Uber Eats Pitches At-Home Oshikatsu & HEP FIVE Rethinks Bargains | Weekly Oshikatsu News (Jan 9, 2026)

Here is our roundup of notable corporate oshikatsu (fannish support activities) marketing and fan business news from the week of January 2 to January 8, 2026.

This Week’s Highlights

The defining theme of this week was using a fan’s oshi (favorite idol or character) not merely as a “reason to buy,” but as an “entry point into everyday routines.”

Uber Eats tapped So Matsushima and Yoshitaka Hara from timelesz project -REAL- to release a special social media ad campaign built around the tagline, “If you’re watching Typro 2, why not go with Uber Eats?” It is an advertisement that embeds the product directly into the time fans spend watching the show itself. Meanwhile, in early January, Lawson launched the second wave of its Gakuen Idolmaster collaboration, and McDonald’s rolled out the second wave of its Dragon Quest collaboration.

Another trend that gave us pause was how the commercial custom of the seasonal bargain sale is changing. The Osaka shopping complex HEP FIVE featured the group AmBitious for its winter bargain campaign under the theme, “This excitement is destiny.” As traditional clearance sales become less effective at moving excess inventory, HEP FIVE has shifted away from relying solely on price discounts toward drawing visitors through shared experiences and emotional connections.

Brands Are Stepping Into the Time Fans Spend With Their Oshi at Home

Uber Eats x Typro 2 — Placing the Product Inside Viewing Time

On January 5, Uber Eats announced a special social media advertising campaign in collaboration with the new Netflix series timelesz project -REAL- (affectionately nicknamed Typro 2). The ad consists of 42-second videos set in a backstage dressing room and starring timelesz members So Matsushima and Yoshitaka Hara. After receiving an Uber Eats delivery bag, the two eat together in front of the television while watching the show. The videos were released sequentially in three installments, featuring different menus—pizza, gyoza dumplings, and Korean food—tailored to match the episodes of the program (AdverTimes. (in Japanese)).

Filmed on smartphones, the videos were structured to showcase the natural, unscripted banter between the duo, whom fans fondly call “Chabo-So.”

The Oshi Lab Note: Rather than having the featured talent simply hold up a product for the camera, Uber Eats placed its service right inside the everyday scene of fans eating a meal while watching a show. The time fans spend on oshikatsu is overwhelmingly longer when they are at home than when they are out at events. Stepping into what fans eat during that at-home time is an idea that can be applied well beyond food delivery.

Daiso — A 100-Yen Entry Point for Starting Oshikatsu

The anime news site Anime! Anime! published a column introducing Daiso’s line of oshikatsu merchandise. The article highlighted four products: a “Clear Color Pouch” with an attached carabiner (measuring 17.5 cm in total length and available in eight colors), a “Trading Card Keychain with Ribbon,” a display “Stand” designed for acrylic keychains, and an “Oshi Photo Stick” for holding keychains while taking pictures (Anime! Anime! (in Japanese)).

The Oshi Lab Note: Both ita-bags (bags decorated with badges and merchandise) and trading card decoration can now be started at a 100-yen shop without buying specialized hobby store supplies. As the barrier to entry drops, the number of new fans grows. At the same time, brands are challenged to give fans a compelling reason to want higher-priced items even when budget alternatives exist. Product planning now requires a clear awareness of both the entry-level and premium price tiers.

Convenience Stores, Fast Food, and Supermarkets Filled New Year Sales Floors With Character Goods

Lawson x Gakuen Idolmaster — Pre-Orders arriving Up to Nine Months Later

On January 6, Lawson kicked off the second wave of its collaboration with Gakuen Idolmaster. The merchandise featured “Milk Stage Dress” artwork. Prices (all tax-included) were set at 1,870 yen each for 13 varieties of acrylic stands, 605 yen each for 13 varieties of tin badges, 9,900 yen each for 13 varieties of big tapestries, and 3,828 yen each for 13 varieties of Mochidoru plushies. Customers who purchased three eligible items received one of seven original clear sheets as a bonus gift. Exclusive reservations through Loppi terminals and HMV were announced to remain open until March 9, with two scheduled pickup windows: July 2 and October 1 (Anime! Anime! (in Japanese)).

For the tin badges, one out of every five-badge set included a character signature. The clear sheets were also crafted with fine attention to detail so that fans could cut them out and slip them inside clear smartphone cases.

The Oshi Lab Note: We were struck by the length of the wait—placing a pre-order in January for an item that arrives in October. A convenience store is traditionally a business built on selling goods on the spot, yet in IP collaborations it functions as a storefront window for made-to-order merchandise. Using a physical store network as a “reservation-gathering device” is an approach worth considering across other retail industries as well.

McDonald’s x Dragon Quest — A Second Wave Heading Into the 40th Anniversary

Starting January 7, McDonald’s Japan launched five items nationwide—three types of “Dragon Quest Burgers” along with themed drinks—as the second wave of its Dragon Quest collaboration. The burger buns featured a custom slit inspired by the slash of a hero’s sword. Previously, as the first wave of the campaign, McDonald’s had announced a five-figure set titled “Slime in Slime” priced at 2,990 yen (tax included), scheduled to be sold on January 19 following an advance lottery. A new television commercial featuring Nogizaka46 member Miku Ichinose as a restaurant crew member casting the spell “Merazoma” (Kafrizzle) to make burgers had also been airing since December 27, 2025 (Anime! Anime! (in Japanese)).

The Dragon Quest series has topped 95 million cumulative shipments and downloads worldwide and will celebrate its 40th anniversary in 2026.

The Oshi Lab Note: What stands out here is how McDonald’s incorporated elements of the IP directly into the food product itself, right down to the sword-slash slit in the bun. Rather than limiting the collaboration to outer packaging or bonus premiums, they altered the physical shape of the food being eaten. For companies partnering with milestone anniversary IPs, deciding how far to adapt the core product itself is a crucial creative judgment.

Meiji x Sanrio, Aeon, and Rilakkuma x DARS — The Opening of the Valentine’s Day Season

Starting January 6, Meiji launched a giveaway offering an original chocolate mold to customers who purchased three bars of Meiji chocolate. The molds featured six Sanrio characters, including Hello Kitty, Pompompurin, and Cinnamoroll (Anime! Anime! (in Japanese)). On January 8, Aeon rolled out its full-scale “2026 Aeon Valentine’s Day” showcase across roughly 360 stores. The lineup spanned approximately 970 items, including 84 Aeon-exclusive products. Notably, Aeon expanded its “oshikatsu chocolate” lineup to 1.4 times the previous year’s volume. For Blue Lock, Aeon offered four exclusive items centered around reusable tins that fans can keep long after eating the chocolates (Anime! Anime! (in Japanese), Cho! Animedia (in Japanese)). Morinaga & Co.’s “DARS” chocolate brand also began a collaboration with Rilakkuma on January 6, running a giveaway in which a total of 1,350 winners received collaboration merchandise (San-X (in Japanese)).

The Oshi Lab Note: Aeon’s decision to expand its oshikatsu chocolate selection by 1.4x year-over-year illustrates how much the Valentine’s retail season is shifting. Amid ongoing price adjustments driven by soaring cocoa bean costs, oshikatsu provides retailers and manufacturers with a compelling justification for higher unit prices. Leaving room for fans to “make it themselves,” as Meiji did with its character molds, also places value on the hands-on experience in much the same way as a collaboration cafe.

As Discounts Stop Moving Shoppers, Commercial Facilities Turn to Oshikatsu

HEP FIVE — “This Excitement Is Destiny.”

The HEP FIVE commercial complex in Umeda, Osaka, began its winter sale, “HEP FIVE BARGAIN,” on January 2, with the sale scheduled to run through January 31. Following its summer 2025 campaign, the facility once again appointed AmBitious—a group within Kansai Juniors under STARTO ENTERTAINMENT—as its promotional models. HEP FIVE announced that its in-building audio broadcasts would play segments such as “Fashion we want to try in 2026” and “Secret stories between members” at random across different time slots. It also announced that full-member photo panels would be displayed at the first-floor entrance, while three vertical short videos were released sequentially on its official social media accounts starting in January (AdverTimes. (in Japanese)).

The source report noted that with the rise of e-commerce and stricter inventory management, the traditional bargain sale as a mechanism for clearing excess stock has been losing steam.

The Oshi Lab Note: Including “secret stories between members” in the in-house broadcasts is an effective touch. HEP FIVE transformed the time shoppers spend inside the building into a fan experience in its own right. The team also tailored its distribution channels, using web commercials to reach a broad audience while deploying vertical videos on social media for younger demographics. Setting the goal not simply as “advertising,” but as “sparking conversation within the fan community,” makes the strategy very clear.

Tokyo Skytree x Madoka Magica — Repainting 450 Meters Above Ground With an IP’s Worldview

On January 8, Tokyo Skytree began its first-ever collaboration event with Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie -Walpurgisnacht: Rising-, titled “Moonlit Waltz” (Tsukiyo no Waltz), scheduled to run through April 6. Inside the Tembo Galleria observation corridor, six themed zones were installed, including the “Moonlit Foyer,” “Gallery of Memories,” and “Ring of Promises.” On the cafe menu, six character drinks were priced at 1,100 yen each, and the Walpurgisnacht Parfait was offered at 1,540 yen (all tax-included). Organizers also announced that a special six-minute video would be screened on the panoramic screen at the Tembo Deck, accompanied by nighttime staging utilizing 13 speakers and 24 projectors, while special character-inspired exterior lighting would cycle approximately every two and a half minutes (Cho! Animedia (in Japanese)).

The Oshi Lab Note: Tokyo Skytree is transforming an observation deck—typically a place to look at the city view—into an experiential space where visitors walk through the world of a creative work. The use of 24 projectors shows how the venue’s audiovisual equipment is being used for the collaboration. Including its three-month run, Skytree is actively building itself into a destination for anime pilgrimage (seichi junrei).

Sanrio Puroland — The Theme Is “Color”

Sanrio Puroland announced a special event scheduled for January 16 to March 16, titled “Colorful Puroland” built around the theme of “color.” The park announced that eight characters would appear in colorful costumes. Inside the facility, it announced plans to install immersive photo spots called “Oshi-Iro Character Rooms” alongside a 10-color “Giant Ad-Style Oshi-Iro Wall & Oshi-Iro Banners.” A total of 22 limited-time food items were announced, including Pompompurin’s Cutlet Curry at 1,700 yen and My Melody’s Parfait at 950 yen (all tax-included) (Dtimes (in Japanese)).

The Oshi Lab Note: A major theme park has placed oshi-iro (a fan’s signature character or member color)—a cultural practice born from the fan side—front and center in its event concept. Even more notably, the “giant ad-style” banners directly borrow the visual format of fan-funded support ads (ouen koukoku) and turn it into an official park attraction. Whenever a company borrows customs created by fans, the key question is how respectfully it handles those traditions.

Retail Future Days 2026 — The Retail Industry Re-examines Retail Media and OMO

The National Supermarket Association announced that it would host a free three-day online event, “Retail Future Days 2026” (Kouri Mirai Days 2026), from February 4 to February 6, 2026. The event was scheduled to cover themes including digital transformation (DX), retail media, e-commerce and OMO (Online Merges with Offline), logistics reform, demand forecasting, and AI utilization. Announced speakers included Katsumi Tomita, President of Kinokuniya; Hiroshi Kameyama, Head of the Digital Promotion Division at Beisia; and Tetsuo Tsuchiya, Executive Managing Director of Workman. Archive streaming was scheduled to remain available through February 28 (PR TIMES (in Japanese)).

The Oshi Lab Note: Retail media now sits alongside core management themes in the supermarket and retail sector. Retail media is the concept of using in-store digital signage and store apps as advertising surfaces, which connects directly with initiatives that treat physical stores as touchpoints for fans. For companies with brick-and-mortar locations, oshikatsu campaigns can serve not only to draw foot traffic, but also as an investment that raises the value of their own stores as media channels.

Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai Official Goods Stores — Capturing Post-Closing Demand in Regional Cities

Organizers announced that official merchandise stores for Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai would open for limited runs across three Hokuriku prefectures: at JR Fukui Station from January 10 to 25, at JR Toyama Station from January 18 to 31, and at JR Kanazawa Station from February 2 to 15. In Fukui, an opening-day greeting event featuring the official mascot Myaku-Myaku was also scheduled. Permanent official stores had been limited to just eight locations in Osaka and one in Nagoya. Meanwhile, the official online store temporarily closed on January 7 and was scheduled to reopen in spring 2026 under the operation of Felissimo (AdverTimes. (in Japanese)).

As of the end of October 2025, cumulative sales of official licensed Expo merchandise (on a manufacturing basis) had surpassed 120 billion yen.

The Oshi Lab Note: Even after the Expo closed its gates, it planned to continue selling merchandise at major train stations where commuters pass through every day. This case demonstrates that both fan memories and merchandise revenue continue well after an event ends. Trying to satisfy the demand for an IP that generated over 120 billion yen in product sales with only nine permanent stores would be unrealistic, making a touring pop-up model a very practical solution.

DIAGRAMHow Physical Venues and Retailers Repositioned Fan Touchpoints This Week

Everyday Retail & Transit

Lawson used convenience stores as pre-order hubs for Gakuen Idolmaster goods arriving up to nine months later
Aeon expanded its Valentine's oshikatsu chocolate lineup to 1.4x the previous year's volume
Expo 2025 pop-up stores were announced for Hokuriku train stations to capture demand after the event closed

Commercial & Leisure Facilities

HEP FIVE turned shopping time into a fan experience with randomized AmBitious audio stories
Tokyo Skytree announced staging using 24 projectors and 13 speakers for its three-month Madoka Magica collaboration
Sanrio Puroland announced photo spots around oshi-iro culture and support-ad style banners

Source: The Oshi Lab's summary of the article

Corporate Strategies Connecting Fan Passion to Sales: Lessons From Vending Machines and Commercials

DyDo DRINCO x Hottolink — The Approach of “Polite Visiting”

Daisuke Sakamoto of DyDo DRINCO and Hiroki Masuoka of Hottolink discussed marketing built around existing fan communities. Vending machine operations accounted for roughly 90% of DyDo DRINCO’s sales, and the company had run repeated IP collaborations with properties including Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Jujutsu Kaisen, Monster Hunter, and Blue Archive. In its Blue Archive campaign, DyDo achieved zero additional cost compared to conventional promotions, a 9x year-over-year increase in new LINE user acquisitions, and an increase of roughly 18 units in purchases by campaign participants during the promotional period (AdverTimes. (in Japanese)).

Masuoka pointed out that marketers should think of their target audience in terms of “communities” rather than abstract “personas.” Because it is difficult for low-involvement everyday products to build a dedicated fan community from scratch on their own, he argued that an effective approach is to respectfully “pay a visit” (ojama suru) to existing communities—such as sauna enthusiasts, campers, or anime fans. For example, sausage brand Johnsonville discovered an affinity with the outdoor community through word-of-mouth analysis and specialized its social media posts around campfire cooking, ultimately achieving point-of-sale (POS) revenue that significantly outperformed periods when it ran television commercials.

The Oshi Lab Note: Sakamoto’s advice—“become the biggest fan of that content yourself”—pinpoints the essential quality required of a collaboration manager. Equally important was his candid reflection that maintaining sales after a collaboration ends remains a challenge. Users who perform branded or named searches convert at roughly 12 to 24 times the rate of general search users. Whether a company lets a collaboration end as a one-off spike or builds a relationship where fans actively search for the brand by name is what determines the success or failure of fan marketing.

New Year TV Commercial Talent Casting — What 628 Companies Chose Over the First Three Days of January

According to a survey by Video Research, 628 companies aired 11,986 commercials totaling 220,000 seconds in the Kanto region during the first three days of January 2026 (Sanganichi). In the talent screen-time exposure rankings, Mio Imada took 1st place (up from 6th the previous year), Ryusei Yokohama ranked 2nd (for the second consecutive year), and Elaiza Ikeda came in 3rd (up from outside the top 10 the previous year). By total commercial seconds per advertiser, Daihatsu Motor ranked 1st, Nagatanien ranked 2nd, and SoftBank ranked 3rd (AdverTimes. (in Japanese)).

Companies also articulated specific strategic reasons for their casting choices. Hankyu Hanshin Properties explained its casting as part of an effort “to expand our business field from the Kansai region to the Tokyo metropolitan area and further overseas.” Speaking about Ryusei Yokohama, snack maker Koikeya stated that “his sincere, grounded personality overlaps with our brand spirit of delivering the pure deliciousness of our ingredients straightforwardly.”

The Oshi Lab Note: Rather than brushing off their casting decisions with “because they’re popular,” each company explained how the talent’s personal character aligned with the brand’s direction. Elaiza Ikeda jumped from outside the previous year’s top 10 into 3rd place, backed by clear reasoning from Fukoku Mutual Life Insurance that “her multifaceted persona can embody the complex emotions of people living in the modern era.” These examples offer a strong model for guiding ambassador selection discussions along axes beyond sheer name recognition.

18 Million Yen Raised vs. 70% Staff Layoffs: A Stark Divide in the Virtual Space

Roblox — A Community Event Raises 18 Million Yen via Crowdfunding

The Roblox creator studio “Studio KoiKoi” launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund the development of a community-led event, “Egg Hunt 2026: The Grand Eggspress.” It reached its initial goal of $75,000 in just two days and ultimately raised over $110,000 (approximately 18 million yen). Scheduled for April 2026, the event was announced to feature 100 custom eggs crafted by 100 Roblox creators and hidden across six chapters (Mogura VR (in Japanese)).

Studio KoiKoi stated that it plans to allocate future proceeds toward subsequent egg hunts and community-led projects, aiming to hold the event annually in a sustainable manner.

The Oshi Lab Note: High-quality content requires upfront production budgets, and trying to recoup those costs later through in-game monetization places heavy financial risk on the studio. Studio KoiKoi solved this problem through advance crowdfunding. Rather than waiting for an official platform-hosted event, the community pooled its own funds to build the event together. We view this as a milestone showing that the user-generated content (UGC) economy has entered its next phase.

VIC Inc. — Reaching 250 Million Yen in Cumulative Funding to Onboard Entire VTuber Agencies

VIC Inc., operator of the one-on-one call app “BackStage,” completed an additional funding round, bringing its cumulative funding to 250 million yen. Since the service launched, cumulative one-on-one calls on the platform have exceeded 60,000 sessions. Against a backdrop of deteriorating agency finances, business continuity struggles, and market exits in the VTuber industry that have left affiliated talents without revenue opportunities, VIC positioned BackStage as a welcoming safety net. Looking beyond onboarding individual cast members to accepting and partnering with entire agencies and management teams, the company stated it would use the new capital to expand post-onboarding monetization support and educational programs, as well as business alliances and integration support with agencies (PR TIMES (in Japanese)).

Representative Director Yoshinori Tanaka stated, “We do not view VTubers and streamers as ‘beings to be consumed and discarded.’”

The Oshi Lab Note: What makes VIC’s approach novel is building a business specifically designed as a “receiving vessel” on the premise of ongoing industry consolidation. When a talent loses their agency home, their fan community also loses its gathering place. When a company managing performers exits the market, where does the relationship with the fans go? Businesses managing talent need to build an exit and succession plan into their operations from the start.

Cloudhead Games — Veteran VR Studio Cuts 70% of Its Workforce

Cloudhead Games, the veteran VR studio best known for Pistol Whip, laid off 70% of its total workforce—at least 37 employees—effective January 7. CEO Denny Unger described the layoffs as a “difficult decision,” citing an industry-wide gaming slump, unresolved maturation challenges within the VR sector, and a lack of platform funding. Founded in 2012, the studio had a pioneering track record that included developing “Blink,” a locomotion technology designed to reduce VR motion sickness (Mogura VR (in Japanese)).

The article also pointed out that studios making casual multiplayer VR games, such as Gorilla Tag, continue to grow.

The Oshi Lab Note: While a company that led the industry technologically is struggling, lightweight games where players can hang out with friends are expanding. This contrast reveals what people are actually looking for in virtual spaces: having someone else there with you draws people in far more powerfully than a heavily crafted solo experience. From the perspective of designing fan communities, this dynamic carries important lessons.

Immersive Journey — An Experiential Venue Supported by Women in Their 40s to 60s

“Immersive Journey,” a VR experience facility in Yokohama operated by CinemaLeap Inc., recorded 120,000 annual visitors in the first year since its December 2024 opening. Women account for 60% of visitors, and the primary age demographic is people in their 40s to 60s. Representative Tetsuya Ohashi spoke about the venue’s free-roam format, where visitors walk around on foot: “When you experience VR sitting down, it feels like, ‘Oh, that’s well made,’ but walking around turns it into an experience on a completely different dimension.” The facility also cast renowned voice actors such as Yuki Kaji and Takehito Koyasu, with Ohashi noting that “the skill of the voice actors transforms the quality of the experience” (Mogura VR (in Japanese)).

Its programs focus on themes such as Egyptian pyramids and European paintings, produced under the supervision of the Musée d’Orsay and Egyptologist Sakuji Yoshimura. The operator also had plans to open a location in Nagoya and release a new production themed around ukiyo-e woodblock prints.

The Oshi Lab Note: The fact that Immersive Journey’s core audience consists of visitors in their 40s to 60s—with women making up 60% of attendance—likely runs counter to what many corporate planners would assume for VR. Ohashi himself noted, “Rather than specifically targeting them, we were simply able to deliver something that genuinely resonated with and earned the appreciation of those visitors.” It is the quality and subject matter of the content, not the novelty of the hardware, that determines who shows up. This case highlights the danger of locking in narrow demographic assumptions too early.

HARE x VRChat — An Apparel Brand Selling 3D Fashion Items

The fashion brand “HARE” released items from its Autumn/Winter 2025 collection as 3D digital fashion for VRChat. Four items—a top, a lace-up skirt, a faux mouton jacket, and boots—were sold for 3,000 yen on the marketplace BOOTH, offering semi-compatible fitting for popular avatars including Manuka, Shinano, and Lasyusha. 3D modeling was handled by Gugenka, and the virtual singer yosumi served as the cover model for the main promotional visual (Mogura VR (in Japanese)).

The Oshi Lab Note: HARE released the exact same seasonal collection in 3D as it sold in physical stores. What matters here is that these items were sold as a 3,000-yen commercial product rather than given away as a promotional novelty. For people who spend time in virtual worlds, the clothes they put on their avatars are a direct form of self-expression. This move shows an apparel company securing an entirely new kind of sales floor.

DIAGRAMKey Performance & Funding Numbers From This Week's Reports

9x YoY: New LINE user growth in DyDo DRINCO's Blue Archive campaign (+18 units in purchases by participants during the campaign)
12–24x: Conversion rate multiple of branded search users compared to general search users
120,000: First-year visitors to VR venue Immersive Journey (60% women, mainly ages 40–69)
250M JPY: Cumulative funding raised by VIC Inc. for its BackStage 1-on-1 call platform

Source: The Oshi Lab's summary of reported figures in this issue

Editorial Reflections on the Week

What became clear across the first week of the new year is a structural shift: rather than relying on an oshi to “bring fans to the brand,” companies are going out to the places where fans already spend their time.

Uber Eats stepped into the time fans spend watching shows at home, while DyDo DRINCO “politely visited” existing fan communities. HEP FIVE turned time spent shopping inside its building into an oshi experience. None of these companies tried to build a brand-new, company-centric gathering place from scratch; instead, they placed their products and campaigns right inside the existing rhythms of fans’ daily lives. With DyDo DRINCO growing its new LINE users ninefold year-over-year, this mindset is proving effective in practice.

On the other hand, Cloudhead Games laying off 70% of its staff reminds us that even in fields with passionate fans, business continuity is never guaranteed. When juxtaposed with the Roblox community raising 18 million yen through its own crowdfunding efforts, a fundamental question emerges about who will financially sustain creative ecosystems going forward.

Which communities do your fans belong to, and how do they spend their everyday hours? We encourage you to look at this week’s developments alongside our guide to the Design Principles of Oshikatsu Marketing.

Weekly Oshikatsu News brings you a curated roundup of oshikatsu and fan business developments every week. You can browse past issues in our Oshikatsu x News category.