Giant store draws huge crowd of anime and manga fans in Tokyo’s otaku neighbourhood.

If you’re an anime fan on the hunt for fukubukuro (lucky bargain bags sold in Japan at New Year), Akihabara is the place to go. With an abundance of stores specialising in anime, manga and video game-related goods, this Tokyo neighbourhood is holy ground for otaku, and one of the stores that draws the most crowds is Animate, Japan’s biggest anime specialty merchandise retailer.

In spite of its popularity, or perhaps because of it, Animate hasn’t released a lucky bag in years, so when our reporter and self-confessed otaku Seiji Nakazawa was in the area at 9:30 a.m. on 2 January, he was surprised to see a huge crowd of people outside the store.

At this time of year, customers usually line up when a store is selling fukubukuro, so he stepped closer to check it out and sure enough, there was a sign at the front of the queue informing everyone that lucky bags were being sold on 2 and 3 January, at two price points — 3,000 yen (US$19.08) and 5,000 yen.

Excited by this unexpected discovery, Seiji grabbed one of the numbered tickets and took his place at the back of the queue.

As the line snaked closer to the store entrance, he was able to see the lucky bags, and by his estimation the more expensive one was roughly 1.5 times larger than the smaller one, so he decided to splurge on the 5,000 yen bag.

▼ Returning to the office triumphant, Seiji posed with his fukubukuro…

▼ …before excitedly unleashing its contents onto the nearest desk.

▼ At first glance, the bag didn’t seem to contain a lot in return for 5,000 yen.

▼ However, looking closer revealed…

▼ …Seiji was now the proud owner of a “Roomwear Set” from Japanese anime series Lycoris Recoil!

This set added most of the bulk to the fukubukuro, and with the recommended retail price being 11,000 yen, it was already worth more than the cost of the bag.

▼ Thrilled with his new loungewear, there were even more surprises in the bag, which he shared with us below.

▼ Hasunosora Girls’ High School Idol Club Noble Art Collection (12 types in one box) valued at 9,240 yen

▼ Black Butler — Boarding School Edition Name Badge Collection (seven packs in one box), valued at 4,620 yen

▼ Oblivion Battery Frost Bottle Taro Yamada, valued at 1,650 yen

▼ Uma Musume Pretty Derby Acrylic Figure Collection (one pack), valued at 770 yen

▼ Aopella badge (715 yen), Blue Lock badge (440 yen), Jujutsu Kaisen die-cut trading sticker (330 yen)

▼ Katamari Damacy Ichigo bath set (4,950 yen)

▼ Love Live! Sunshine!!, Love Live! Superstar!! stickers (385 yen)

After tallying up the value of everything he received, Seiji’s jaw dropped as the total came to 34,540 yen. That was almost seven times more than the 5,000 yen he spent on the bag, making it one of the best value-for-money fukubukuro he’s ever purchased.

While the contents may vary from bag to bag, Seiji was happy with everything he received, and Animate is now firmly on his list of places to visit for future fukubukuro, along with this store at Nakano Broadway, Tokyo’s other otaku neighbourhood.

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