Interest
Voice Actor Hiro Shimono Plays Lawson Fried Chicken Burglar
posted on by Sarah Nelkin
The LAWSON chain of Japanese convenience stores unveiled a new campaign on Tuesday for the store's Kara-age-kun — battered and deep-fried chicken. In the campaign's first promotional video, voice actor Hiro Shimono (Sket Dance's Tsubaki, Baka and Test - Summon the Beasts' Akihisa) becomes "Shimōno Hiro Karaagesuki," the phantom thief who has stolen the recipe for the new flavor of Kara-age-kun because he loves it so much.
Shimōno then announces a contest to guess the new, mystery flavor of fried chicken. One grand prize winner, randomly selected from the correct guessers, will receive a signed photo from Shimōno along with his hat and monocle. 20 other winners will receive a mystery box, and 87 will receive a 3,000-yen (about US$38) prepaid card. All those who correctly guess the flavor will receive "Phantom Thief Shimōno and Kara-age-kun? Flavor" wallpaper for phones and PCs.
A five-nugget chicken set at LAWSON retails for 210 yen (US$2.70), and the campaign will last from October 16 to October 29. LAWSON will sprinkle hints about the new flavor through a new video every Tuesday, its own social networking service with four-panel manga and blog, and clues in the actual stores. Two clues will only be available in the northernmost LAWSON branch in Sapporo and in the southernmost branch, beyond the main islands.
Shimono previously starred in a music video promoting Kara-age-kun with musician Hyadain/Ken'ichi Maeyamada (Kuroko's Basketball, Baka and Test - Summon the Beasts) and LAWSON's Vocaloid mascot "Akikoroid-chan." The store chain held a contest last fall for lyrics for Akikoroid-chan to sing in the official Kara-age-kun song. LAWSON combined the lyrics from the top six entries to create the official song.
LAWSON has offered many anime-related tie-in items in the past, including a bench signed by the members of Sphere for one campaign. It has also sold K-ON!-themed snacks.
[Via Moe Ota-news Sokuhō]
