Becoming Purikyua: Building the lifestyle-text in Japanese girls’ franchises

The didactic elements of Japanese children’s media texts have assumed new forms alongside recent developments in franchising strategies. This paper argues that space-based franchising in Purikyua, a popular girls’ transmedia text, exemplifies a trend towards creating Japanese girls’ texts that use participatory activities to create environments that emphasise the potentially accessible nature of idealised gendered and commercialised identities. The instructive elements of girls’ transmedia texts find their fullest realisation in the creation of text-based spaces where girls are encouraged to enter the text and practise a Purikyua lifestyle. This article analyses the structure of three such text-based spaces, outlining their role in building a media system that seeks to guide children’s movements through the spaces of contemporary Japan.