Disney vs. USJ: Two Opposite Ways to Design an Oshi-Katsu Theme Park
Theme parks are no longer just places to ride attractions. You step into your oshi’s world, wear your oshi color, eat limited-edition food and take photos with your merch. For fans, a park is a giant genba for oshi-katsu, the everyday support of the people and characters you love, where you go to meet a work or a character.
In the east, Tokyo Disney Resort; in the west, Universal Studios Japan (USJ) in Osaka. Both offer intensely immersive experiences, but the mechanisms that make fans go wild are strikingly opposite.
Background to this article: The Oshi Lab analyzed both parks’ IP strategies in Podcast Episode 49, “Disney vs. USJ: The Oshi-Katsu War” and in a note article on the same theme (both in Japanese). This article recasts that content for the blog and also reflects corrections found in a fact-check after publication.
The Conclusion: Disney Is “a Place to Return To,” USJ Is “a Place Only for Now”
Here is the difference between the two at a glance.
| Point of comparison | Disney | USJ |
|---|---|---|
| How IP is put together | Grows its own IP over the long term | Edits across its own and outside IP |
| Design of time | Continuity: you can come back anytime | Limited time: creates a reason to go now |
| Entry into immersion | Worldview, outfits, oneness with the story | Attractions, participation, the heat of collabs |
| Motivation to return | Coming back to the same world again and again | Chasing what comes next |
| Main risks | Slowness to change, rising entry price | Dependence on contracts, the burden of constantly renewing buzz |
Disney is good at “deepening a world you love without breaking it.” USJ is good at “translating a world that’s hot right now into a real-life experience.”
ContinuityUrgency
- DisneyYou can come back anytime
- The balance pointWhat stays vs. what runs for a limited time
- USJA reason to go now, before it ends
Too much of either wears fans out or weakens the reason to visit.
Disney: Digging Deep Into the “Empire of Its Own IP”
Disney’s strength is that it can grow works, characters, spaces, hotels and products over the long term as one worldview.
A symbol is Fantasy Springs (in Japanese) at Tokyo DisneySea. It doesn’t just place attractions based on films; it integrates the scenery, sound, food and even the stay as part of the story. Fans move from “watching” a work to becoming “characters” who walk through its world.
This design closely resembles oshi-katsu. Love isn’t shown through merch alone; outfits, photos and time spent there build “yourself in your oshi’s world.”
The Continuity That Supports “I’ll Always Love It”
Disney’s heaven is that the worlds you love last. Your connection with your oshi doesn’t easily vanish when a short-term collaboration ends, and different generations can share the same stories.
That consistency has a cost, though. The more Disney protects the brand, the longer a bold change of direction takes. And when the price of the whole experience, including tickets, merchandise and food, rises, the way in to “coming back again and again” narrows. The operating company’s fact book (in Japanese) also shows that the park experience rests on combined spending, including merchandise and food, not tickets alone.
USJ: Turning What’s Hot Into Reality With “IP Editing Skill”
USJ’s strength lies not in protecting one world forever but in boldly turning many different properties into park experiences.
In limited-time events such as Universal Cool Japan (in Japanese), different fan cultures, from anime and games to mystery, gather in the same park. At Super Nintendo World (in Japanese), USJ built a sense of taking part in the game world through moving, collecting and taking on challenges, not just looking.
USJ isn’t so much exhibiting IP as editing “what a fan has to do to feel they’ve entered the work.” A limited run isn’t a weakness either. “I have to go before it ends” becomes the reason for an ensei, a trip to see your oshi, and it sparks conversation among fans all at once.
The Change That Supports “What’s Coming Next?”
USJ’s heaven is meeting a different oshi every year. Even people who had no reason to visit before find a way in through a collaboration with a work they love.
The flip side is dependence on contracts with outside IP and on each work’s popularity. If USJ can’t keep producing new talking points, the “reason to go this year” weakens. Limited-time events burn hot, but the challenge is how to keep the relationship going after they end.
Different Outfits Mean Different Ways to Take Part
The two parks have different rules for dressing up and cosplay, with conditions on periods and costumes. What’s worth noticing, though, isn’t which rules are better but how differently fans take part in the world.
At Disney, fans have developed expression that blends naturally into the worldview, such as “Disneybound” (baundo code), which works a character’s colors and mood into everyday clothes. At USJ, a participation culture has grown up around collaborations with works, one that shows more clearly that you’re “a fan of that world.”
Both go beyond putting on clothes. It is the act of turning your own body into an interface for the IP experience. Theme parks become oshi-katsu pilgrimage sites because fans can be part of the experience themselves instead of staying an audience.
Blend into the worldview
- Character colors worked into everyday clothes
- Expression that fits the world naturally
Show you are a fan
- Participation linked to collaborations
- Clearer display of loving that world
Both turn your own body into an interface for the IP experience.
Three Designs That Separate “Heaven and Hell”
1. The Balance Between Continuity and Urgency
With only the reassurance of being able to meet them anytime, the reason to visit weakens. With only the thrill of something you can meet just now, people get worn out. What matters is the balance between what stays for the long term and what runs for a limited time.
2. The Experience Before and After Buying
Oshi-katsu doesn’t end with buying merch. You think about what to wear beforehand, take photos on the day, and share them after you get home. Satisfaction comes from a design in which the story never breaks, from before buying a ticket to after the visit.
- 01Plan the outfitBefore buying a ticket
- 02Visit and shootPhotos on the day
- 03Buy merchLimited food and goods
- 04Share at homePost and talk afterward
Oshi-katsu does not end with buying merch.
3. Turning Rules Into “the Entrance to the Worldview”
When the rules on costumes, photography and merchandise purchases are hard to understand, the fans who were looking forward to it most get hurt. Going beyond a list of prohibitions to explain “why this rule exists” and “how you can still enjoy it” is what builds trust in the brand.
Notes From The Oshi Lab: What Can a Fan Become Inside the Story?
Comparing Disney and USJ shows that strong IP alone doesn’t make an experience fans will oshi.
Disney polishes the IP it owns over the long term and creates a place fans can keep coming back to. USJ reads the heat of a wide range of IP and recasts it as experiences people want to join now. They hold their assets differently, but what both are designing is “what a fan can become inside the story.”
The same is true of corporate collabs and events. If you only put a popular work’s art on a product, fans remain outside the experience. When outfits, participation, photography and sharing become one story, a collab turns from “a project to buy” into “a memory of having supported.”
Fans join the world
- They become part of the story
- Rules are explained, not just listed
Friction breaks immersion
- Price, contracts and scalping
- Rules that are hard to understand
Neither park wins outright; they answer different ways of supporting.
Summary
- Disney designs a “place to return to,” growing its own IP over a long time and in depth
- USJ designs a “place only for now,” turning a variety of IP into experiences of the moment
- Heaven is when fans can become members of the world
- Hell is when friction in price, contracts, scalping and rules breaks the immersion
- It isn’t about winners and losers; they are two finished forms that answer different ways of supporting your oshi
There is no simple winner in the East-West “oshi-katsu war.” The joy of returning again and again to a world you love, and the joy of chasing the frenzy that exists only in that moment: because both exist, oshi-katsu at theme parks will keep growing.
Related articles: What Is Oshi-Katsu Marketing? / Oshi-Katsu Pilgrimages / What Is a Genba?
FAQ
What is the biggest difference between Disney's and USJ's oshi-katsu strategies?
Disney is designed to deepen, consistently, the worlds of IP it has grown over many years. USJ also blends in a wide range of outside IP, turning whatever is hot at the moment into a park experience. Disney's strength is continuity; USJ's is change and limited runs.
Does going to a theme park count as oshi-katsu?
Stepping into your oshi's world and experiencing it through outfits, merch, photos and food has a lot in common with going to a *genba* (a live event) or making an anime pilgrimage. This article treats a theme park as oshi-katsu: a trip to meet an IP's world.
If I were doing oshi-katsu, would I be better off at Disney or USJ?
People who want to come back to a world they love again and again tend to suit Disney, while those who want to chase limited-time experiences with whichever work is hot right now tend to suit USJ. Rather than asking which is better, choose by the way of supporting your oshi that you want.
Can I enter the parks in costume or cosplay?
The rules on periods, ages, costumes and belongings differ by park, and may change. Before your visit, check Tokyo Disney Resort's guest requests and USJ's rules and manners (both in Japanese).
