[bhl88]

The sales figures for the Haruhi’s Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody DVD, the first of the “new material,” and the first of the remade Full Metal Alchemist DVDs, have been published.

Haruhi DVD “4″ sold 21,812 in its first week, versus 28,729 for the very first DVD. Not a complete collapse, but hardly something which augurs well for the future, and probably the death knell for any future large-scale productions.

K-ON! by comparison has now nearly managed 50,000, demonstrating the age has truly shifted to that of K-ON!, which at least eschews an obnoxious protagonist and nonsensical storyline in favour of cheerfully vapid moe blobbery.

Far more of an upset is the dire performance of the Full Metal Alchemist remake – the first DVD sold a mere 12,578 copies, compared to 21,450 for the original, which went on to sell an abnormal 64,992 copies in total.

Even the pricey box set of the original series, cunningly released before the new series was on the scene, sold 14,544 in its first week.

With the ongoing ratings collapse for the TV broadcasts, its sales do not look set to improve…

The real question is of course how well the Endless Eight DVDs will do; anything less than a disastrous performance would be a damning indictment of the current state of the anime market and the otaku DVD collectors who drive it…

- Sankaku Complex

lol the Endless Eight is the iceberg that sunk Haruhi's ship... the Titanic. Time to play the violin. Just shot themselves in the foot.

Back to topic: Let's hope the last novel will become epic.