What the heck will come out of a machine like this?

Japan is famous for its many vending machines, where you can select what you’d like to buy from the display, but there are also a plethora of gacha machines to be discovered, where you’ll randomly receive one of the items shown on the poster in the display.

Well, that’s usually how the system works, but up in Hokkaido, our reporter Seiji Nakazawa came across a new type of gacha machine he’d never seen before, at Oshamambe Station.

Seiji loves the thrill of turning the knob on a gacha machine, wondering which one of the display items the luck of the gods might deliver to him, but at this quaint machine the random prize is even more of a mystery, as the display section contains a handmade message rather than a professionally made poster, which reads:

▼ “Limited Gacha. Have fun seeing what comes out. Mystery…?”

Seiji immediately knew he wouldn’t be able to resist feeding 200 yen (US$1.46) into the machine in an attempt to solve the mystery. However, drawing upon his gacha experience, he assumed that the contents of this mysterious machine were probably similar to the others around it, especially one that was filled with merch for Manbekun, the official mascot for Oshamambe town.

▼ After all, this is a gacha that’s also 200 yen, and “limited” to the area.

The more he thought about, the more convinced he was that he’d be seeing Manbekun inside the capsule that dropped out of the mystery machine when he made his purchase from it.

▼ But then, as he opened the capsule, he began to see a face that looked familiar…

▼ …why hello, Obanai Iguro!

Seiji couldn’t help but smile at seeing this character from the hugely popular anime Demon Slayer.

This turned out to be an eerily perfect item for Seiji, who’s such a fan of Demon Slayer he once had his hair styled to look like Kyojuro from the smash hit series.

Looking at the other machines, Seiji saw that one of them was stocked with similar “sleepy” Demon Slayer characters, although the range was different to the one his little Obanai came from.

▼ Plus, these cost 300 yen, so it looked like Seiji had pocketed himself a bargain!

Investigating further, Seiji found that the gacha he’d received was actually newer than the range in the regular Demon Slayer machine. So in a way, the mystery gacha machine had time-warped him forward to an unexpected place in the Demon Slayer universe.

Seiji felt that fate had led him here to this machine, and he gave it a little tap of thanks as he headed out to continue his travels around Hokkaido. He really did have fun seeing what came out of the machine, and now he had a spring in his step for all the other discoveries that fate would lead him to on his journey.

Photos © SoraNews24
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[ Read in Japanese ]