COVER Sales Up 27.2% & PokéPark KANTO Launches: Weekly Oshikatsu News (November 14, 2025)

Here is our roundup of the most notable corporate oshikatsu (fan-support activities) marketing and fan business news from the week of November 7 to November 13, 2025.

This Week’s Highlights

This was a week in which the momentum of oshikatsu was clearly reflected in financial earnings and survey statistics.

In the FY2026 second-quarter financial results for COVER Corporation, the operator of hololive, net sales rose 27.2% year-over-year to 21.754 billion yen. Meanwhile, GREE Holdings renamed its “Metaverse Business” to the “VTuber Business,” reporting that operating profit for the segment surged 142.4% year-over-year. Surveys revealing the day-to-day realities of fans were also released during the same period. In a reader survey conducted by Anime! Anime!, “financial concerns” topped the list of oshikatsu worries at roughly 45%. And in a study by Mynavi Teens Lab, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Infinity Castle, which surpassed approximately 35 billion yen in box office revenue, was chosen as the number-one trend among teenage girls.

Companies were also investing heavily in physical venues. The Pokémon Company announced that its first permanent outdoor facility, “PokéPark KANTO,” will open on February 5, 2026. Additionally, plans were announced for a new XR hub spanning more than 100 tsubo (over 3,500 square feet) to open in December at Canal City Hakata. All in all, it was a week where businesses visibly treated fan enthusiasm not merely as a vague “feeling,” but as concrete “numbers.”

DIAGRAMKey Oshikatsu Business and Survey Figures Reported This Week

21.754B yen: COVER Q2 FY2026 net sales (up 27.2% year-over-year)
+142.4%: Year-over-year operating profit growth for GREE's VTuber Business
~45%: Share of surveyed fans citing finances as their top oshikatsu worry
~35B yen: Box office revenue surpassed by Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle in 73 days

Source: The Oshi Lab’s summary of the article

Two New Surveys Backed Up the Realities of Oshikatsu with Hard Numbers

“Financial Concerns” Top the List of Worries — Anime! Anime! Reader Survey

To mark “Good Oshi Day” (Ii Oshi no Hi) on November 4, the anime news outlet Anime! Anime! conducted a reader survey titled “Tell Us About Your ‘Oshi’!” Between October 20 and October 27, 58 respondents took part. In response to the question “What kind of merchandise do you buy?”, acrylic stands ranked first at 65%, and more than 90% of respondents reported purchasing merchandise overall. For events attended, “collaboration cafes” were the most common answer at 20%. Event attendance frequency was evenly split, with “once a year,” “once every three months,” and “once every six months” each accounting for 20%. On the other hand, “financial concerns” ranked as the single biggest worry in oshikatsu at roughly 45%. Respondents also voiced issues such as “not having enough storage space” and “event venues being too far away” (Anime! Anime! (in Japanese)).

When asked “How many oshi (favorites you actively support) do you have?”, the most common response was “three to five.”

Lab Note: The fact that “financial concerns” emerged as the most frequent worry indicates that some respondents feel financial constraints on their oshikatsu. While respondents spending within 5,000 yen per month and those spending within 10,000 yen per month were tied at 30% each, there was also a distinct segment spending 50,000 yen or more. When companies sell products to oshikatsu consumers, rather than narrowing their offerings to a single price point, they need to prepare multiple pricing tiers informed by the overall size of the oshikatsu market.

Demon Slayer and Labubu Rank Near the Top — 2025 Trend Ranking Among Teenage Girls

On November 12, “Mynavi Teens Lab,” operated by Mynavi Corporation, released its “2025 Trend Ranking Chosen by Teenage Girls.” The survey covered 613 female respondents aged 13 to 19, marking the 11th year since the annual survey began in 2015. Taking first place in the “Things/Phenomena (Koto)” category was Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Infinity Castle – Part 1: Akaza Returns. The film had surpassed approximately 35 billion yen in box office revenue within 73 days of its release. “Labubu,” a character created by a Hong Kong artist, also ranked near the top, with figures from the Chinese toy maker POP MART proving so popular that they became temporarily difficult to obtain. First place in the “People (Hito)” category went to Hina Nagahama, a cast member on an ABEMA romance reality show (AdverTimes. (in Japanese)).

Lab Note: The survey report also notes that teenage girls deliberately divide up their use of AI tools depending on the task: “Gemini for studying, ChatGPT for personal advice, and Grok for looking things up on X.” This demographic carefully selects how it gathers information based on specific goals. When planning IP collaborations aimed at this age group, simply picking a popular franchise is not enough—unless marketers also design for which social platforms and which AI tools will carry the information, the campaign will not even get noticed.

Food Brands and Character Advertising Gave Purchasing an Extra Push

Mizkan “Ajipon” — Pon Matsuri Campaign Builds on 200,000 Posts from Last Year

To coincide with “Ajipon Day” on November 10, condiment maker Mizkan held a social media campaign titled “Jump Out and Break the Mold from Reiwa! Showa Year 100 Pon Matsuri.” Created in 1964, the citrus-seasoned soy sauce brand Ajipon celebrated its 61st anniversary this year. The first installment of the campaign held last year generated roughly 200,000 related posts on X, drawing widespread attention. This year, the company announced a lottery giveaway of 61 different types of “Pon Matsuri merchandise”—including a solid-gold Ajipon bottle—for 830 winners. Across the six days from November 10 to November 15, Mizkan unveiled new merchandise items every single day. Hiroto Iyama of the company’s Communications Division remarked that “last year’s success created immense pressure,” adding, “We believe this year’s lineup will definitely delight Ajipon fans” (AdverTimes. (in Japanese)).

Lab Note: Mizkan publicly shared its concrete results from the previous year (approximately 200,000 posts) when announcing this year’s initiative. For fans, seeing whether an event is “even bigger than last year” serves as a direct motivation to participate. Long-running fan initiatives are much more effective when framed not as isolated one-off stunts, but as multi-year campaigns that build on year-over-year results in line with corporate collaboration design principles.

Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai — Myaku-Myaku Drives Store Traffic Across 7 Osaka Locations

On November 3, the Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai Master Licensing Office rolled out a concentrated poster advertising campaign featuring the official mascot “Myaku-Myaku” across Osaka City. Earlier advertisements displayed at Yumeshima Station since April had wrapped up at the end of October following the conclusion of the Expo. Serving as a sequel to those ads, the new campaign was posted at seven major station locations—including Hankyu Osaka-Umeda Station and Shin-Osaka Station—as well as inside trains on the Kintetsu Minami-Osaka Line. Every placement was designed to guide commuters and shoppers to official stores carrying licensed Expo merchandise. The campaign used six distinct visual designs, with copywriting tailored to each specific location. Creative Director Yasuyuki Hori stated, “While keeping the commercially spirited Myaku-Myaku’s signature ‘cute pressure’ intact, we approached passersby with diverse high-impact copy and visuals matched to each location” (AdverTimes. (in Japanese)).

Lab Note: The licensing office deliberately relaunched its advertising less than a month after the Expo closed. The period immediately following the end of a major event is when it is most easily forgotten—yet it is also the moment when people who “haven’t bought any merchandise yet” are easiest to spur into action. Much like buzz-building fan support ads (ouen koukoku), intentionally targeting the moment when public attention has passed its peak and begun to subside is an effective strategy.

VTuber Companies Demonstrated Operational Strength Through Both Earnings and Legal Action

COVER Reports Higher Revenue and Lower Profit, While GREE’s VTuber Business Posts Gains in Both

COVER Corporation, which operates hololive, announced its second-quarter (interim) financial results for the fiscal year ending March 2026. Net sales reached 21.754 billion yen, up 27.2% year-over-year. Broken down by segment, the live/events business rose 57.7% year-over-year to 2.356 billion yen, and the merchandising business grew 32.5% to 11.678 billion yen. However, operating profit declined 20.9% year-over-year to 2.666 billion yen, resulting in higher revenue but lower profit. Key factors included the impact of North American tariffs and inventory write-downs, alongside upfront investments in expressive technology, logistics infrastructure, and overseas business development (Mogura VR (in Japanese)). Meanwhile, GREE Holdings announced on November 6 that it had renamed its former “Metaverse Business” segment to the “VTuber Business.” Centered on the VTuber livestreaming app “REALITY,” operating profit for the segment jumped 142.4% year-over-year, setting an all-time quarterly record. For the full fiscal year ending June 2026, the company projected net sales of 11.6 billion yen (up 40% year-over-year) and operating profit of 1.8 billion yen (up 177% year-over-year) (Mogura VR (in Japanese)).

Lab Note: Within the very same week, two VTuber-related companies announced distinct management decisions: COVER chose to continue investing even at the cost of lower short-term profits alongside higher sales, while GREE chose to rename its business segment to match its actual core operations. Both companies are prioritizing operational reality and future growth potential over short-term profit margins. Because the fan business is a sector where early-stage numbers often fluctuate sharply, transparently disclosing where management is investing helps build trust among investors outside the immediate fanbase.

hololive production — Legal Action on the Table Over Impersonation of Graduated Talents and Former Staff

On November 10, COVER issued a public warning regarding impersonation accounts posing as talents affiliated with hololive. The company confirmed the existence of social media accounts and YouTube channels using names, profiles, and character designs evocative of graduated talent “Hiodoshi Ao” and former staff member “Harusaki Nodoka.” Keeping potential violations of personal rights, trademark infringement, and defamation in mind, COVER announced that it is considering both criminal and civil legal action and is working in coordination with relevant partner companies, attorneys, and the police. The company also called on fans to refrain from reacting to, following, or sharing posts from the offending accounts (Inside (in Japanese), Mogura VR (in Japanese)).

Lab Note: Combating impersonation accounts is unglamorous, behind-the-scenes work. Even so, it plays a vital role in protecting fans from spending their time, emotions, and sometimes even money on fake accounts. The more a business revolves around IP and human talent, the more it needs a brand protection framework that keeps pace with its growth. Pursuing legal measures swiftly and transparently demonstrates genuine sincerity toward the fan community.

DIAGRAMHow Companies Deployed IP Across Everyday Touchpoints and Destinations

Everyday Food & Retail

KFC x Monster Hunter Wilds: Limited menu packs with in-game items plus 4 decorated special stores
Sukiya & Toyo Suisan x Gundam GQuuuuuuX: Concurrent restaurant toppings and supermarket cup noodles
Bandai x Uniqlo UT & Tanita x Golden Kamuy: Wearable apparel, playable devices, and voice-equipped scales

Transit & Permanent Venues

BanG Dream! x Haneda Airport: Turning a transit hub into a fan destination before Roselia's Asia tour
Sharp x Kintetsu: Pairing new Xrostella VR1 glasses with Virtual Abeno Harukas (16M+ cumulative visitors)
PokéPark KANTO & Japan XR Center: Building permanent venues inside existing theme parks and malls

Source: The Oshi Lab’s summary of the article

KFC x Monster Hunter Wilds — Special Decorated Stores and In-Game Items

Kentucky Fried Chicken Japan announced a collaboration with Monster Hunter Wilds. Available for a limited time from November 19 to December 16, the campaign offers four varieties of “Monster Hunter Collaboration Packs.” Buyers receive codes for collaboration charms and in-game items usable within the game. In a lottery campaign exclusive to KFC Net Orders, 20 winners receive a collaboration hoodie and 200 winners receive a Felyne (Airou) pass case. Four locations nationwide—Takadanobaba and Akihabara in Tokyo, plus Nankai Namba Station and Abeno Q’s Mall in Osaka—serve as special collaboration stores featuring life-size character standees and special background music inside the restaurants (Inside (in Japanese)).

Lab Note: KFC’s decision to limit its special themed locations to just four stores is a pragmatic approach. Rather than spreading a diluted experience thin across every outlet nationwide, concentrating the in-store production into four locations creates a genuine “reason to go out of your way to visit.” When national chains run campaigns aimed at oshikatsu fans, narrowing the number of participating venues to enrich the experience at each location is a cost-effective model worth noting.

Sukiya and Toyo Suisan — Restaurant Chain and Instant Noodle Maker Announce Back-to-Back GQuuuuuuX Collaborations

Beef bowl chain Sukiya announced that it will hold a collaboration campaign titled “This Moment, Sparkling.” (Kono Hitotoki, Kirakira.) with the anime Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX. Running from November 18 to December 26 at locations nationwide, customers who order a collaboration-exclusive “M.A.V Topping Set” (priced at 520 yen or 320 yen) receive an original sticker during the first wave and an A5 clear file folder during the second wave. Participating stores also feature special in-store audio broadcasts voiced by characters from the series (Denfaminicogamer (in Japanese)). In the same week, food manufacturer Toyo Suisan announced that it will release GQuuuuuuX collaboration packaging for its “Akai Kitsune Udon” and “Midori no Tanuki Tensoba” cup noodles on November 17, at a suggested retail price of 236 yen (before tax). Placing the two packages side by side completes the letters “M.A.V.” across the lids (Inside (in Japanese)).

Lab Note: This week saw both a major restaurant chain and an instant noodle maker announce tie-ins with the exact same anime title one after another. As a result, fans are bound to encounter the series somewhere in their daily routine—“at Sukiya today, and at the supermarket tomorrow.” Compared to a single standalone collaboration cafe, placing an IP across multiple everyday shopping and dining locations keeps fans thinking about the work over a much longer span of time.

Apparel and Household Goods Turned Characters into Everyday Essentials

Bandai x Uniqlo UT — Tamagotchi Graphic Tees and Original Device Launching December 19

Bandai’s Lifestyle Division announced that it will release a Tamagotchi UT collection at Uniqlo on December 19. Alongside four women’s T-shirt designs (1,990 yen each), the lineup includes one UT-original Tamagotchi device (2,990 yen) designed as an homage to the first-generation Tamagotchi hardware and packaging. A special campaign website also launched a mini-game in which Mametchi wears a UT shirt and collects items (Inside (in Japanese)).

Lab Note: Bandai is selling wearable T-shirts and an actual playable device simultaneously. This structure brings together both “fans who want to wear the brand” and “fans who want to play with the toy” on a single release date. When planning IP collaborations, pairing something wearable with something interactive allows brands to capture customer segments with different purchasing motivations in a single campaign.

Tanita x Golden Kamuy — Body Composition Monitor and Pedometers Featuring Voice Actor Recordings

Health equipment maker Tanita offered reservation-only collaboration products with the TV anime Golden Kamuy through the Tanita Online Shop. The lineup consisted of one voice-equipped body composition monitor (22,000 yen) and 26 varieties of 3D-sensor pedometers (3,520 yen each). The body composition monitor features audio from the four voice actors behind Sugimoto, Tanigaki, Tsukishima, and Koito, who guide users through initial setup and announce measurement results. If a user’s body fat percentage is high, the device even responds with in-character lines true to the series. Pre-orders were scheduled to close at 1:00 p.m. on December 5, with shipping slated for late February 2026 or later (Anime! Anime! (in Japanese)).

Lab Note: Tanita has consistently pursued the strategy of embedding character voices into body composition monitors—appliances that people use every single day. While most fan merchandise ends up sitting on a shelf for display, this scale is engineered so that “a fan experience happens every time you step on it.” When everyday consumer goods manufacturers partner with an IP, the real differentiator goes beyond surface visual design to whether the character can be woven directly into the act of using the product.

Airports and Real Estate Developers Expanded Fan Experiences Through Characters and VR

BanG Dream! x Haneda Airport — Roselia Appears in Cabin Attendant Uniforms

A special collaboration between BanG Dream! and Haneda Airport, titled “Fly to the World! BanG Dream! x Haneda Airport Special Collaboration,” ran from November 7 to December 7. At a press conference held on November 7, the five members of the unit Roselia appeared dressed in cabin attendant uniforms. Shoppers who spent 3,000 yen or more on a single receipt at participating airport stores received an original novelty gift, and both terminals featured photo spots as well as displays of collaboration-exclusive costumes. The franchise celebrated its 10th anniversary this year, with Roselia scheduled to embark on an Asia tour shortly afterward (Anime! Anime! (in Japanese)).

Lab Note: This collaboration transforms an airport—normally just a transit point people pass through—into a destination that fans purposefully travel to visit. Because the context of an upcoming overseas tour aligns naturally with the cabin attendant visuals, the tie-in carries far more persuasive weight than a generic corporate promotion. For companies that own transportation infrastructure, there is still vast untapped potential to turn spaces people merely pass through into experiential destinations.

Sharp x Kintetsu Group — New VR Hardware Paired with Virtual Abeno Harukas

Sharp and Kintetsu Real Estate announced the launch of a collaboration in the VR and metaverse space. By combining the “Xrostella VR1” VR glasses developed by Sharp with “Virtual Abeno Harukas,” a metaverse space operated by Kintetsu Real Estate, the two companies aim to create new virtual experiences. Virtual Abeno Harukas had already recorded a cumulative total of more than 16 million participants. The partners jointly exhibited an experience booth at “Kintetsu Railway Festival 2025” on November 1 and 2, and announced plans to co-exhibit at “XR Kaigi 2025” from December 1 to 3, where they would showcase a VR roller coaster demo set against the night view of the Abeno Harukas skyscraper (Mogura VR (in Japanese)).

Lab Note: It is precisely because Virtual Abeno Harukas has a proven track record of 16 million cumulative participants that this partnership with a new hardware device became viable. Rather than building a metaverse world from scratch, the device maker is leveraging an established virtual space. For real estate developers and commercial complexes, maintaining and operating digital content over the long term creates an asset that later entrants will actively want to partner with.

Investments in Large-Scale Fan Experience Venues Gained Momentum

PokéPark KANTO — Pokémon to Open First Permanent Outdoor Facility in February 2026

The Pokémon Company announced that “PokéPark KANTO,” the franchise’s first permanent outdoor facility, would open on February 5, 2026. Built within a section of the Yomiuri Land amusement park in the Kanto region, the facility spans approximately 2.6 hectares (about 6.4 acres). It consists of two distinct areas: “Pokémon Forest,” where visitors can observe the ecology of Pokémon in nature, and “Sedge Town” (Kayatsuri Town), a town area equipped with a Pokémon Center and a Gym. Applications for the ticket purchase lottery were announced to open at 6:00 p.m. on November 21, and admission tickets to PokéPark KANTO also include entry into Yomiuri Land itself (Dengeki Online (in Japanese)).

Lab Note: Building a permanent attraction inside a section of an existing amusement park is a highly practical move. It keeps initial capital investment lower than acquiring and developing land from scratch, while integrating a permanent IP experience directly into the foot traffic of visitors who already come to the theme park. For companies considering fan facilities designed for long-term operation, joint development with an existing venue is a compelling option.

Japan XR Center — XR Hub Exceeding 100 Tsubo to Open at Canal City Hakata

Japan XR Center Inc. announced that it would open a directly managed facility, “XR CENTER GAME SPACE Fukuoka,” at Canal City Hakata in Fukuoka City in December 2025. Announced as a joint operation with Dynamo Amusement Inc. of the GENDA Group, the venue spans more than 100 tsubo (over 3,500 square feet). The lineup was announced to include the ride-style VR attraction “Ultra Reverse Bungee” and the free-roam competitive VR game “VR Sabaspo INFINITY,” alongside the survival action game “ZOMBIE STORM,” which had already proven popular at locations such as its Nakano Broadway store (PR TIMES (in Japanese)).

Lab Note: Japan XR Center is opening its doors inside a commercial complex where arcades, movie theaters, and character goods shops are already clustered together. Setting up shop in a place where fan demographics naturally congregate closely mirrors the logic behind anime pilgrimage (seichi junrei), offering a clear benchmark for experiential content providers choosing where to open new locations.

This Week’s Takeaways

This was a week in which more companies spoke about the momentum of oshikatsu through concrete “numbers.”

COVER’s 27.2% revenue increase, the 142.4% operating profit surge in GREE’s VTuber Business, Mizkan Ajipon’s 200,000 social media posts from the previous year, and Demon Slayer’s roughly 35 billion yen box office haul all saw companies releasing specific performance figures to demonstrate the scale of fan enthusiasm. At the same time, the Anime! Anime! survey revealed that “financial concerns” are the most common worry among fans, underscoring that fan spending has real limits. The more a fanbase can be described through impressive numbers, the more acutely it also faces personal budget constraints.

Furthermore, as seen in the back-to-back IP collaboration announcements from restaurant chains and food manufacturers, there was a notable shift toward placing content across multiple touchpoints in everyday life rather than relying solely on single large-scale events. When auditing where and how many times your brand intersects with fans, this week’s developments serve as a practical reference alongside our guides on corporate collaboration design principles and fan marketing methods.

Weekly Oshikatsu News brings you a weekly roundup of the intersection between oshikatsu and business. You can browse past issues in the Oshikatsu x News category.