Our love-hate relationship with the popular store continues.

It’s time once again for our annual coverage of fukubukuro lucky bags, and you might have noticed our coverage leaning towards the ones sold by novelty goods chain Village Vanguard. Well, it’s not because we’re promoting them! We’re holding them accountable for the years of junk they’ve been sending us.

Every year, our writers P.K. Sanjun and Ahiruneko have given these bags reviews ranging from “total garbage” to “mostly garbage,” and every year they keep sending us more.

Honestly, this is beginning to feel like an unhealthy relationship, but their Gold Lucky Bag this year turned out to be pretty decent, so maybe our hard love is finally getting through to them. The only way to find out is to root through the other seven bags they sent us for 2026, so without further ado, let’s take a look at their Pink Lucky Bag that sold for 5,500 yen (US$35).

After looking at the contents, P.K. remarked to himself, “There it is.” Every year, without fail, Village Vanguard has included some sort of large stuffed animal in their bags, and we finally found one in this haul.

To recap, there was the cow in 2018…

the kangaroo in 2020…

the sperm whale in 2022…

the eagle in, well, you get the idea…

And each time, these plush toys felt like Village Vanguard was subtly trying to tell us, “Try to find a place to put THIS, jackass.” This time, however, we got a perfectly pleasant and extremely cute teddy bear. It was almost bizarre how normal it was.

In fact, “strangely normal” seemed to be a recurring theme with this bag. There was also a Smart Digital Health Meter, which is just a fancy-looking bathroom scale, but useful nonetheless.

There was also a nice light that was very compact and could be used anywhere around the home, with a subtle design that would fit most decors.

The humidifier had a similar small design that’d be perfect to prevent dry air from your personal workspace.

There was also a back massager, but it’s probably more accurate to call it a “pussy massager,” you know, because it’s shaped like a cat’s paw.

The only things that we’d call “junky” in this bag were the cheap calculator and cat-shaped penholder. But on the whole, this was a pretty high batting average for Village Vanguard.

Nevertheless, we still cannot recommend this bag, because the bear was simply too cute!

▼ Lucky Bag Verdict: Disqualified

You might think we’re being unfair with Village Vanguard by judging their bag so harshly. Well, they haven’t been fair with us for years! So many gaudy cushions and hot sandwich makers for years on end…

Anyway, there are a few more bags left to go. Let’s see if this truly is a change in attitude for the wacky retailer, or if they’re just toying with our emotions.

Photos ©SoraNews24
Bag design ©Chocolate
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