We get an expert opinion on the worth of the anime and voclaoid figures in the Kawaii Lucky Bag.

Tokyo’s Nakano Broadway was once a hidden gem, filled with anime and manga stores that flew under the radar before it became world-famous as an otaku destination, akin to the more well-known Akihabara. These days, Nakano Broadway is buzzing with more foreign tourists than locals, leading stores to put up signs in both Japanese and English to attract customers, and some of these signs recently caught the eye of our reporter Ikuna Kamezawa when she was in the area.

▼ She spotted them outside figure specialty store Nakano Factory Secret Base, which has two branches in Nakano Broadway.

The signs were attached to a few fukubukuro lucky bags outside the store, and the one Ikuna gravitated to read: “Kawaii Lucky Bag. This item is included. This lucky bag contains 4 figures“.

The lucky bags ranged in price from 3,500-4,500 yen (US$22.31-$28.68), with the Kawaii one costing 4,500 yen.

Despite not knowing anything about figurines, including the guaranteed-to-be-inside one pictured on the sign, it seemed like a good deal to Ikuna so she made her purchase.

The thing that sealed the deal was her curiosity to find out what was inside, as she wanted to find out if the store, which was obviously targeting inbound tourists as well as locals, was giving overseas customers a good deal or taking them for a ride.

Upon opening the bag, this was what she found inside:

・“Hatsune Miku Trio-Try-iT Figure – Outing Dress”
・“Overlord Trio-Try-iT Figure – Albedo Mini Dress ver.”
・“[Oshi no Ko] Coreful Figure Ruby Uniform ver.”
・“Omuro-ke Chokonose Premium Figure — Nadeshiko Ohmuro”

For Ikuna, the only familiar face here was Hatsune Miku, a vocaloid that’s become well-known outside of otaku circles, which prompted her to wonder why the sign hadn’t mentioned its inclusion in the pack.

▼ Surely Hatsune Miku would make for a faster sale over Albedo?

Looking over the figurines, she seemed to recall seeing Ruby from Oshi no Ko somewhere before as well. The series has been making news recently, following the final installment of the four-year-long manga in Shueisha’s Weekly Young Jump in November, and the wrap-up to the second series of the anime broadcast in October.

As for the remaining two characters, though, Ikuna didn’t know the slightest bit about them, so to find out their worth she sought the opinion of an expert.

▼ Our reporter, and self-confessed otaku, Seiji Nakazawa.

Without disclosing any details of where and why she picked up these figurines, she asked him: “Which of these figures do you think would be the most popular?”

▼ To her surprise, this was the figure he pointed to.

Ikuna couldn’t quite believe that Seiji picked the same figure advertised by the store on the sign to promote the lucky bag. It’s not a figure she would’ve picked as the most well known or desirable, so she asked him to explain his reasoning.

He told her that although current trends might point to Oshi no Ko as the most popular series of the moment, Overlord has been popular for much longer, and Albedo is a very important character. Her look is perfectly suited to creating eye-catching figures, which is why she would be in high demand.

▼ And no, he’s not looking up her dress here, he’s admiring the purple details in her hair.

So in the end, Ikuna learnt a few things that day; for one, she knows nothing about anime figurines, and it’s not necessarily the most well-known characters that are the most valuable.

▼ She also learned that Nadeshiko Ohmuro is another popular character. Sorry, Nadeshiko!

The most important lesson she learned, though, was that Nakano Factory Secret Base is not out to dupe tourists, or locals for that matter. In fact, as confirmed by Seiji, this was a great deal that she was lucky to have come across, especially as the store she visited were only selling 50 of the bags, so both of them highly recommend picking one up if you come across them during your visit to Nakano.

Store information

Nakano Factory Secret Base / ナカノファクトリー secret base
Address: Tokyo-to, Nakano-ku, Nakano, 5−52−15 Broadway 2F
東京都中野区中野 5-52-15 中野ブロードウェイ2F
Open: 12:00 p.m.-7:30 p.m.
Closed Wednesdays
Website

Photos ©SoraNews24
● Want to hear about SoraNews24’s latest articles as soon as they’re published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!