McDonald’s Japan makes beautifully bittersweet burger anime music video with Idolmaster [Video]

Chihaya Kisaragi and Imadaketsukimitabemi go moon-viewing together.

In Japan, you’ll find plenty of songs about snowy Christmas Eves, spring cherry blossoms, and beachside summer fun, but there aren’t all that many songs about the fall. All of a sudden, though, we’ve got a very autumn-y anime music video from a very unexpected collaboration: McDonald’s Japan and anime/video game idol franchise The Idolmaster.

As SoraNews24’s highly cultivated readership is no doubt already aware of, in Japan autumn is the time for tsukimi, or moon-viewing. In recent years, this also makes autumn the season of tsukimi burgers, hamburgers topped with a fried egg that resembles a bright, full moon floating in the fall sky.

The anime video features The Idolmaster’s Chihaya Kisaragi singing the song “Kondo Itsu Kimi ni Aeru no Ka na,” or “I Wonder When I’ll Get to See You Again” (which also works as a bit of a pun, as the “Itsu Kimi” part contains the syllables of “tsukimi”).

In the video, we see Chihaya sharing a moon-viewing moment, and some moon-viewing munchies too, with new friend Imadaketsukimitabemi, McDonald’s tsukimi mascot character that the chain introduced in 2020.

はじめまして！
「いまだけ月見食べ美」と言います！

短い間ですが、よろしくお願いします！ pic.twitter.com/eIBvI4Phy6

— マクドナルド (@McDonaldsJapan) September 1, 2026

Imadaketsukimitabemi, whose name translates loosely to “you can only eat the delicious tsukimi [burgers] right now,” is actually the song’s original vocalist. Here’s the video for her version of it, which puts her in real-world environments, kind of like virtual idol Hatsune Miku’s video with VTuber Hoshimachu Suisei from this past summer.

いまだけ月見食べ美
「今度いつきみに会えるのかな」

昨年大好評だったフルMVを、Xにだけ再公開！（最後まで見てね） pic.twitter.com/2ADEHsMbjB

— マクドナルド (@McDonaldsJapan) September 22, 2026

Compared to Imadaketsukimitabemi’s unwaveringly peppy original, Chihaya’s cover of “Kondo Itsu Kimi ni Aeru no Ka na” is decidedly more wistful, with an acoustic guitar arrangement paired with plaintive vocals.

That makes sense, though, because the collaborative video was released on September 24, the same day as McDondald’s Japan’s new Hokkaido Potato Pepper Tsukimi, which marks the second phase of its tsukimi line rollout for this year. In other words, we’re coming into the back half of tsukimi burger season, and when they leave the menu, so too does Imadaketsukimitabemi disappear until next year.

So yeah, there’s a bit of bittersweetness as Chihaya and Imadaketsukimitabemi look up at the autumn moon, and out at Yokohama Bay Bridge, while some susuki, another sign of fall, sway in the night breeze.

But while foods and friends being seasonal in nature means having to say goodbye to them, it also means that you’ll be reunited again someday, so the important thing to do is to live in the moment, cherish every moment you spend with the people who’re important to you, and savor every bite of the tsukimi burger.

Source: YouTube/マクドナルド公式（McDonald’s） via Otakomu, The Idolmaster official website
Images: YouTube/マクドナルド公式（McDonald’s）
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