Friday 8 March 2024

Kenty Skyliner: The Prince of Keisei Escorts Passengers

Set AE4 of the EMU Keisei AE series, "Kenty Skyliner"

Railway companies in the Tokyo metropolitan area are in competition to attract passengers. For that purpose, many companies have their own mascot characters, such as Odakyu's "Mokoron" and Sotetsu's "Sounyan", to refine the value of their lines. In addition, several companies use celebrities for their advertising campaigns. For instance, Tokyo Metro, which is a subway operator, has been using a famous actress, Ishihara Satomi, for their TV commercials. On the other hand, Keio Electric Railway recently uses a young emerging actress, Kiyohara Kaya, for their TV ads and digital signages at the stations.

The celebrities contributing to railway companies are not only females. Keisei Electric Railway uses a famous young male idol, Nakajima Kento, for their face of the company. He acts as "the Prince of Keisei", and promotes the airport access train "Skyliner" on the TV commercials. Needless to say, the rival of Skyliner is JR East's "Narita Express". Keisei is operating a special poster train, named "Kenty Skyliner", as well. That's Set AE4 of the EMU Keisei AE series. As you probably have noticed by now, "Kenty" is the nickname of Nakajima "Kento". This train displays a gold-colored "Kenty Skyliner" sticker on the front. Furthermore, large posters of Kenty, who is dressed as the Prince of Keisei, are also displayed on the side bodies. It means that Kenty, the prince of Keisei, escorts passengers in the likeness of princesses. I hope that many passengers, specifically young girls, use Kenty Skyliner to be escorted by the Prince of Keisei.

Side body of "Kenty Skyliner"

Official website, "Kenty Skyliner" (in Japanese):