Hyakumantenbara Salome Beats Ludwig as Nijibara Visits the Maker of Hoppe-chan

NIJISANJI — Nijisanji ran three streams at once on Tuesday night. On the official channel, the 123rd episode of Nijisanji’s B-Grade Variety Show (Tentative), known as Nijibara for short, took up the story of San Hoseki, a mail-order brand for girls’ accessories, stationery and sundries, and ended with the creator of its Hoppe-chan mascot presenting custom figures modeled on four participants.

In the episode, chief reporter Debidebi Debiru sent guest reporter Kagami Hayato to the company in Yamanashi Prefecture. The report traced San Hoseki to 1965, when it began as a metalworking business; it moved into retail and mail order and took its current name in 1979, advertising in girls’ magazines and taking orders by postcard. Competition from 100-yen and 300-yen shops and the pandemic cut into sales, and its directly run stores, once more than 30, closed. The company went through civil rehabilitation, a court-supervised rebuilding process, four years ago. A company representative said fans then started a crowdfunding drive and a rush of orders crashed the mail-order site, and the firm carried on at a smaller size.

“Grandpa, thank you for everything.” — Hyakumantenbara Salome, after defeating Ludwig

In the studio, four participants, including Hyakumantenbara Salome and Purin Lala Mode, who were new to the set, each picked one item from the brand’s online shop. Salome chose a 12-piece set of stone rings in a heart-shaped case, and Purin Lala Mode chose a Hoppe-chan holding candy. Purin Lala Mode answered a quiz on the mascot’s name correctly, which earned each pick as a gift. A second video said Hoppe-chan, launched in 2010, now comes in more than 3,000 designs, each made by hand from silicone so that no two are alike, and its creator said the shape came about by chance while making sweets-themed decorations from leftover silicone. In a quiz on the unusual varieties, Salome guessed a human-shaped Hoppe-chan and Purin Lala Mode guessed ‘skin-tone Hoppe-chan,’ a nickname fans gave a walking figure from a company social media video that went viral. Purin Lala Mode’s answer was the right one.

The episode closed with a surprise from the company: the creator had made original Hoppe-chan figures in the likenesses of the four participants. Participants said the one modeled on Purin Lala Mode was recreated closely, and chat filled with comments such as ‘The way the hair sticks up is recreated, so cute.’

On her own channel, Salome spent the night fighting Ludwig, the Holy Blade, a boss in the downloadable content for the game Bloodborne. While playing she said the Nijibara episode she appeared in was airing, and she pointed viewers to it during breaks in the fight. At one point her game picture dropped out and she kept fighting without seeing it. After more than two hours of attempts she beat the boss at about 2:28 into the stream, and more than 10 Super Chats arrived in the next few minutes. She went on to read the item’s description, talk with a character in the area and enter what she called the experiment building, where groups of enemies kept her from getting far. She ended the stream, noting it was a weeknight, and said she would take on the building next time.

Hayase Sou, meanwhile, hosted Hoshikawa Sara for part 10 of her one-on-one drinks series, billed as an encore. The two had done the format five years earlier and toasted with non-alcoholic drinks. They traded recommendations, among them Cardcaptor Sakura, Violet Evergarden, the film The Mist, the Persona games and the visual novel Tsukihime, and went on to escape rooms, bucket lists and what each wants in a partner. They agreed to get together again before another five years pass, and one of them said an album comes out this month.