Oshi-Katsu Chronicle 1987: City Hunter, Bikkuriman Stickers, the Spread of PC Networking, and Saint Seiya Toys
In 1987, Hikaru GENJI, a seven-member group who danced on roller skates, made their debut. Onyanko Club disbanded, and BOØWY announced their breakup at a year-end show.
Among children, collecting Bikkuriman stickers was all the rage. The TV anime City Hunter also began.
Hikaru GENJI Debuts: Attention on the Roller-Skating Performance
Hikaru GENJI was a seven-member group combining “Hikaru,” Koji Uchiumi and Mikio Osawa, with “GENJI,” a five-member group. On August 19 they made their record debut with “STAR LIGHT.” Pony Canyon discography (in Japanese) / Nikkei Crosstrend (in Japanese)
Hikaru
- Koji Uchiumi
- Mikio Osawa
GENJI
- A five-member group of its own
- Joined with Hikaru for the debut
Their record debut came on August 19 with "STAR LIGHT."
Their trademark was singing and performing backflips while gliding across the stage on roller skates to “STAR LIGHT” and their November second single “Glass noJudai” (both written by Chage & Aska), sparking a nationwide roller-skating boom among elementary and junior high school students.
Onyanko Club and BOØWY: The Groups’ Activities Reach a Turning Point
Fuji TV’s weekday-evening live variety show Yuyake Nyan Nyan ended its two-and-a-half-year broadcast on August 31, and on September 20 Onyanko Club held its farewell concert at Yoyogi National Gymnasium’s First Gymnasium. The group had been active for about two and a half years, counting from the start of the show, with 19 members on the roster at the finale. ORICON NEWS: Onyanko Club (in Japanese)
Members such as Shizuka Kudo (who made her solo debut that August with “Kindan no Telepathy”), Marina Watanabe and Yoko Minamino carried on with individual singing and acting careers.
It was also the year BOØWY’s single “Marionette” and sixth album PSYCHOPATH both took No. 1 on the Oricon rankings. Then on Christmas Eve, December 24, at the end of their tour finale at Shibuya Public Hall, the four members abruptly announced their breakup at the height of their popularity, leaving fans outside the hall and across Japan in shock. Universal Music: BOØWY (in Japanese)
Rebecca Plays Outdoors in Yokosuka, and Yutaka Ozaki Resumes Touring
Rebecca played six shows at the Nippon Budokan at the start of the year, and on July 26 held the rainy outdoor concert “REBECCA FROM THE FAR EAST” at Yokosuka Shinpo Pier south of Tokyo. It is recorded as drawing about 50,000 fans, and BUCK-TICK also made their major-label debut that autumn, while TM NETWORK’s “Get Wild”—the ending theme of the anime City Hunter—became a signature hit. Sony Music: REBECCA (in Japanese)
Yutaka Ozaki, returning from a stay in New York, began his national tour “TREES LINING A STREET” in July and played before 30,000 fans at Ariake Coliseum in August. Sony Music: Yutaka Ozaki (in Japanese)
At the year-end 29th Japan Record Awards, the Grand Prix went to Masahiko Kondo’s “Orokamono” (“Fool”). The Album Grand Prix went to Tsuyoshi Nagabuchi’s LICENSE, and the Best New Artist award to Risa Tachibana. Domestic CD production reached about 64.99 million discs (valued at ¥139.016 billion), up sharply from 45.12 million the year before. Japan Composers Association (in Japanese)
Collecting Bikkuriman Stickers and Trading With Friends
The “Devil vs. Angel” series of ¥30 wafer snack Bikkuriman Chocolate, from the confectioner Lotte, began in August 1985 and reached a nationwide peak in 1987. The square character stickers enclosed inside the snacks—divided into three tiers of angels, talismans and devils, topped by rare prism-foil “Head” stickers such as Super Zeus and Heracrist—became prized collectibles for children. Lotte: history (in Japanese)
Because the stickers were sealed inside the package, you could not know whether you would pull the character you wanted until you opened the pack, and shops often limited purchases to three per customer. Kids stored their stickers in albums, showed off the rare prism “Heads” they had pulled, and traded duplicates with friends in classrooms and parks—a behavior directly connected to today’s blind-pack trading cards and random character goods.
At the peak, production reportedly reached 33 million units a month and annual sales topped ¥12 billion. A contest for new characters in the November 1987 issue of CoroCoro Comic drew about 150,000 entries. Food Industry News retrospective (in Japanese)
As the craze overheated, taking out only the stickers and throwing away the snacks also became a problem. In 1988 the Japan Fair Trade Commission instructed Lotte to improve the situation. Food Industry News retrospective (in Japanese)
- 33 million a month
- Production at the peak. Annual sales are said to have topped ¥12 billion.
- About 150,000 entries
- Sent in for the new-character contest in the November 1987 issue of CoroCoro Comic.
- 1988
- With children keeping the sticker and throwing away the snack, the Japan Fair Trade Commission told Lotte to improve the situation.
City Hunter Begins on TV, and Saint Seiya Is Enjoyed as Toys Too
In April, TV anime based on the manga City Hunter and Kimagure Orange Road began airing, pairing urban action and teen romance stories with pop theme songs that listeners also bought on CD and cassette. Sunrise World (in Japanese) / Studio Pierrot (in Japanese)
For Saint Seiya, the die-cast toy line “Saint Cloth Taikei,” in which you dress action figures in armor-like gear called Cloths that can also be reassembled into constellation objects, was a major hit. Bandai describes it as a product that sold about 10 million units cumulatively over its first three years on sale. Bandai materials (in Japanese)
- ~10 million
- Units sold over the first three years on sale
Fans could put the Cloths on the figures and change their poses.
Source: Bandai materials (in Japanese)
In home console games, Enix released Dragon Quest II: Luminaries of the Legendary Line in January to long lines at toy stores, and Square launched the first Final Fantasy in December, giving Famicom players two flagship RPG series to follow. Dragon Quest official site (in Japanese) / Square Enix (in Japanese)
NIFTY-Serve Starts: Exchanging Information in Text With People Who Share Your Hobby
On April 15, the PC networking service NIFTY-Serve began operations. Users connected a personal computer over a phone line and exchanged setlists, broadcast impressions and hobby information using bulletin boards and real-time chat rooms inside topic-based communities called “forums.” INTERNET Watch (in Japanese)
Places to meet in person were growing rapidly too. Comic Market 32 in August had 4,400 circles and an estimated 60,000 attendees at Harumi. Comic Market Preparation Committee (in Japanese)
- 4,400
- Circles taking part
- 60,000
- Estimated attendance
Many people went to read the books fans had made and to meet their makers.
Key Events of the Year
- Jan.Dragon Quest II is released for the Famicom (NES)Games
- Jan.–Feb.Rebecca plays six days at the Nippon BudokanMusic
- Apr. 1Japanese National Railways is split and privatized, and the JR companies launchSociety
- Apr. 15PC networking service "NIFTY-Serve" beginsMedia
- Apr.TV broadcasts begin for City Hunter and other animeAnime
- Jun. 25"Hikaru" and "GENJI" merge to form Hikaru GENJIIdols
- Jul. 1Yutaka Ozaki starts a national tour, his first in one year and seven monthsMusic
- Aug.Rebecca plays an outdoor show for 50,000 people at Yokosuka PortMusic
- Aug.Comic Market 32 is held (60,000 attendees)Fan works
- Aug. 19Hikaru GENJI debut with "STAR LIGHT"Idols
- Sep. 20Onyanko Club disbands at Yoyogi National Gymnasium's First GymnasiumIdols
- Dec.Final Fantasy released for the FamicomGames
- Dec. 24BOØWY announce their breakup at Shibuya Public HallMusic
- Dec. 31At the 29th Japan Record Awards, Masahiko Kondo wins the Grand PrixMusic
- Dec. 31The 38th NHK Kohaku Uta Gassen draws 55.2% in the Kanto regionMedia
- All yearCollecting and trading Bikkuriman stickers spreadsBusiness
- Dragon Quest II released
- NIFTY-Serve beginsForums over the phone line
- Hikaru GENJI debutWith "STAR LIGHT"
- Yuyake Nyan Nyan ends
- Onyanko Club's farewell concertYoyogi National Gymnasium
- Final Fantasy released
- BOØWY announce their breakupAt Shibuya Public Hall
Some fans met a new oshi in the same year that others said goodbye to one.
The Year’s Buzzword Awards
- New words · GoldMarusa (tax-inspector slang, from the film A Taxing Woman)
- Juzo Itami, Nobuko Miyamoto
- New words · SilverJR (the Japan Railways companies formed from JNR)
- Takaya Sugiura
- New words · BronzeDaini Denden ("Second Telecom," the new rival to NTT)
- Shingo Moriyama
- Popular phrases · GoldKorinai ○○ ("incorrigible ○○")
- Joji Abe
- Popular phrases · SilverNangiya naa (Kansai dialect: "what a pain")
- Jiro Shinbo, Takeshi Mori
- Popular phrases · BronzeGokumi (nickname of actress Kumiko Goto)
- Kumiko Goto
The gold prize in the new-word category, “Marusa,” was the nickname for the national tax inspectors made famous by director Juzo Itami’s hit film A Taxing Woman (Marusa no Onna, starring Nobuko Miyamoto), and the trendy-phrase gold prize went to “Korinai menmen.” The bronze prize in the trendy-phrase category, “Gokumi,” was the nickname of teenage model and actor Kumiko Goto, who starred in NHK’s Taiga drama Dokuganryu Masamune and the TBS drama Mama wa Idol. Jiyu Kokuminsha: winners of the fourth awards (in Japanese)
Next, 1988, the year Tokyo Dome opened. Through BOØWY’s “LAST GIGS” and Hikaru GENJI’s hits, we follow fans gathering in big venues.
FAQ
How would you sum up oshi-katsu in 1987 in a phrase?
It was a year when beginnings and endings piled up together. Hikaru GENJI debuted on August 19, Onyanko Club disbanded on September 20, and BOØWY announced their breakup on December 24. In classrooms, trading Bikkuriman stickers spread.
What kind of group was Hikaru GENJI?
The seven-member group formed on June 25 when "GENJI," which had come together in March, merged with "Hikaru," made up of Koji Uchiumi and Mikio Osawa. They debuted on August 19 with "STAR LIGHT," a song provided by Chage & Aska, and drew fans with performances that mixed roller skating and backflips.
When did BOØWY announce their breakup?
On December 24, 1987, they abruptly declared it during a concert at Shibuya Public Hall. The announcement came at the peak of their popularity and led to the "LAST GIGS" show at Tokyo Dome in April 1988.
When did Onyanko Club disband?
Yuyake Nyan Nyan ended its run on August 31, and the group disbanded with a concert at Yoyogi National Gymnasium's First Gymnasium on September 20. It had been together about two and a half years, with 19 members on the roster at the end.
How many CDs were produced in 1987?
According to the Recording Industry Association of Japan, CD production was about 64.99 million discs, valued at ¥139.016 billion. That was a big jump from about 45.12 million the previous year, as the CD spread as a way of buying music.
Why are Bikkuriman stickers talked about in the history of oshi-katsu?
Because the pleasure of collecting character stickers that came with snacks, and showing them off or trading them with friends, spread widely. The behavior connects to collecting random goods today.
