Kobe Steel's 120th-Anniversary Anime; Demon Slayer's 2.4M FamilyMart Sales: Oshikatsu News (Aug 1, 2025)

Here is our roundup of notable corporate oshikatsu (fan-support activities) marketing and fan-business news from the week of July 25 to July 31, 2025.

This Week’s Highlights

The defining theme of the week was companies celebrating their own anniversaries by creating original content.

Ahead of the 120th anniversary of its founding on September 1, 2025, Kobe Steel independently produced an original anime titled Ashita no Arika (“Where Tomorrow Lies”). The script was written by Hiroyuki Yatsu, writer of the 2026 NHK taiga historical drama Toyotomi Kyodai! (“The Toyotomi Brothers!”), while the character designs were created by Yoshiharu Sato, known for My Neighbor Totoro. Brand ambassador Nao provided the lead voice. During the same week, confectionery maker Fujiya celebrated the 75th anniversary of its mascot Peko-chan with a pop-up event, and the Sunshine City Prince Hotel launched a collaboration project to commemorate the 45th anniversary of its opening.

There was also strong movement on the numbers front. Collaboration products between convenience store chain FamilyMart and Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba surpassed 2.4 million cumulative units sold within two weeks of launch. Sanrio made the XR company Gugenka a subsidiary, accelerating its global intellectual property (IP) platform strategy. In the gaming sector, Spike Chunsoft announced that it would stop accepting physical gifts addressed to its game characters, signaling a move to redesign how companies receive expressions of appreciation from fans.

DIAGRAMKey Fan-Business Milestones Reported This Week

2.4M+: Demon Slayer collaboration items sold at FamilyMart in two weeks
300,000+: Cumulative lessons taken via Gecipe’s eSports English service
200,000+: Cumulative visitors to Yokosuka City’s Metaverse Yokosuka on VRChat
200,000+: Cumulative attendees across the Life Like a Live! virtual idol festival series

Source: The Oshi Lab’s summary of the article

Established Companies Celebrate Their Anniversaries with Anime and Advertising

Kobe Steel — A 120th-Anniversary Anime Crafted by a Taiga Drama Screenwriter and a Totoro Animation Director

Kobe Steel (KOBELCO) will mark the 120th anniversary of its founding on September 1, 2025. To commemorate the milestone, the company produced an original animated short titled Ashita no Arika -KOBELCO 120th Anniversary Animation- (“Where Tomorrow Lies”) and plans to release it on a special website on September 2. The protagonist is Asumi, an employee working at KOBELCO. The screenplay was written by Hiroyuki Yatsu, known for the 2026 NHK taiga historical drama Toyotomi Kyodai! and the hit television drama Hanzawa Naoki. Yoshiharu Sato of My Neighbor Totoro served as chief animation director and character designer, and KOBELCO brand ambassador Nao voiced the protagonist. The company also incorporated a vote by newly hired career-track employees when deciding on the final title (AdverTimes. (in Japanese)).

Alongside the animation, Kobe Steel ran parallel anniversary projects, including sponsoring high school rugby and endorsing a mountain-climbing project in the city of Kobe.

Lab Note: Kobe Steel enlisted prominent external creators to turn 120 years of corporate history into a narrative story. Corporate anniversary initiatives often begin and end with printed company histories or internal ceremonies. By making an employee the protagonist of an animated work, Kobe Steel turned intangible goals—such as internal pride and attachment to the company—into a visible story that people outside the company can also appreciate. Reflecting the votes of new hires in the title is also a useful model for giving employees a personal stake in an anniversary project.

Shueisha and Dentsu Turn Tokyo’s Ring Road No. 8 into a “Kaiju” Zone with Out-of-Home Ads

The manga series Kaiju No. 8, serialized on the digital platform Shonen Jump+, reached its final chapter on July 18, 2025. To promote both the broadcast premiere of the anime’s second season the following day on July 19 and a game scheduled for release at the end of August, publisher Shueisha and advertising agency Dentsu rolled out an out-of-home (OOH) advertising campaign along Tokyo’s Ring Road No. 8 (Kanjo Hachigosen, or Kanpachi). Built around the tagline “Kaiju Arrive” (Kaiju Kitaru), billboards designed to make the buildings themselves look as if they had been smashed open by giant monsters were installed at 23 locations across six Tokyo wards, including Ota and Setagaya. Poster advertisements were also placed at eight nearby train stations, and five videos depicting giant monsters appearing in the real world were released on X. Dentsu creative director Rei Hanada explained the concept behind the campaign, stating that the team wanted to express a timeline in which giant monsters actually appear in everyday life (AdverTimes. (in Japanese)).

Lab Note: Matching the colors of the billboards to the actual buildings they were mounted on and rendering the destruction marks with realistic detail were the sparks that got people talking. On social media, passersby posted reactions about stumbling across the signs during their daily walks. Craftsmanship that does not immediately scream “advertisement” drives organic discovery and online sharing. Allowing the world of a creative work to spill over into real city streets is a technique with wide potential across genres.

Convenience Stores and Confectioners Drive Numbers Through Anniversaries and Collaborations

FamilyMart × Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba — Surpassing 2.4 Million Units Sold in Two Weeks

Across approximately 16,300 FamilyMart convenience stores nationwide, the chain held a collaborative campaign titled “Take a Break with Tanjiro and Friends at Famima” (Famima de Tanjiro-tachi to Hitoyasumi). The campaign celebrated the theatrical release of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Infinity Castle – Part 1: Akaza Returns. Cumulative sales of the collaboration items reached 2.4 million units within two weeks of the campaign’s July 15, 2025 launch. The lineup featured nine items across sweets, bread, and chilled beverages, including the “Tanjiro & Giyu Bond of Two Onigiri Rice Ball” and “Shinobu Kocho’s Wisteria-Colored Melon Bread.” FamilyMart also ran a giveaway where customers purchasing eligible items could enter to win limited-edition merchandise featuring newly drawn illustrations by animation studio ufotable (Anime! Anime! (in Japanese)).

Lab Note: Selling 2.4 million items in two weeks comes down to the sheer distribution reach of delivering products to roughly 16,300 stores across the country. Pop-up shops and destination events inevitably limit how many people can attend in person. By contrast, the greatest strength of a convenience store collaboration is that fans can pick up items in their own neighborhood. The larger an IP’s overall fanbase, the more total sales volume depends on how widely products can be placed inside everyday shopping routines alongside experiential, limited-venue events.

Fujiya — Celebrating Peko-chan’s 75th Anniversary with a Pop-Up in Its Founding City of Yokohama

To celebrate the 75th anniversary of its mascot character Peko-chan in 2025, confectionery company Fujiya held the “Fujiya Peko-chan POPUP” at the Yokohama Takashimaya department store from July 30 to August 5. Fujiya was founded as a Western-style confectionery shop in the Motomachi district of Yokohama in 1910, and Peko-chan debuted 40 years later in 1950. The pop-up featured an early pre-release of the “Yokohama Motomachi × Peko-chan Original Butter Sandwich” as well as the “PEKO 75th Happy Bag,” an assortment of exclusive products bearing the 75th-anniversary logo limited to 75 bags per day (Anime! Anime! (in Japanese), Yokohama de Kuraso (in Japanese), AppBank (in Japanese), CharaLab (in Japanese)).

Lab Note: For Peko-chan’s 75th anniversary, Fujiya paired nationwide commemorative product sales with a limited-time pop-up shop in its founding city of Yokohama. Designing an activation that brings people together at a brand’s birthplace ensures an anniversary campaign does not end merely with price discounts or expanded production runs. Companies with a founding story rooted in a specific region are especially well positioned to celebrate milestones at their place of origin.

be LEGEND × Jujutsu Kaisen — Experiencing “Cursed Energy” Through Lightly Carbonated Protein

The protein supplement brand be LEGEND announced its second collaboration protein lineup with the television anime Jujutsu Kaisen. The release featured two varieties: “Cursed Energy Soda Flavor” (Juryoku Soda Fumi), inspired by protagonist Yuji Itadori’s Cursed Energy, and “Black Flash Cola Flavor” (Kokusen Cola Fumi), inspired by the signature Black Flash technique. Both went on sale at 12:00 p.m. on August 1, 2025, in limited quantities of 5,000 bags each. Distribution channels included the official be LEGEND online store, Amazon, Rakuten, and Don Quijote discount stores (excluding certain locations). Each 900-gram bag (approximately 30 servings) was priced at 3,980 yen including tax (Anime! Anime! (in Japanese), Dengeki Online (in Japanese)).

Lab Note: What sets be LEGEND apart here is using the flavor profile of a practical everyday supplement like protein powder to evoke a character’s signature move and story world. Collaborations in everyday consumer goods categories often stop at swapping out the outer packaging. When an IP’s lore is built into the sensory experience of the flavor itself, fans engage with the brand and the story every single time they drink a serving.

Apparel Brands Widen the Entryway to “Wearable Oshikatsu” Through IP Collaborations

Uniqlo UT — First Collaboration with the Pokémon Trading Card Game and “Pokémon TCG Pocket” App

The Pokémon Trading Card Game and its mobile app version, Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket (known in Japan as PokéPoké), teamed up for their first collaboration with Uniqlo’s graphic T-shirt brand UT. The lineup for men and kids included an art design assembling 23 different Pikachu illustrations as well as a design featuring “Mega Gardevoir ex,” the centerpiece of an expansion pack. The collection launched on August 11, 2025, across all Uniqlo stores and the online store, priced at 1,500 yen for men’s T-shirts and 990 yen for kids’ T-shirts (tax included). To commemorate the launch, Uniqlo also announced plans to distribute a special issue of UT magazine at physical stores that folds out into a custom playmat (Crank-in! (in Japanese)).

Lab Note: This collection brings together an IP with two distinct touchpoints—the physical card game and the mobile app—under a single UT banner. App players and tabletop card players overlap in part, yet also include separate audiences. By offering designs drawn from both, Uniqlo ensured that fans from either side had pieces they could choose from. When partnering with an IP that spans multiple touchpoints, segmenting designs according to which audience segment each item serves is a practical takeaway.

Design Tshirts Store graniph × Godzilla — Condensing the Heisei and VS Series Era into Apparel

Apparel brand graniph released a collaborative apparel collection with Godzilla on August 12. The lineup drew its motifs specifically from the Heisei and VS series era, spanning from The Return of Godzilla (released in Japan as Godzilla in 1984) through Godzilla vs. Destoroyah. Across 13 items—including T-shirts, matching loungewear sets, and socks—the collection featured rival monsters such as Biollante and King Ghidorah. Prices ranged from 1,200 yen for socks to 7,900 yen for two-piece sets. Pre-orders were accepted on the official online store until 11:59 p.m. on August 11 (Inside (in Japanese)).

Lab Note: Rather than spotlighting a single monster in isolation, graniph packaged the entire “Heisei / VS series” era into a cohesive product line. That editorial framing sets it apart from one-off tie-ins. Grouping a long-running franchise by a specific era allows a brand to target the generation of fans who followed the series during those years. For companies managing IP with a long history, curating collections around specific eras is a repeatable strategy.

DIAGRAMHow Companies Structured IP Touchpoints Across This Week’s Campaigns

Everyday & Retail Access

FamilyMart placed 9 Demon Slayer food and drink items across ~16,300 neighborhood stores
Uniqlo UT combined physical Pokémon TCG and mobile app designs at 990–1,500 yen
be LEGEND translated Jujutsu Kaisen techniques into lightly carbonated protein flavors

Immersive Physical Spaces

Fujiya held a 75th-anniversary Peko-chan pop-up in its founding city of Yokohama
Sunshine City Prince Hotel dedicated the 20-room IKEPRI25 floor to Evangelion
Gokurakuyu launched its 4th Demon Slayer bathhouse campaign with evening-only menus

Digital & Dual-Front Models

Capcom paired 202,400-yen physical jackets with free 3D VRChat models for Yokosuka
Sanrio acquired XR studio Gugenka to bring virtual event production in-house
Gecipe expanded game-based English lessons to schools after passing 300,000 sessions

Source: The Oshi Lab’s summary of the article

Hotels and Bathhouses Hand Over Immersive Spaces to IP Worlds

Sunshine City Prince Hotel × Evangelion — Taking Over an Entire Floor for Its 45th Anniversary

As part of its 45th-anniversary special project “45 Things You Can Experience,” the Sunshine City Prince Hotel in Ikebukuro, Tokyo, held a collaborative event with Evangelion. The hotel transformed its concept floor “IKEPRI25”—consisting of 20 guest rooms and four shared lounge spaces on a single floor—into an Evangelion environment. The collaboration featured visuals of character Kaworu Nagisa dressed as a hotel concierge, alongside concept room stay plans where guests could choose between themes modeled after the “Suzuhara Residence” or the “Ruins of Lake Kita.” Rates started at 23,000 yen per person (based on double occupancy in a Twin Room Type B), with the campaign running from August 30 to November 29 (Anime! Anime! (in Japanese)).

Lab Note: By layering an IP collaboration onto its own anniversary project, the hotel used its dedicated concept floor as a recurring asset rather than a one-off event space. Unifying the theme across not only the guest rooms but also the four shared lounges lets guests experience the world of the work across the entire floor. Aligning the timing of a corporate anniversary with an IP collaboration is a strong example of combining the promotional momentum of both sides.

Gokurakuyu × Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba — A Fourth Collaboration Featuring Evening-Only “Demon” Menus

Super sento (public bathhouse) chain Gokurakuyu announced that it would hold its fourth collaboration with Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, titled “Refresh! A Blissful Holiday for Everyone” (Totonoe! Minna de Gokuraku na Kyujitsu), from August 18 to September 9. Alongside merchandise and café menu items featuring newly drawn illustrations by ufotable, the campaign prepared five types of themed collaboration baths and evening-only “Demon” (Oni)-themed menu items served starting at 5:00 p.m. Guests who purchased the limited admission set upon entry received one random muffler towel, and an X posting campaign was also held (Inside (in Japanese)).

Lab Note: Gokurakuyu’s collaboration with the franchise has now reached its fourth installment. In our view, recurring IP collaborations offer a way to encourage return visits. Evening-only items starting at 5:00 p.m. offer a way to encourage visits during that time slot. For initiatives that require facility setup costs, a recurring series is one approach to planning cost recovery over time.

Game Companies Redesign How They Receive Support and Connect with Fans

Spike Chunsoft — Ending Physical Gift Acceptance for Characters and Exploring New Channels

Game publisher Spike Chunsoft announced that starting in August 2025, it would stop accepting physical gifts addressed to the company’s game titles and characters. In a statement posted on its official X account and official website, the company expressed deep gratitude from the entire staff for the heartfelt gifts sent by fans over many years, while adding that going forward, it plans to devise a new way to receive fans’ oshi (fan support) feelings toward its titles and characters in another form. The company noted that fan letters would continue to be accepted, although individual replies would not be provided (Inside (in Japanese)).

Lab Note: While stopping the receipt of physical packages, Spike Chunsoft kept fan letters open and explicitly stated that it is exploring a new mechanism for fan expressions. Gifts from fans are a sincere way of showing appreciation, yet they also create storage, inspection, and management burdens for companies. By promising to build another channel for receiving those feelings rather than shutting the door entirely, the company is reviewing its operational costs while preserving its relationship with fans.

Capcom × Yokosuka City — A Two-Front Strategy with a 200,000-Yen Souvenir Jacket and the Metaverse

Capcom announced a collaboration between Monster Hunter Wilds and the city of Yokosuka. For the physical world, orders opened on July 25 for an embroidered sukajan souvenir jacket (202,400 yen including tax) and a printed T-shirt (11,000 yen including tax). At the same time, a virtual collaboration rolled out inside “Metaverse Yokosuka,” operated by Yokosuka City on the social VR platform VRChat. Monster art panels were installed across two virtual worlds, including “DOBUITA & MIKASA WORLD,” while three varieties of 3D sukajan jackets and free virtual accessories were distributed via the online creator marketplace BOOTH. Cumulative visitors to Metaverse Yokosuka had surpassed 200,000, and cumulative downloads of its 3D sukajan jackets had reached 50,000 (Inside (in Japanese), Mogura VR (in Japanese), PR TIMES (in Japanese)).

Lab Note: This collaboration simultaneously offers a 200,000-yen physical collectible and free 3D digital models. The high-priced jacket signals serious craftsmanship and brand prestige, while the free virtual items lower the barrier to participation. Dividing roles between physical merchandise and the metaverse allows the campaign to welcome fan segments with very different budgets. It also serves as a notable case study of a local government continuously operating a metaverse space as a tourism promotion tool.

Companies Step into the IP and VTuber Space with Capital and New Ventures

Sanrio — Making XR Studio Gugenka a Subsidiary

Effective July 28, 2025, Sanrio made Gugenka Inc., a studio specializing in the XR and metaverse space, a subsidiary. Founded in 2005 and headquartered in Niigata City, Gugenka specializes in planning, producing, and selling digital goods featuring anime properties and has also handled production for Sanrio’s virtual event “Sanrio Virtual Festival.” As of December 2024, the company had 81 employees. Following the acquisition, Gugenka’s management structure centered on CEO Masafumi Mikami remained in place, and its partnerships with third-party IP holders as well as its existing business lines continued. Sanrio has set a long-term vision of becoming a global IP company and positioned the acquisition as an investment in customer touchpoints for that strategy (Mogura VR (in Japanese)).

Lab Note: Rather than building XR technology internally from scratch, Sanrio brought a production company with an established track record into its group. Virtual events require specialized expertise that takes considerable time to cultivate in-house. By making Gugenka a subsidiary, Sanrio acquired both proven production capabilities and the network of external IP partnerships Gugenka had built over the years—an investment that prioritizes speed of execution in the digital domain.

Virtual Avex — Bringing Its Virtual Idol Festival to a 10th Installment

Virtual Avex Inc. announced that it would hold its online virtual idol festival “Life Like a Live! 10: High-Tension Halloween” from October 10 to October 12. Having drawn more than 200,000 cumulative attendees since its inaugural event in 2020, the festival will mark its 10th installment. General producer UMAFF reflected that the series began with the desire to stage a live show where viewers could experience the sensation of attending a real music festival even while watching online. The announcement also highlighted how the festival has continued to feature cross-agency performances bringing together virtual idols from different talent offices (Mogura VR (in Japanese)).

Lab Note: Taking an initiative launched during the 2020 pandemic and sustaining it over five years shows clearly in the attendance numbers. Rather than treating the festival as a one-time publicity stunt, the organizers consistently provided a framework for cross-agency collaborations at every edition, building up to a cumulative audience of over 200,000. In the virtual event space, how attendance grows over time depends less on the flashiness of a single show than on whether the event is designed as a recurring series.

Gecipe’s “eSports English” — Surpassing 300,000 Lessons and Expanding to After-School Programs and Vocational Schools

Cumulative lessons taken through “eSports English” (eSports Eikaiwa), an online English learning service operated by Gecipe Inc., surpassed 300,000 sessions. Through the service, students learn English via voice chat inside popular video games such as Minecraft and Fortnite. Cumulative lesson sessions had passed 200,000 in October 2024 and reached the 300,000 mark just eight months later. While the user base originally centered on individual learners, adoption expanded to after-school care facilities, vocational schools, local community clubs, and municipal governments. According to the company, the program has recorded at least 127 passes in the EIKEN Test in Practical English Proficiency, counting students again when they passed multiple levels; 20 of the 21 students who took its secondary-stage interview preparation lessons passed, approximately 95% (Inside (in Japanese)).

Lab Note: The driving force behind this service’s growth is that time spent playing games—a core fan activity—can be used directly as study time. The interval required to grow from 200,000 to 300,000 lessons was shorter than the time it took to reach the first 200,000. That acceleration points to the impact of opening new institutional channels—such as after-school programs and educational institutions—alongside individual sign-ups. For game IP companies, partnering with the education sector is one of the few ways to maintain an ongoing relationship with fans even after a game’s standard play cycle has run its course.

This Week’s Takeaways

This week stood out for the number of companies turning their own anniversaries into original content by their own hands. Kobe Steel invited a taiga historical drama screenwriter and a Studio Ghibli animation director to build a 120th-anniversary anime from the ground up. As one of its projects for Peko-chan’s 75th anniversary, Fujiya opened a pop-up shop in its founding city of Yokohama. And the Sunshine City Prince Hotel announced plans to host an Evangelion collaboration on its “IKEPRI25” concept floor starting August 30 as part of its 45th-anniversary special program. Across industries, companies are treating the fleeting timing of an anniversary as a lasting asset to be fully utilized.

At the same time, it was a week where concrete results showed up in the numbers. FamilyMart and Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba recorded 2.4 million units sold in two weeks, Metaverse Yokosuka surpassed 200,000 cumulative visitors, and eSports English reached 300,000 cumulative lessons. None of these figures came from a single burst of buzz; each was built on the steady accumulation of nationwide store networks or continuous operations. Sanrio’s acquisition of Gugenka as a subsidiary likewise went beyond a one-off tie-up, representing a capital investment in technology and talent that the company can use for years to come.

Spike Chunsoft’s decision to stop accepting physical gifts addressed to its characters can be read in the exact same context. Rather than reducing touchpoints with fans, the company is restructuring them into a sustainable form that can continue over the long term. Review this week’s developments alongside our guides to corporate collaboration design principles and the market size of oshikatsu.

Weekly Oshikatsu News brings you a weekly roundup of the intersection of oshikatsu and business. Browse past issues in our Oshikatsu × News category.