A Couple Packs: Nogizaka46, the AKB48 Rival Group

Along with yesterday's Star Wars stickers, the other new pop culture items found in convenience stores is for the Japanese girl idol group Nogizaka46. The group was created to be a rival to AKB48 and its spin-offs, but (get this!) they are all under the same management. Members of the AKB tribe and Nogizaka have traded places, destroying the illusion (or marketing scheme) that they are competing groups, not sister groups.

I couldn't tell you a single one of the group's songs, but while researching a bit for this post I came across this one, their most controversial - for showing their petticoats.

Anyway, there are several limited-time items available in 7-11 convenience stores right now to celebrate their newest single. This, similar to Bikkuriman (and others) is a sticker plus candy wafer. In this case, each pack, for about 120 yen (maybe it was a bit more), nets you one sticker plus two narrow blueberry flavored wafers - in all, less candy than the Bikkuriman stickers, in my opinion.

The blank-backed stickers are pretty nice, though - they are clear or translucent if you take them off their white backing. There are 12 in the set, and I don't care about building a complete set.

The second pack I bought was more rewarding but is also a bigger seller. This pack comes with one sticker plus a bag of gummy candies.

As you can see from the package, the candies are shaped like hearts and are peach-flavored. They're really the same as other Glico gummies with the exception of the packaging. No, I didn't keep the bag for my collection.

I kept the sticker, of course. It has a foil background and a yellow blank back. Note that these have rounded corners. I don't know how many stickers are in a full set here, but I'm assuming that there are 12.

I also saw candy boxes and small chocolate wrappers featuring individual members of the group, but once again I don't have any desire to have them in my collection. Perhaps I'll come across some in a 10-yen box somewhere.

These are all limited-time items, and many of them have already sold out at my local 7-11! But I'm sure they're available through secondary markets, including Yahoo! Auctions.

And I haven't done an "Idol of the Week" post in forever, so I guess you can consider this my return... of sorts.