[Kaioshin Sama]

This is sort of a topic I've wanted to approach for a while, but never quite got around to it. Now I think is a better time than ever considering the number of sales and merchandise related threads that are popping up on this site and others.

First let me start off by briefly explaining what I mean in asking the topic question and my own personal perspective on the matter. With recent innovations like the Stalker point system as well as regular weekly briefs from anime forums and news sites access to information on things like Blu-Ray and DVD sales per volume over in Japan are readily available which has lead to an increased interest in mulling over and trying to discuss what these numbers mean for the future of anime as well as how popular shows one is interested in appear to be. This is all quite interesting, but I personally think it has gotten a little out of hand and taken too much as a qualitative measure of anime versus other anime.

What I mean by that is I often see people taking these numbers and rather than using them in the context which they were meant for which in my opinion is simply record keeping and insight into what people are buying, instead using them to imply all sorts of far reaching insinuations like x show is "the best of the season because it sold the most units" or "y show bombed therefore it shows it just wasn't very good and therefore irrelevant", but what such comments fail to take into account is that there are more measures of a shows quality than just how well it sells, such as what it does for one personally entertainment wise (To me a heartfelt, honest and well thought out appreciation or critical piece for a show that highlights it's individual qualities and shortcomings says far more about it's place in the grand scheme of audience feedback than any number next to the title ever could) and factors that people are failing to take into account when looking at this charts such as the fact that market tastes/trends in Japan simply may not allow for certain types of shows to find a large buying audience. It doesn't mean that these are bad shows and that people shouldn't pay them any mind or even that there's little to no audience for them in Japan, just that it might not be targeted at the people most likely to make $60-80 Blu-Ray purchase.

That's just one example of how I think Sales Charts might be taken a little too seriously and used to make far reaching claims though. Others include this idea of the Manabi Line which seems to be this ever sliding scale somewhere between the region of 2,000-5,000 units per volume that is apparently supposed to be an important indicator of whether a show made a profit or not, but fails to take into account numerous factors such as production expenses, volume counts and price variances among others that may set the margin for profit versus loss somewhere entirely different than an arbitrary number based off of an anime that aired half a decade ago would indicate.

None of this is to say that Sales Charts don't have their use nor that people ought to not pay attention to them, just that IMO we're looking at a bit of a slippery slope where I think people are placing too much stock in them and allowing numbers rather than words to make arguments and points for them in matters where a little more insight ought to be expected and it's something that concerns me a little as someone that values thoughtful qualitative analysis as much as numericall statistics. Anyway what do others think about the matter?