Interest

'Lucky Star' Shrine: 500,000 to Visit on New Year's

Washinomiya Shrine, the Tokyo area's oldest shrine and a real-life backdrop for the Lucky Star anime series, predicts that about 500,000 visitors will come over the first three days of the new year. Otaku have been flocking to this shrine since the 2007 anime featured Kagami and Tsukasa Hiiragi — twin sister characters who supposedly work at the shrine as miko (shrine maidens).

Since the anime premiered, attendance during the New Year's holiday season has grown five times bigger — from 90,000 in 2007 and 300,000 in 2008 to 420,000 in 2009 and 450,000 this year.

Local shops began offering "Tsundare Worcestershire Sauce" (a word play on the character archetype "tsundere") in Kagami's bittersweet flavor and Tsukasa's balsamic vinegar-infused flavor varieties at the end of last year, and they sold 13,000 bottles. On December 31, 20 stores will begin selling the new "Tsundare Umakara (Sweet-and-Spicy) Sauce" (pictured at left) with kimchi in two varieties: Kagami's gekitsun spicy flavor (spicy level 3) and Tsukasa's balsamic vinegar flavor (spicy level 1).

The local Saitama Shimbun paper will distribute a free special edition handout of its Monthly Saitamania feature from December 31 to January 3. Stores will also sell DVDs of Keiichi Kitagawa's Washimiya*Story (Washimiya*Monogatari) film. Toru Kamitsuru of Watanabe Entertainment's D-BOYS acting group stars as a young man who returns to his hometown and discovers that it has become a haven for anime fans. Former AKB48 members Yuka Masuda and Ayumi Orii co-star in the film.

The shrine hosted its first otaku matchmaking event in November, and it paired seven couples — after 501 people applied for 40 spots.

Sources: Saitama Shimbun, MyCom Journal