Otaku Horde Dooms Evangelion Conbini
- Categories: Anime, News
- Date: Apr 25, 2010 19:45 JST
- Tags: Anime Goods, Asuka Langley, Cancellations, Evangelion, Kanagawa, Marketing, Rei Ayanami, Shopping
The recently opened Evangelion themed Lawson store has been shut after mere days thanks to a vast horde of otaku pilgruns overwhelming the store.
The event was supposed to last a month but was cancelled after mere days, a victim of its own popularity.
Insufficient parking, excessive noise, too many visitors and the likelihood of even more visitors come Golden Week were given as reasons for the cancellation, with Lawson particularly concerned at the disruption to local residents caused by the huge influx of otaku pilgrims. Lawson is too polite to mention it, but there is some suspicion visitors were behaving in an inconsiderate fashion.
Lawson probably have themselves to blame for this – their theming was rather good, and the store they chose for the event turned out to be a tiny rural store in the middle of nowhere and barely accessible – hardly the appropriate venue a promotion involving a huge franchise like Evangelion.
There is no word from Lawson as to whether they will restart the event later under better conditions – the level of interest rather suggests a permanent store could be maintained.
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who saw this coming raise ur hand.....imagine how much stuff they would have sold in those few days!
Raises both hands and feet.
Obvious success was obvious.
To CLOSE a store due to a TOO GREAT popularity... wow.
They'll most probably restart the event in a better location soon enough. Businessmen never give up on profit-making ideas.
7000¥ like 70 dollars?
Wonder how otakus can afford stuff at those places. I took a look at an eva tumbler of which they sold for around 7000¥. So damn expensive.
They absolutely knew this would happen. Their plan was to sell as many of those tacky(expensive?) products as possible. Normal customers wouldn't walk around wearing Eva Unit 01 headphones or anything else in there.
I'm sure they made plenty of money, but this must have been extremely annoying for regular store patrons.
nah, they needed to close down just to restock the store; it's a cool.
Otaku Casts Overrun
I'd be frigging be tehe xD
zerg rush?
Except now with K-ON crap as well.
It was closed because the pilgruns bought out the whole store.
Did some one say: obvious?
Successful advertisement is successful.
But really I totally didn't see that coming. Guess that's why I don't work with publicity.
Just shoot them into space. They can meet Angels there.
Use Bombs Wisely, Gradius!
^ Noblesse oblige, may you continue to serve as our messiah
^ Juiz. Help me to set up a giant container disguised as a huge Evangelion store so that I can trap all the NEETs and otakus in there. Then have them transported to the harbor and shipped off to Dubai.
rorix not like women or people aren't creepy when they open a store with clothes that has lower prices because of opening.We are all on the same boat only with different interests and needs.
So otaku are like a herd,women are like a herd lol.The pact is dangerous when there are to many people pushing over lol.
Just drop a bomb when is full of them there!
Otaku creepiness will never cease to amaze me.
I'm not the least bit surprised this happened.
Lol at the car parked on the walkway in front of the store.
They were not lying about insufficient parking.
*sigh* so obvious. Its like opening a K-ON! store, you wanna take a guess what will happen next...
aw I was looking forward to going 8(
*raises hand*
I was rather surprised this didn't happen on day one.
I truly saw this coming. Devoted otakus will continue their pilgrimage here for generations to come.
Obviously Lawsons is too nice to the community. If this was an American owned company, they would simply hired more staff and wouldn't care for the community, especially for a month-long campaign. I do find it funny it was staged in middle-of-nowhere location though and not some more urban area where such issues wouldn't exist; an obvious underestimate of the otaku culture.
Had they placed the store in a more urban location, that would've taken care of the parking and noise issues instantly.
1, Big cities, espeically ones like Tokyo, always have some level of noise going on. People start to not care and even begin to ignore it after a while.
2, Why park? If it were in a city (once again, one like Tokyo), then there'd be no need to park. The pilgrims could simply take the nearest train, then walk the rest of the way. And we all know they'd do it, no matter how far they had to walk.
==/ No surprise at all this remind me of the convenient store in TokyoBigSight in Comike days.
lols i think its not poor planning .. i think everything WAS planned ...
the month long event was a hoax to get ppl dissapointed ,
so when they open a new store somehwere bigger it'll get swamped by "dissapointed" otakus who could not make it
i say i wanna a share in that lols .. there's big bucks to be made from otaku's xD
Wait, wait, they're closing down because they're getting TOO much business?? Why didn't they open a store with larger parking, in a more populated place rather than in some corner store in the middle of nowhere??
I mean if they seen this coming.. and since they have the rights if I was them I'd be like "Okay gentlemen, it's time for us to go national with this business model for evangelion themed stores, we're going to be trillioniares by the time this is over..!" Trillionaires in the yen sense of course..
u noe what will be a good plan? re-open eva theme store in a better location and also beside the eva store have another k-on themed store.
Eva and K-ON stores next to each other - The otaku groups would kill each other
So when your store starts making insane money that's the time you decide to close it down? Business genius!
No Surprise here. I'm shocked they chose to have it at that type of location. It should have been a minor city location at the least.
I wish someone could send me some Eva stuff from Japan. =P
hehe we all saw it coming, after they announced the store XD
I wonder how such an inaccessible store could ever organize an event like that. I mean, if it's so easy to have such good business, why don't all the stores do it? They must've had some capital before, and that comes with customers.
Customers don't go to places where it's inaccessible, get the point?
Basically --
location, location, location.
Bet they will open Eva store again
Lawson's got the marketing right, but they've got the location and timing absolutely wrong.
As Arte has pointed out, there's only one of that themed store, and they had to put it in the middle of nowhere. It wouldn't have been a problem if it were a permanent fixture, but the fact that it's only for a limited period means there'll be tonnes of desperate and passionate otaku flocking in before it ends.
If I were the store manager, I'd keep that place open 24/7. Just imagine the $$$ you can get(especially under this economy).
Isn't a combini opened 24/7 anyway ?
I don't think they'd be able to. At some point, you're going to run out of stuff to sell. It's not like they had an unlimited supply of that stuff anyway. The company only planned to do it for a month -- meaning they only made enough merchandise for a month.
If they hadn't closed the store due to the amount of people coming, they would've closed it due to a lack of supplies. Either way, it would've closed eventually.
These Evangelion "otaku" have some pretty good fashion sense.
for the glory of the HORDE!
when i was there,it was so crowded....and Reis'plugsuit got sold out and so i bought figures instead
photos, or it didn't happen :)
wow... i'm amazed. i think it's a hell of a gimmick.
I can't believe how amazing this is! I'd pay good money to go into a mecha themed store YEAH downright awesome concept
I'd trample some Japanese to get into that store.
Damn those people are like a force of nature over there...
Nice promotion trick...
Holy Shit, I've been to this Lawson before when I went to Hakone in 2002.
It's rather unassuming so I can see how they could be overwhelmed. However, it's next to one of the main bus routes so getting to it isn't that hard.
Should have held it on Akihabara with security guards/bouncers at the doors...
Wow, otaku really are garbage. Western fans only get this stupid when it comes to cons. Haven't these freaks heard, there's a time and place for everything? Seriously, who pilgrims across country to go to a store because it has an anime theme? Ridiculous.
well it doesn't stop them for living just like you bashing
"who pilgrims across country to go to a store because it has an anime theme?"
- does this question really need to be answered ? You visit sankaku, you should know it better :)
then apparently you have not been here enough
these otaku's are crazy over their merchandise than the american girls over Adam Lambert (did i get his name right)
The solution was simple: Close the store doors and start a line. The havoc would be eased nad the otaku would... start fighting to get a better line position. Ok, I give up.
Well, that was great for a laugh...
I hope Lawson learns from this, and opens up a 360 day a year Eva Lawson, preferably somewhere that can handle the onslaught of Otaku.
Or is that "gaggle"? I always get confused.
lulz
Ideally, they could of had different themed stores for stores in various locations,... at times to be announced.
There are lots of otaku everywhere, not just with Evangelion but with other popular cult favs.
No problem with limited inventory, because its the limited inventory that makes collectables worth collecting.
What a great opportunity to make huge profits in an ecconomy that other businesses are closing up in.
Everyone wins.
Part of the otaku experience is lining up and fighting for the last figure. Having a logical and convenience experience would defeat the purpose.
damn otaku you scary
I'm starting to believe otakus will be the savior of japanese economic crisis. Srsly.
They got tons of cash to spend it seems.
Make it a mall instead
I wonder if they even bought anything.
These are otaku we are talking about. They bought everything.
Due to the huge crowd and poor crowd-control, I bet Eva otakus got away without paying for most of the stuffs.
Otakus have honor, how would they go back home and tell their Ayanami dakimuras what they have done?
That would make it a poor lack of planning on the part of Lawsons then, for not taking into account the factors you mentioned.
I wonder if they even brought this before the City Fathers (or their equivalent) in Hakone? Makes me wonder with results like this.
So true.
Can we expect leftovers on eBay? =)
4 of each I bet.
I can imagine eva fans going down each aisle getting several of everything.
The only limit is how much they can carry.
Whatever doesn't rot will probably fossilize due to the amount of preservatives in them. So future otaku can look forward to knowing what losers their spiritual family trees contained.
That and everything else will probably be showcased in their caves. A crowning achievement, of sorts.
Not as keikaku?
I cant believe this plan worked.
Slap an animu poster here and there and otaku will flood your store?
Actually, all the good in the store are Evangelion themed.
(Translator's Note: keikaku means plan)
Editor's Note: Keikaku doesn't mean plan. It means... ah forget it
Kinda a dumb move if you think about it. If they would of done this at a bigger store, closer to the city. This may not have happened.
A bigger store wouldn't need advertising.
They are stupid, how can they cancel something beautiful like this ?
Otakus were there, so what - I mean they are the people this was made for, so why Lawson has now problem with it ?
If I would have a store in Japan I would do this every month with an other anime and earn shitload of money :)
As mentioned in the article there were 2 problematic factors:
1. Lawson got complaints from those living in the neighborhood because of the amount of people and cars.
2. Otakus were behaving badly.
I feel sorry for the shop workers. I wonder how much sh!t they had to deal with.
Yep. But in Tokyo instead of the middle of nowhere.
"how can they cancel something beautiful like this"
If you selled anything you had, how can you sell anymore? It was limited from the beginning, so the question is if they can do it again.
Someone should take a picture of the ransacked store.
Why? Any pic showing a destroyed town after an earthquake will do. ^_^
Japanese are polite people. Even when shop-hoarding.
Sure, but we are talking about a horde of otaku on a shopping spree...
If they could just make it a temporary around the city kinda promotion where its a different branch every week or something.
Note yourself, opening an anime themed shop will bring good profit...and great liability to your store.
Was bound to happen.
They should have though ahead.
One word: Oops!
More than one word: Nice to see the Eva fan base mobilize that fast to go to a convenience store in the middle of nowhere
Otaku, easily the funniest way to liquidate a stores old stock.
Wonder what they will slap evangelion over next?
Throw in a flash bang!
Stick together team!
Go Go Go!
@Anon 22:53 :
6...5...4...3...2...1...*BOOM*
Terrorist wins.
(The bomb was hidden inside the floor-to-ceiling cardboard replica of Tokyo-3.)
Ah, Counter-Strike... it's been a while since I played that.
"Lawson is too polite to mention it, but there is some suspicion visitors were behaving in an inconsiderate fashion."
I.e. fapping on mineral water bottles?
That's the way of Otaku. To turn a local little town shop into a international epic success is a everyday deed for them. What can't they do for Eva ?