YouTuber Hikakin (19.8 million subscribers) has announced that he’ll unveil a new product at noon on September 13. Starting the morning of September 10, he’s been running a continuous three-day livestream, claiming to have hidden clues about the product somewhere in the footage. When a promotional image showing a rural, pastoral scene appeared during the stream, users on 5channel quickly speculated it was AI-generated. Talk also turned to the sales performance and inventory of Hikakin’s past food products — the “Misokin” instant noodles, the “Oni-cha” barley tea drink, and others — with some pointing to piles of unsold stock still sitting in convenience stores. Overall, the exchange focused less on anticipation for the new product and more on skepticism toward his past releases.
September 10, 2026
Hikakin (19.8 million subscribers) has announced that he’ll reveal a new product on September 13. He says he’ll keep livestreaming for three days leading up to the announcement, hiding clues about the product within the footage.
At 7 a.m. on September 10, a livestream titled “9/13 (Sun) 12 PM — Hikakin’s New Product Announcement: Clues Are Hidden in the 3-Day Stream” began on HikakinTV.
Source: yutura.net / Original article here
If he's hiding stuff, that's just stealth marketing (stema) lol
The black-and-white ones are actually selling fine?
I hit the supermarket twice a week and the stock's definitely going down
so I passed
Figured Cup Noodle curry flavor was good enough anyway
They're piled up unsold at convenience stores
Don't even feel like eating one
It's not selling and the store owners are tearing their hair out lol
No idiot actually plants a field or rice paddy right at the edge of a river like that lol
It's not bad
Just ordinary-tasting barley tea that's overpriced
And yet all he gave Kumamoto was 10 million yen and some Oni-cha
Leaving all that unsold barley tea just sitting there
After seeing the mess at 7-Eleven, would any company actually want to team up with him?
Nah, there's no Oni-cha left. Though if he'd donated more to Kumamoto, some might still be sitting around
It's not just 'teaming up' — he's the CEO of the company behind Misokin and Oni-cha
https://www.bee.inc/
That art is so obviously AI it makes me want to hurl
Looked at the image after you pointed it out, and yeah, it's rough lol
I get that it's cheap, but throw an actual illustrator some work
19.8 million subscribers for content this boring
And some weird mixed-up mystery rice at that
That's when I lost all trust in 7-Eleven
It's not that the public stopped buying rice; the public collectively turned its back on the people who deliberately manipulated prices to cash in
So if he comes out with 'everyone, please buy and eat rice'…
but seriously, can someone explain what actually makes this guy popular?
I think it's first-mover advantage
When Hikakin showed up there basically weren't any YouTubers yet
His Super Mario sound impressions went viral overseas, and that's what got him famous, I think
So he's going to buy up all the cheap rice and sell it off as 'Hikakin Rice' or whatever
Is he going to sell them as 'Budo-Kyu-kin' or something? (a pun mashing up 'grape' [budo], 'cucumber' [kyuuri], and the '-kin' from his name)
Background and Key Points of the Discussion
Hikakin is one of Japan’s biggest YouTubers, and in recent years he’s leaned increasingly into food product development through the company he heads, putting out items like the “Misokin” instant noodles and the “Oni-cha” barley tea drink. This new product looks to be an extension of that same push. Opinions in the thread split over two things: whether the promotional artwork was AI-generated, and how well his past products have actually sold. Some argued that, aside from stock donated to Kumamoto, there’s no “Oni-cha” inventory left over, while others kept pointing to unsold stock piling up at convenience stores. Worth noting: these sales claims are just individual posters’ personal observations, not figures backed by official shipment or sales data.
*This article is compiled and summarized from the 5channel (Entertainment/Sports News+) thread “Hikakin Teases New Product Announcement — Livestream Shows Rural Landscape, ‘Try to Guess What It Is’.”
