No boyfriend on Valentine’s Day? No problem!

The quintessential Japanese chocolate stick snack, Pocky offer you a complementary AR anime boyfriend with every pack bought during this romantic season.

The campaign is called ‘koibito wa pocky’; Pocky is your lover. While it’s true that some replace human companionship with snacks, calling them your lover could be going a bit far. The official English slogan seems to be ‘Love with Pocky’ which is definitely a safer tag line.

Each character is designed to represent five individual Pocky varieties and cover all bases when it comes to ‘types’. The boyfriend is found on the front of the box and you can get to know him a bit better on the back of the box, with a profile containing information such as height, star sign and a short introduction. These profiles are also available on the Pocky website (Japanese only).

The classic Pocky seems to be a general heartthrob, with no particular discerning features except good looking and kind.

The Pocky Slim variety is represented by a tall, thin, intellectual feller who reads 50 books a month apparently.

Pocky Heartful, the strawberry flavour one, is personified by a pink-haired, cute, innocent type.

If you think buying a box with an anime hottie on isn’t really enough to constitute a Pocky boyfriend, that’s where the augmented reality portion comes in. If you download the app and scan the QR code your anime boyfriend will come to life!

Within the confines of your smartphone screen anyway…

Similar to Pokemon Go, you can watch your new lover prance around your living room or wherever you happen to be, except unlike Pikachu, he will be spouting compliments and proclamations of love.

With animated shows and movies being such a big deal in Japan, certain voice actors can get a massive following. With this is mind, Pocky drafted in famous voice actors to record the lines knowing that certain fandoms would be all over this campaign.

So lonely singles needn't worry any longer! The campaign is currently running and all the snack boyfriends are available to buy in stores, leading up to Valentine's Day 2018.