＜prologue＞
I started a blog called “The Baby Boomer Generation’s Miscellaneous Blog”（Dankai-sedai no garakutatyou:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳） in July 2018, about a year before I fully retired. More than six years have passed since then, and the number of articles has increased considerably.
So, in order to make them accessible to people who don’t understand Japanese, I decided to translate my past articles into English and publish them.
It may sound a bit exaggerated, but I would like to make this my life’s work.
It should be noted that haiku and waka （Japanese short fixed form poems） are quite difficult to translate into English, so some parts are written in Japanese.
If you are interested in haiku or waka and would like to know more, please read introductory or specialized books on haiku or waka written in English.
I also write many articles about the Japanese language. I would be happy if these inspire more people to want to learn Japanese.
my blog’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳 | 団塊世代が雑学や面白い話を発信しています
From around 1985 to the early 1990s, “Bikkuriman Chocolate” became a huge hit.
1. The History of Bikkuriman Chocolate
Lotte’s Bikkuriman Chocolate was released in 1977. The original bonus was a “surprise sticker” made with fake blood and other ingredients, designed to surprise and amaze people. However, despite various bonus stickers being added, sales steadily declined and the chocolate was on the verge of disappearing.
The “Devil vs. Angel Series” was born as a final project, inspired by the idea of ”creating a completely different sticker from anything that had come before.” It quickly became a hit after its release in 1985, recording explosive sales.
The chocolate craze then spread with various adaptations, including games, anime, movies, and popsicles. Numerous similar and counterfeit products also appeared.
However, the craze came to an end around 1993.
2. Reasons for the boom
(1) Combining Multiple Sticker Materials
Three characters were created: “Angel,” “Amulet,” and “Devil.” The angels were aluminum-coated stickers, the amulets were clear stickers, and the devils were paper stickers, allowing players to instantly tell if they were good or bad just by looking at them.
(2) The Presence of Rare Head Stickers
The rare head stickers combined glitter stickers and holographic stickers.
(3) The Epic Story on the Back of the Bonus Stickers
The unique worldview of the bonus stickers included a “three-way tie” between the three races of angels, amulets, and demons, a tale of conflict between the two major forces of demons and angels, and the existence of a “Head” who oversees each force.
(4) Creating Space to Encourage Children to Talk About It
The packaging encouraged children to enjoy sticking stickers, encouraging them to “stick them on, then stick them back on,” while the backs of the stickers featured unique text about popular rumors and other topics.
3. Reasons for the End of the Boom
(1) Children’s Throwing Away Candy and Buying and Selling Stickers Became Social Problems
However, incidents such as “picking out only the desired stickers and throwing away the chocolate candy,” “buying up entire cases by wealthy children, causing shortages,” and “children trading rare stickers among themselves” became frequent and became a social problem.
(2) Recommendations from the Fair Trade Commission
In 1988, the Fair Trade Commission issued the following recommendations to Lotte:
① Eliminate price differences between stickers.
② Standardize the mixing ratio of each type.
③ Avoid advertising that emphasizes the value of certain stickers.
Lotte followed this recommendation and replaced the previously shiny holographic heads with more subdued stickers, raising the probability of winning a head to the same as that of a devil.
As a result, the value of rare card heads, and ultimately of all cards, plummeted, causing a sudden loss of fans.
4. Will Bikkuriman Chocolate Become a Resurrection?
Lotte has been working on various projects in an effort to revive the Bikkuriman chocolate boom.
The strategy is to expand the overall fan base by implementing measures to attract new fans (casual customers) in addition to the core fan base (those who were children during the Bikkuriman boom and now have fond memories of Bikkuriman).
Specific examples include:
(1) Collaboration with the popular idol group “Momoiro Clover Z”
This was “Momoiro Clover Z Chocolate,” and thanks to the popularity of the idol group, it was in short supply upon its release in September 2013.
(2) Collaboration with the popular smartphone game “Puzzle & Dragons”
This was a Bikkuriman project that could also be enjoyed within the app game. It was developed from 2014 to 2015 and appears to have led to the acquisition of a new fan base of teenagers and people in their twenties.
(3) Collaboration with the Chiba Lotte Marines
In 2014, Chiba Lotte Marines player Tomoya Satozaki (then) was appointed the “Bikkuriman PR Ambassador,” and he discussed Bikkuriman in various places, spreading the word in sports newspapers, online news, and social media.
(4) Collaboration with Lotteria
Also in 2014, Lotteria released the “Bikkuriman Shake,” which apparently became a hot topic on Twitter.
(5) Triple Collaboration with the Chiba Lotte Marines and APA Hotel
In 2015, the Chiba Lotte Marines, APA Hotel Tokyo Bay Makuhari, and Bikkuriman collaborated to offer baseball games, accommodation, and special Bikkuriman-themed dishes.
(6) In July 2020, the team launched “Bikkuriman Kabuki Chocolate,” their first collaboration with Japan’s leading traditional performing art, kabuki, under the supervision of Shochiku Co., Ltd.
As you can see, Lotte is trying all sorts of things to “make the dream of the Bikkuriman boom come true once again” and is launching one project after another, but I wonder if things will go as planned…