Evangelion and Tanita digital pedometer gets anime fans fit

Written by: William on November 19, 2012 at 10:36 am | In PRODUCT INNOVATION | No Comments

No more flabby anime fans. Stop watching Evangelion and get off the couch. You’ve got walking to do!

That’s what health gadgets maker Tanita is banking on with this Evangelion Digital Pocket Pedometer, a limited edition tie-up fitness device now on pre-order, to be sold in Lawson convenience stores from March next year.

As you might expect, there are different versions for different characters — Asuka Langley Soryu, Kaori Nagisa, NERV, and the insanely popular Rei Ayanami — aimed at otaku, hardcore or not, who like the series and want to get fit.

And if you live in Tokyo you will also be able to take part in a competition with other Evangelion pedestrians, with data of your route sent to a campaign website that tracks a map of everyone’s promenades. There are locations from nineteen key Evangelion scenes placed virtually into the Tokyo landscape.

You can use the FeliCa reader in the Loppi terminals in Lawson stores to upload your calorie burn-off, walking distances and more to the website where you can manage your progress (there’s apparently a ¥2000 yen six-month fee for use of the service). Just don’t then get tempted in the shop to buy one of those fatty cream buns.

If you walk 8,000 steps in a day you get one point. Sending your data to the site from a Loppi terminal rewards you with another point. Every ten points means you can apply to receive special (but unspecified) tie-up merchandise.

The idea is that fans walk 400,000 steps or 280km in 50 days. The more you walk, the higher your ranking (and we all know how competitive subculture fans can get).

Lawson seems to like positioning itself as the convenience store of choice for otaku (though it’s not alone among competitors). It previously held a campaign selling merchandise for the K-On! and Puella Madoka Magica franchises, plus there was the now infamous Evangelion-themed store in Hakone in 2010 that was so popular it had to close almost immediately.

Tags: Anime, Convenience Stores, Otaku
Category: PRODUCT INNOVATION
Other categories: CULTURE, LIFESTYLE

Swarovski-style Lawson in Hikarie is sparkling luxury convenience store

Written by: William on November 15, 2012 at 9:03 am | In LIFESTYLE | No Comments

Lawson, Japan’s second biggest convenience store, has a good knack of adapting itself to fit its surroundings, a kind of chameleon chain.

We noticed one great example of this recently.

Hikarie, the swanky shopping plaza that opened this spring in Shibuya, is not above offering its patrons the delights of the super cheap products you can browse in a conbini. But the store itself on the eleventh floor of the complex still has to fit in with the rest of the decor.

[Image source]

Lawson did this par excellence here, adding Swarovski Crystal-style glittering diamonds to create a “gorgeous” luxury-looking branch that Hikarie’s largely female shoppers will love snapping shots of with their iPhones.

Saying that, it also slightly resembles a starry night sky — ironically, since, Hikarie is owned by Tokyu, which also operates the popular planetarium in Shibuya that you can see from the windows of the new shopping mall.

[Image source]

We also like the designer Lawson on Inokashira-dori, near the plush Yoyogi Uehara neighborhood, which is on the ground floor of a fancy condo and thus has spruced itself up to fit in — even emitting gentle blue lights that seem to hum in the night like an illumination show.

Tags: Convenience Stores, Retail
Category: LIFESTYLE
Other categories: CULTURE, PRODUCT INNOVATION