Recipes for textual engagement: Accessing aspiration in girls’ character-based events

Abstract This article examines the function of participatory event spaces as significant elements of emerging transmedia franchising strategies. Through analysis of the marketing and design of two events based on the Japanese girls’ series Purikyua, this article suggests that participatory spaces can be used to consolidate otherwise disjointed texts, advancing a specific interpretation of the franchise that may seek to guide participants’ engagement with the work. Through instruction-based marketing of the series’ merchandise, including activities that lead children in ‘practice’ sessions with the toys, Purikyua events articulate a single form of engagement with the text and its merchandise as ‘correct’ (in spite of its myriad, and often conflicting, textual elements). In the event space, emphasis on step-by-step instructions and learnable behavior positions Purikyua’s characters as celebrity role models whose lifestyle is attainable—dependent on precise adherence to a single model of textual engagement.