lands
- It found the brand's overlap with a subculture: creators and fans already practice 'maintenance' by watching their health for a day they care about.
- Treating Comiket as a match day dignifies the audience — no parody or lecturing, just the real preparation rituals of the community.
- 'Maintenance is love' turns a functional drink into the emotional bond between strangers who support each other online.
- The craft details — the real venue, the Sakura Wars anthem, the creator-fan casting — made fans feel the brand understood the culture from the inside.
What it did
The film won the 2025 65th ACC TOKYO CREATIVITY AWARDS Grand Prix (Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications Award) in the Film A (TV CM) category and an encouragement prize in the CM category of the 62nd Galaxy Awards, becoming the flagship of a brand platform that treats everyday health care as devotion to the days people care about.
What you can take
Take a subculture's big day as seriously as athletes take a match: a functional 'maintenance' drink becomes an act of love fans recognize, not a health lecture.
Since then
The film ran through the winter Comiket period and became the standard-bearer of BodyMainte's 'THE DAY.' platform; the second installment kept the series running into 2025. Production house AOI Pro. lists it among its flagship award-winning work, and alongside the ACC Grand Prix it received the CM-category encouragement prize at the 62nd Galaxy Awards.
Sources
- Otsuka BodyMainte new TVCM 'THE DAY #C105': a creator and a fan facing winter Comiket
- ACC Awards 2025 announced: BodyMainte 'THE DAY #C105' wins Film A Grand Prix
- Otsuka Pharmaceutical BodyMainte 'THE DAY #C105' (work page)
- Otsuka BodyMainte's new CM depicts the days up to Comiket
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