SoraNews24’s otaku reporter heads to one of Tokyo’s biggest anime fan neighborhoods and gets a massive return on his fukubukuro investment.

Our reporter Seiji Nakazawa is a man who likes his anime. One of the last articles he wrote before starting winter vacation was his personal list of 2020’s best anime, so it should come as no surprise that his first action of 2021 was to hop out of bed and head to Animate, Japan’s leading anime merchandise specialty store, to get one of their fukubukuro/lucky bags.

Being an Internet writer by trade, Seiji doesn’t hop out of bed until pretty late in the day, of course, and it was around 2:30 in the afternoon that he rolled up to Animate. Luckily, though, he’d gone to their branch in Tokyo’s Ikebukuro neighborhood, one of the leading otaku districts of Japan, and so they still had plenty of bags available.

In recent years, businesses have become increasingly upfront with shoppers about what’s in their fukubukuro, with cafes and fast food chains in particular often spelling out everything you’ll get. Animate’s fukubukuro, though, is a throwback to the days of complete fukubukuro non-transparency, both figuratively and literally. The only promise Seiji got regarding his 3,000-yen (US$29) lucky bag is that it would contain anime stuff.

But hey, the good part about being an otaku is that “anime stuff” is exactly the kind of stuff Seiji likes. After securing his bag, he scurried on down to SoraNews24 headquarters in Shinjuku to see what he’d just blind-bought.

The first thing he pulled out of the bag was a whole box of Prince of Tennis acrylic character stands/keychains. When you buy these individually, you don’t know which character you’ve gotten until you open the package, but in a box like this you’re basically much guaranteed at least one of each of them. Of course, by-the-box merch doesn’t come cheap, and ordinarily this alone would cost 6,160 yen, more than twice what Seiji paid for the entire Animate lucky bag!

And that was far from the only treasure in the bundle. In total, the Animate fukubukuro contained:

● Prince of Tennis acrylic character stand/keychain box (regular price 6,160 yen)
● Re: Zero−Starting Life in Another World T-shirt (3,300 yen)

● Fate/Grand Order mini clear poster (550 yen)
● Idolish7 character pin box (3.080 yen)
● Project Scrap character pin box (3.520 yen)
● Bungo Stray Dogs character pin box (4,840 yen)
● Kuroko’s Basketball character pin box (3,080 yen)

● Bungo Stray Dogs pen pouch (1,100 yen)
● Psycho-Pass character pin (440 yen)
● Idolish7 character pin (440 yen)
● Yu-Gi-Oh key chain (726 yen)
● Granblue Fantasy mirror (935 yen)
● Bungo Stray Dogs acrylic strap (935 yen)
● Idolish7 x Sanrio character pin (880 yen)
● Reborn! sticker (550 yen)
● Digimon Adventure acrylic keychain (1,110 yen)

● Tasokare Hotel cosmetics pamphlet (880 yen)
● Idolish7 acrylic character stand (1,650 yen)
● Project Scrap acrylic character stand (1,650 yen)
● Bungo Stray Dogs plushie (3,300 yen)
● Granblue Fantasy plushie (2,200 yen)
● Piofiore no Bansho clear file (1,650 yen)
● Granblue Fantasy mini character poster (550 yen)
● Idolmaster clear file (385 yen)
● The Misfit of Demon King Academy clear file (440 yen)
● Granblue Fantasy clear file (385 yen)
● Show by Rock clear file (385 yen)
● Kakokyu clear file (385 yen)
● Reborn! clear file (440 yen)
● Trigger (from Idolish7) clear file (385 yen)
● Inazuma Eleven clear file set (880 yen)

We’ll save you the scrolling/counting trouble: that’s 31 different items, even if you count things like a box full of multiple pins as just one. We’ll also do the arithmetic for you and let you know that the total value of the Animate fukubukuro, which Seiji paid just 3,000 yen for, was a whopping 47,211 yen (US$456)! Granted, odds are no one shopper is going to be a hardcore fan of all those different series, but getting nearly 16 times more than you paid for is an incredible deal.

You probably noticed that the bag leaned more towards series with a lot of female fans, which in retrospect isn’t so shocking, given that the Ikebukuro neighborhood is particularly popular with anime/manga-loving ladies. Still, Seiji found a lot to enjoy in the bag, and he’s especially happy with his new Fate/Grand Order poster and Re: Zero T-shirt.

Because when your hairstyle itself is a constant anime cosplay, you might as well give your wardrobe an otaku touch too.

Photos ©SoraNews24
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