Theme parks have become a place to go and meet your oshi’s world
What fans buy at a theme park is not only the right to ride the attractions. They pick out clothes in their oshi color, walk through scenery from the work, eat limited-edition food, and take photos with merchandise. From the preparation to the sharing after they get home, the whole thing has become a single oshi-katsu experience.
This change also shows up in how long the preparation lasts. In the weeks between choosing a day and the day itself, fans look for outfits, research the order in which to see things, and talk it over with whoever is coming along. That time is already part of the experience.
Talking things over with your companions is part of the experience, too. Who you go with changes where you go and how the photos turn out.
Tokyo Disney Resort and Universal Studios Japan (USJ) both create strong immersion. But their methods are opposites. Disney deepens a world fans already love without breaking it, while USJ translates whatever world is hot right now into a real-life experience.
This difference shows up in how often people visit, too. People who go as a place to come home to visit the same park several times a year, and find comfort in the fact that it doesn’t change. People who chase visit for each new event and want an experience different from last time.
This isn’t about which one is better. But if one venue tries to do both, it is easy to betray both sets of expectations. The two parks have settled into different shapes partly because of that difficulty.
Two ways of designing an IP experience
It grows its own IP over the long term and keeps stories, spaces, hotels, and products together as one world.
It also curates outside IP across franchises and turns it into a limited-time participatory experience.
Disney grows its own IP into a world you can love for life
Disney’s strength is that it can move films, characters, attractions, hotels, and merchandise inside the same story. At Fantasy Springs in Tokyo DisneySea, fans don’t just watch a work. They experience the scenery, the sound, the food, and even the stay as part of the story.
The advantage of owning the works yourself is that there is no expiry date. If the period you can use something is fixed by contract, you can’t invest beyond it. Because Disney knows it can use its IP for a long time, it can spend heavily on buildings and streetscapes.
In this design, fans move from being spectators to being part of the cast. You can return as an adult to a work you loved as a child, and walk the same places with your own children. The IP’s value builds up not as a single hit but as memories that span generations, and that is the strength of the Disney model.
Keeping a world intact comes with quite a few constraints. The music playing in the park, the way staff speak, even the look of the trash cans: nothing that falls outside the story can be placed there. If you thought only about efficiency, it would be a string of choices that don’t pay.
They keep doing it anyway, because immersion, once broken, does not come back. A single moment that pulls you back to reality can change how you remember the whole day. Investing in the details is closer to insurance that protects the memory of the experience.
USJ turns in-demand IP into an experience you can only have now
USJ combines a wide range of IP, not only its own: anime, games, mystery, and more. At Universal Cool Japan, fans of different works gather in the same season, and each work’s way of playing is worked into the park experience.
Having fans of different works gather on the same day has a distinctive effect. You see someone dressed as a different IP in the park and learn about that work. There aren’t many places where fandoms pass each other so naturally.
At Super Nintendo World, the park creates the feeling of stepping into the game not just by looking, but by moving, collecting, and taking on challenges. Rather than putting a picture of the work on display, it designs what a fan has to do to become the protagonist. That is where USJ’s editorial power lies.
Limited runs have side effects, too. For people who couldn’t go, it becomes an experience they can never get back. The more it buzzes on social media, the stronger the sense of exclusion for those who couldn’t take part.
That is why what happens after the event ends matters. Keep footage and records, move part of it into a permanent exhibit, bring it back in the next project. If nothing is left after it ends, trust in the next limited run also wears away.
Heaven is becoming part of the world; hell is immersion breaking
Satisfaction at a theme park is not decided by a single attraction. You look up the rules before entering, choose your outfit, take photos on the day, and post after you get home. If somewhere in that flow there is a lack of explanation, a long wait, or bulk buying, you are suddenly pulled from the world of the work back to reality.
The moment immersion breaks is usually when the operator’s circumstances show: a sudden notice of cancellation, inconsistent guidance, no explanation for a sell-out. Things that don’t exist in the world of the work suddenly appear in front of you.
Disney has the problem that protecting a consistent world slows change. USJ carries the burden of constantly refreshing what people are talking about, depending on contracts with outside IP and on popularity. Each strength is also, as it stands, an operational risk, so copying either one on the surface won’t produce the same result.
That said, rising prices can’t be ignored. For a family, the total for one day gets large, and more people say they can no longer go as casually as before.
The idea of raising prices in exchange for reducing crowds makes sense in theory, but it also draws the criticism that the park becomes a place only those who can afford it can visit. Who is this place meant to stay for? Price design can’t escape that question.
IMMERSION CHECKFour touchpoints that keep an IP experience from breaking midway
- Before the visit, fans can find out the prices, costumes, and photo rules
- On site, they can take part in actions true to the work
- The quality of the merchandise and food supports the world
- After going home, the story continues through photos and the next project
Before goods, decide who fans get to become
- 01DiscoverMeeting the work or project
- 02DressChoosing clothes, colors, and things to carry
- 03Take partWalk, play, and eat
- 04KeepBring home photos and goods
- 05Meet againA reason for the next visit is born
Organized by The Oshi Lab. There is also a loop from sharing after the visit back to “Discover” for new people.
Goods support the fourth stage, “Keep.” If you think only about products from the start, the dressing and participating that come before it get weaker, and fans are left outside the world.
The center of the experience is who fans can become in that place. A character, an adventurer, a fellow supporter. Once a role is found, a visit is no longer consumption but becomes your own story.
Once the role is decided, the necessary preparation follows naturally. For an adventurer, a map and tools; for a fellow supporter, colors and a voice. Fans know what to bring, and the time leading up to the day turns into anticipation.
Conversely, if the role stays vague, visitors become mere onlookers. An experience where you just take photos and go home is one that may become a memory, but rarely a reason to come back.
Summary: the two parks answer different ways of loving your oshi
- A place to return toDisney grows its own IP long and deep, creating memories that cross generations.
- A place to go nowUSJ curates in-demand IP and creates limited-time reasons to take part.
- Yourself inside the storyBoth design experiences in which fans can become part of the world.
The two parks have no simple winner. The value sought differs between people who want to return again and again to a world they have always loved and people who want to chase a frenzy that exists only now. What matters is being clear about which way of loving your oshi you are answering.
What companies can learn from these two is also clearly divided. Do you want to grow IP for a long relationship, or ride what is buzzing now? Depending on which you choose, the time, cost, and structure you need all change.
The danger is trying to do both and ending up halfway. If you borrow trending IP while hoping to make it a long-term asset, the contracts and the design stop fitting together. Narrowing your goal to one can, in the end, bring you closer to both more often than you might expect.
The same person may look for both at different times. Some years you want to settle in; other years you want to chase something new. The very fact that the two places exist side by side has meaning.
Strong IP alone does not make a strong experience. When outfits, participation, photography, and sharing can be made into one story, a theme park changes from “a place we went to play” into “the memory of time spent with my oshi.”
Even with the same admission price, how you enjoy a day changes with the time you stay, travel, meals, and the cost of extra experiences. When comparing, it helps to think first about what you want to experience with this trip’s budget and time, not only whether the work you love is there. That way you can choose what suits you.
