Lawson and Gokurakuyu both see stock price rises due to "Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba". Why the extraordinary popularity?

Hello, this is Shimoyama.

Recently, I heard a story about a certain bento shop.



That shop tends to close while still bustling.

After 8:15 PM,





the bento boxes you pick up are eligible for half price.



However, you can only pay after 8:30 PM.



So, from around 8:15 PM,

people start gathering at the shop,

and by around 8:30 PM when checkout is possible,

a line forms in front of the shop.



Casual passersby

might wonder,

“Why is everyone lining up like this?”



And the line attracts more people,

so by 8:30 PM the queue continues to grow.



From the shop’s perspective, they may be deliberately making people line up

to create an image of a popular store.



If you think about it,

waiting in line for hundreds of yen is

a bit not worth it,

but

more people are drawn to the immediate benefit.



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Lawson and Gokurakuyu also saw stock price rises due to Demon Slayer.

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Now, changing the topic,

on July 21 the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications announced

that in June the nationwide consumer price index

rose by 0.1% year on year in total.

.



In everyday life,

we don’t often feel

that prices have risen.



However,

there are items whose prices keep rising steadily.

For example

『Weekly Shonen Jump』

indeed.



In the past it wasn’t 200 yen, but

the recent merged issue is 300 yen.



Nowadays,

Jump readers who are children are having a hard time, aren’t they.



Surely compared to 10 or 20 years ago,

allowances haven’t risen much,

and the circulation is dropping,





they may have to raise prices, but…



However, even with declining circulation,

Jump continues to produce hits,

which is impressive.



Recently, the biggest hit is

『Demon Slayer』.



Here,

in『Weekly Shonen Jump』,

a manga serialized since 2016.



Even though the serialization has ended,

it still has strong popularity,

and the『Demon Slayer』 character business remains active.



And, as a factor for stock price rise

experts point out,

it has also impacted the economy.



In the Nikkei Shimbun recently

there was mention of collaborations with Demon Slayer

and Kurokura Yu HD and Lawson stock prices.



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“From July 8, Gokuraku-yu HD

sold bathhouse towels with characters and admission fees as a set.

On July 1, when they announced the campaign details, their stock price rose temporarily by 20%.

Lawson is running a campaign where purchases of certain products can be exchanged for goods.



Stock prices rose about 6% from the end of June,



outpacing the Nikkei average (about 2%).”

Nikkei Shimbun, ‘Market Views’
July 21, 2020 2:00
https://r.nikkei.com/article/DGKKZO61748910Q0A720C2EN2000
Quoted

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Some may think this is “just a manga,” but

seeing such phenomena

shows that we cannot ignore the influence of manga.







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The reason for a hit that isn’t understood by many: ‘Demon Slayer’

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Yet, among many manga,

why is『Demon Slayer』so exceptionally popular?



If we understood this, not only for manga,

but for any work,

when evaluating whether something will be a hit

could serve as a guideline.



And it could also be useful in stock trading.





That said,

in the case of『Demon Slayer』,

even experts struggle to explain why it hit so hard.





Anime adaptation may have accelerated popularity,

fits the era,

and various reasons are given,

but there is no single, universally accepted explanation.





However,even if one factor alone led to a huge hit,

there is one certain statement we can make.





That is,

“the story follows the hit-theory.”

As many of you may know,





both manga and film follow patterns that make them hit.



In particular, in Hollywood, with enormous budgets and high risk of flop,

most films, when broken down, follow a “hit formula” in their storytelling.











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The story of『Demon Slayer』

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『Demon Slayer』 is, in one word, “demon slaying.”





The protagonist is Kamado Tanjiro.



One day, suddenly his family is attacked by demons,

and his remaining sister also becomes a demon,



to which Tanjiro bravely opposes.



The keywords “adversity”

and the like come to mind,

and this is precisely the conventional pattern of a hit work.



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“Every story needs a strong protagonist you can empathize with.”

When you are dealt bad luck or hardship,

if the protagonist rises fearlessly to the challenge,

you naturally want to root for them.”



David McRaney
“Thinking, Fast and Slow Traps: 48 Ways Your Brain Tricks You”
P.132-133

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As described here,

the desire to root for Kamado Tanjiro, who fights demons risking his life to save his sister,

is strong.



Many people empathize with his willingness to protect his family at the risk of his life.





“Adversity,” followed by“growth.”



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The protagonist leaves his familiar world and embarks on a new life full of adventure.

When he seems to fail, he overcomes obstacles in his path,



defeats the villains, and sometimes even saves the world in the process.

And when he returns home, the protagonist has grown.

But if it’s tragedy, the story ends more unhappily than it began.

【Excerpt】

What I’ve described above is the framework Campbell called the “Hero’s Journey.”

David McRaney
“Thinking, Fast and Slow Traps: 48 Ways Your Brain Tricks You”
P.133

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Mythologist Joseph Campbell, who coined the term

“Hero’s Journey,”

fits perfectly with『Demon Slayer』’s story.





There is no doubt this lies at the core of its hit.





However,there are countless manga that follow the “Hero’s Journey” formula.





Thus, alone, it cannot explain the extraordinary popularity.



Yet, as with the bento shop introduced at the start,

the element of people drawing others in could be another possibility.



People are attracted to places where others gather.



If someone starts saying it’s interesting,

the circle of popularity around『Demon Slayer』 could have expanded rapidly.



One possibility.


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Conclusion

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Reasons for a hit vary,

and nothing definitive can be asserted.



However,

there are laws to successful storytelling.



If you are mindful of this,

you may notice that there are many stories in the world

with the same structure.



And your perspective of the world may change as well.



Thank you for reading until the end today as well.

Thank you very much.



Shimoyama Keizo