IKEA Celebrates College Life With A Slice-Of-Life Anime Series

Slice-of-life animes are a subgenre that focuses on the beauty of the mundane. Usually, these shows revolve around the trials and tribulations of high school students or, in IKEA’s case, college kids getting ready for a new semester.
 
IKEA has just released an anime series—with cameos of some of the furniture giant’s most popular products—to get students to relax and even help promote some problem-solving, especially when co-living with strangers. As in Compromise, two new roommates are arguing over how messy a room is, but saving the day is IKEA’s catalog of organizational solutions that help them put everything in the right place.

Study Space looks at students who have chosen to stay home for college, following a boy as he walks through his house, trying to find a place to study quietly. Eventually, he heads into a nook in the attic, settling at his desk. And in The 4th Roommate, a shared pet cat roams around an apartment, trying to find a place to rest while the student inhabitants go about their day. As it pads around in search of a bed, it comes across an IKEA bag filled with what looks like fabric, and curiously, it climbs into it, finding a cozy sanctuary.
 
And if that were not enough to immerse you into an anime-styled IKEA world, there would also be mangas going deeper into the lives of the characters seen here.

The series very clearly helps students on the fringe of adulthood find the joy in the little things like a new BILLY bookcase or desk organizer, which stands out as much as a character in the shorts as much as the actual humans (and cats) do.
 
The shorts were done by advertising agency Ogilvy New York and creative studio Clubcamping, presenting a positively chill vibe with sleek and dreamy animation and lo-fi beats overtop.

The message seems to be that with IKEA, life’s less stressful. Take from that what you will; either way, it’s a smart move to incorporate anime into a marketing campaign, especially as it is now part of the norm (especially for Gen Zs) to watch the genre on the regular. 

Check out the series down below.

 
 
 
[via Muse by Clio and Marketing Dive, screenshots via IKEA]