Anime DVD/BD Sales in Japan: Discussion

[Kirarakim]

Originally Posted by Triple_R

Critically acclaimed means "Acclaimed by the (paid, professional) critics".

Oh yeah I know what it means I was just questioning Reckoner's reason for saying Aku no Hana is not critically acclaimed.

The only critic's reviews I've seen are on ANN and they all rated the series highly. But even still I don't think we have enough "professional critics" in the anime fandom to really say if something was critically well received. ANN to me is more a news site that happens to write reviews. A few good reviews don't tell you something is critically well received it is when the good reviews outweigh the bad reviews. Awards from peers also say if something is critically well received.

Ratings on MAL are the same as IMDB, they don't indicate critical fame just popularity.

And I know no one is going to tell me 4chan and 2ch are the equivalent of critical acclaim.

And yeah we don't know how critics in Japan are judging Aku no Hana. I know there are awards for anime in Japan but at the Tokyo Anime Awards they named Sword Art Online anime of the year so no comment

[bhl88]

Lol everything got acclaimed there xD

[AbZeroNow]

Evangelion is still a MONSTER seller.

GuP vol 4 at 30k combined is still very impressive. SAO is still going strong at Vol 7(around 26k combined). Some dropoff on Live Live! however 15k is still pretty good. The Naruto movie doing around 20k combined surprised me, and Hetalia did decently with 6k.

Blu-ray
*1, 312,842 312,842 Evangelion: 3.33 You Can (Not) Redo
*2, *28,410 *28,410 Girls und Panzer vol.4
*3, *21,849 *21,849 Sword Art Online vol.7 Limited Edition
*4, *15,249 *15,249 Love Live! School Idol Project vol.2 Limited Edition
*5, *13,457 *13,457 JoJo's Bizarre Adventure vol.4 Limited Edition
*6, *13,416 *13,416 Macross FB7: Ginga Rukon - Ore no Uta wo Kike! Limited Edition
*7, **7,453 **7,453 Naruto: Shippuuden Movie 6 - Road to Ninja Limited Edition
*8, **7,309 **7,309 Hyouka vol.11 Limited Edition
*9, **7,289 **7,289 Little Busters! vol.5 Limited Edition
10, **6,981 **6,981 To LoveRu Darkness vol.5 Limited Edition
11, **5,515 **5,515 Vividred Operation vol.2 Limited Edition
12, **5,024 **5,024 Hidamari Sketch x Honeycomb vol.5 Limited Edition

DVD
*1, 120,826 120,826 Evangelion: 3.33 You Can (Not) Redo
*2, *12,925 *12,925 Naruto: Shippuuden Movie 6 - Road to Ninja Limited Edition
*3, **7,435 **7,435 Gintama': Enchousen vol.3 Limited Edition
*4, **7,097 **7,097 New Prince of Tennis vol.7
*5, **6,276 **6,276 Hetalia: The Beautiful World vol.1 Limited Edition
*6, **4,866 **4,866 Sword Art Online vol.7 Limited Edition
*7, **3,126 **3,126 JoJo's Bizarre Adventure vol.4 Limited Edition
*8, **2,537 **2,537 Magi vol.5 Limited Edition
*9, **2,314 **2,314 Naruto: Shippuuden Movie 6 - Road to Ninja Standard Edition
10, **2,254 **2,254 Amnesia vol.2 Limited Edition
11, **2,129 **2,129 Macross FB7: Ginga Rukon - Ore no Uta wo Kike!
12, **1,951 **1,951 To LoveRu Darkness vol.5 Limited Edition
13, **1,776 **1,776 Toaru Kagaku no Railgun DVD Box vol.2
14, **1,748 **1,748 Toaru Kagaku no Railgun DVD Box vol.1
15, **1,541 **1,541 Girls und Panzer vol.4
16, **1,438 **1,438 Little Busters! vol.5 Limited Edition
17, **1,191 **1,191 Cuticle Tantei Inaba vol.2
18, **1,068 **1,068 Hyouka vol.11 Limited Edition
19, **1,061 **1,061 Zettai Karen Children: The Unlimited - Hyoubu Kyousuke vol.2 Limited Edition
20, **1,004 **1,004 Senyuu. vol.1
21, ***,990 ***,990 Hidamari Sketch x Honeycomb vol.5 Limited Edition
22, ***,987 *58,945 MS Gundam UC vol.6
23, ***,919 ***,919 Shirokuma Cafe vol.10
24, ***,838 ***,838 Hiiro no Kakera 2nd season vol.4
25, ***,833 ***,833 Vividred Operation vol.2 Limited Edition
26, ***,727 ***,727 Hakkenden vol.2
27, ***,689 ***,689 Smile Precure! vol.13
29, ***,669 **8,760 Initial-D Fifth Stage vo.4
30, ***,662 ***,662 Smile Precure! vol.14

[Guardian Enzo]

Eva Q did drop almost 1/3 from Eva 2.22, however.

[Myssa Rei]

Volume 4 of Girls und Panzer STILL selling well past 25k units? In any other cases you'd expect a huge dropoff, but to see it going strong is a delightful surprise, and right behind EVA 3.33 too. Huh.

[4Tran]

Originally Posted by Myssa Rei

Volume 4 of Girls und Panzer STILL selling well past 25k units? In any other cases you'd expect a huge dropoff, but to see it going strong is a delightful surprise, and right behind EVA 3.33 too. Huh.

Girls und Panzer is one of those rare shows that picked up viewers as it went along. Volume 4 seems to have supply issues (Hah! What else is new? ), and I wouldn't be surprised if the later volumes sell even better.

That said, there seems to be a wee gap between Eva and Girls und Panzer, so "right behind" seems to be a slight exaggeration.

[whitecloud]

wow...100.000 barrier...evangelion...i dont think i ever see any series at that number before...

[AbZeroNow]

And now we have some data on a few Spring 2013 anime...

From MAL (http://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=610059)

Blu-ray
*1, 33,450 *33,450 Girls und Panzer vol.5
*2, 23,318 *23,318 Uchuu Senkan Yamato 2199 vol.5
*3, 15,982 *15,982 Love Live! School Idol Project vol.3
*4, 12,596 *12,596 JoJo's Bizarre Adventure vol.5
*5, *7,536 **7,536 Little Busters! vol.6
*6, *7,449 **7,449 To LOVE-Ru Darkness vol.6
*7, *5,245 **5,245 Vividred Operation vol.3
*8, *3,948 372,947 Evangelion: 3.33 You Can (Not) Redo
*9, *3,632 **3,632 Karneval vol.1
10, *3,577 **3,577 Haiyore! Nyaruko-san W vol.1
11, *3,289 **3,289 Puchimas!: Petit iDOLM@STER vol.3 - Collector's Edition
12, *3,116 *24,177 Sword Art Online vol.8
13, *2,512 **2,512 Jormungand: Perfect Order vol.6
14, *2,230 **2,230 Yuyushiki vol.1
15, *2,077 **2,077 Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo vol.5
(cut-ff 2,077)


DVD
*1, 9,597 *,**9,597 Uchuu Senkan Yamato 2199 vol.5
*2, 3,687 *,**3,687 Karneval vol.1
*3, 2,957 *,162,701 Evangelion: 3.33 You Can (Not) Redo
*4, 2,686 *,**2,686 JoJo's Bizarre Adventure vol.5
*5, 2,021 *,**2,021 To LOVE-Ru Darkness vol.6
*6, 1,841 *,**1,841 Girls und Panzer vol.5
*7, 1,572 *,**1,572 Amnesia vol.3
*8, 1,505 *,**1,505 Little Busters! vol.6
*9, 1,172 *,**5,416 009 Re:Cyborg
10, 1,162 *,**1,162 Cuticle Tantei Inaba vol.3
11, 1,068 *,**5,595 Sword Art Online vol.8
12, 1,020 *,**1,020 Meiji Tokyo Renka ~Haikara Rouman Gekijou~
13, *,939 *,***,939 Zettai Karen Children: The Unlimited - Hyoubu Kyousuke vol.3
14, *,868 *,***,868 Hiiro no Kakera Dai Ni Shou vol.5
15, *,838 *,**7,410 Gintama': Enchousen vol.4
16, *,831 *,***,831 Haiyore! Nyaruko-san W vol.1
17, *,828 *,***,828 Smile Precure vol.16
18, *,811 *,***,811 Vividred Operation vol.3
19, *,808 *,***,808 Smile Precure vol.15
20, *,805 *,***,805 Dokidoki! Precure vol.1
21, *,694 *,**8,593 One Piece Film Z Rendou Tokubetsu-hen: Z no Yabou
22, *,678 *,***,678 Senyuu. vol.2
23, *,621 *,***,621 Hakkenden: Touhou Hakken Ibun vol.3
24, *,610 *,**2,844 Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic vol.6
25, *,602 *,***,602 Busou Shinki vol.6
26, *,536 *,***,536 Senran Kagura vol.3
27, *,535 *,***,535 Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo vol.5
28, *,531 1,189,891 Tonari no Totoro
(cut-off 531)

GaruPan still going strong, and it has passed Infinate Stratos to be 19th in sales since 2000.

Yamato's numbers still strong.

Love Live seems to be stable now. 15k for volume 3 is still really good.

Karneval seems to be Manglobe's best selling show to date. 7.3k combined.

Sad at Nyaruko W only doing 4.4 k combined. A huge dropoff from the first season.

And Yuyushiki doesn't even make the Manabi Line.

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by AbZeroNow

Sad at Nyaruko W only doing 4.4 k combined. A huge dropoff from the first season.

It isn't really that big of a drop-off, though, when you consider that the average for the last volume from the first season was about 6k. Of course, what remains to be seen is whether the future volumes will stabilize or continue the trend. I've noticed that a number of late-night comedies follow this same sort of pattern, which sort of suggests to me that there's a bit of a "new shiny" thing going on (both in the initial popularity, and in the fact that it doesn't last). Perhaps some people have decided they don't need the sequel, or will just wait for an eventual box release or something.

[Zephuros]

I want to know how much BD/DVD a series sale in Japan...
for really popular series, popular, and non-popular ones...
approximately how much would they sell in their first week?
(What amount of number indicates it's selling "poorly", "average", and "saling really good"?).

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by Zephuros

I want to know how much BD/DVD a series sale in Japan...
for really popular series, popular, and non-popular ones...
approximately how much would they sell in their first week?
(What amount of number indicates it's selling "poorly", "average", and "saling really good"?).

For the actual sales, please feel free to check out this thread.

Answering the rest of your question is a bit tricky. You can think of all shows as marketing tools, and selling DVDs/BDs is one of the ways they make money. Some shows depend a lot on disc sales to recoup their investment, but other shows do not. For example, the most popular long-running shounen shows (Naruto, One Piece, etc.) air in primetime and weekend mornings respectively, and their goal is more oriented around getting viewers (and selling toys/manga/merchandise/etc.). Although they're quite popular, these TV shows don't sell very many discs relatively speaking. On the other hand, shows that air in late-night time slots -- when most people are sleeping -- tend generally to depend more on disc sales than TV ratings (because not that many people are up at those hours anyway). But even with that general rubric in mind, some shows can not sell very well on disc, but still be green-lit for sequels because the anime resulted in increased sales of other things, like novels, manga, magazines, CDs, games, event tickets, or other merchandise. Having an anime raises the profile of a work, and the partnering companies (who invest the production money upfront) aim to make money back through as many different means as possible.

All this to say, colloquially, anime fans have some general rules of thumb to judge whether sales of late-night anime are impressive or not. Keep in mind that late-night anime in Japan is generally released on multiple volumes with 2-to-4 episodes per volume. So a 12-13 episodes anime will typically be released on 6-7 discs, and a 24-26 episode anime will typically be released on 8-13 discs, and so on. And people generally say that shows that sell over 5,000 copies per volume are doing well, 8,000-10,000 is doing quite well, and anything above that is great. Shows like Bakemonogatari, Madoka Magica, and others that can sell over 30,000 discs per volume are considered exceptional. Having great or exceptional disc sales tend to correlate to getting sequels, but of course it's no guarantee. Likewise, even shows with poor disc sales can get sequels, for the reasons I explained above. Disc sales are only one part of the profitability equation.

[SeijiSensei]

For disc sales, I recommend this posting in the companion thread:
http://forums.animesuki.com/showthre...72#post3246772

It gives cumulative sales for many series organized by studio. You can begin to judge the range of sales figures just by perusing the table.

As for the other revenue streams that relentlessflame so eloquently described, I'll just point to one program, Chihayafuru. It's per-volume manga sales quadrupled after the anime began. Chihayafuru topped the best-seller lists in two different months of 2012 and ranked #16 overall that year. I'm sure the anime played a large role.

[Zephuros]

Hmmm ok.. that's a really long and useful list right there.... o_o"...
I knew it's not the same for each anime/company since the episode numbers are not the same and what not....
But what about GoHands? An anime with 12-13 something like K (I'm still scrolling to find K's number of sales .. doesn't help much with ctrl+F >_>")
I want to know if for example if K is considered successful or not, and how much GoHands need from it to be considered somewhat.. "good sales"

p.s. sorry for creating a new topic...

[ultimatemegax]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

As for the other revenue streams that relentlessflame so eloquently described, I'll just point to one program, Chihayafuru. It's per-volume manga sales quadrupled after the anime began. Chihayafuru topped the best-seller lists in two different months of 2012 and ranked #16 overall that year. I'm sure the anime played a large role.

Though Chihayafuru did fantastic in manga sales following the anime, those sales had nothing to do with supporting the anime. Both seasons of the anime were produced (funded) by Nippon Television Network and their video subsidiary VAP. Kodansha, the publishers of the manga, did not finanically support the series nor received any income through advertising/disc sales beyond publisher royalties. It's not a good example to use.

A better example would be Mondaiji (Problem Children Come From Another World, Don't They?). The disc sales (BD alone as DVDs never ranked on Oricon) averaged 1.4k per volume across 5 volumes. However, the light novels jumped from around 22-24k for novel 1 (and below 20k for other novels) up to over 50k per novel. The most recent release is still around 40k after 11 days of sales. Looking at disc sales alone (and music too) would indicate it was a flop, but due to its success at moving novels, it's one of Kadokawa's big successes on the year.

Originally Posted by Zephuros

Hmmm ok.. that's a really long and useful list right there.... o_o"...
I knew it's not the same for each anime/company since the episode numbers are not the same and what not....
But what about GoHands? An anime with 12-13 something like K (I'm still scrolling to find K's number of sales .. doesn't help much with ctrl+F >_>")
I want to know if for example if K is considered successful or not, and how much GoHands need from it to be considered somewhat.. "good sales"

K's production committee consisted of two main companies, MBS (a TV station) and King Records/Starchild Records (AT-X, another TV station, is likely involved, but did not have a producer listed, so I can't verify it). It averaged around 7,649 BD/DVDs sold and has spawned many spinoff formats including novels, manga, and games. It is a very good success for those two companies. (I can't check ratings for it, so I can't say how well it did for MBS and AT-X) GoHands is listed as part of the original creators, so they'll get a small cut of everything produced, but they did not put anything financially into the project to begin with. They still earned a lot though.

[SeijiSensei]

I used Chihayafuru as an example of how an anime can stimulate manga sales. I didn't know the details of the production committee. So Kodansha reaps the rewards of greater manga sales without spending a yen. How nice for them.

Was Chihayafuru already so successful as a manga that another company thought they could profit from the anime rights? I hardly pay attention to the details of every show produced, but not having the manga publisher on the production committee for an adaptation is pretty unusual, right? And making a spin-off anime adaptation on its own is rare, too, yes? A few original productions appear each season, but I've not before heard of an adaptation that was made without any participation by the publisher of the source material.

@Zephurous - I found "GoHands" with Ctrl-F. It is at the end of the line that begins with 'K', with the single quotes. I don't know this show, but I knew it was recent so I searched up from the bottom of the companion sales thread. The entry here also shows the 7,649 figure for average total sales that ultimatemegax reported.

'K' *2,021+*5,628=*7,649 (7, not including preview) (GoHands)

[ultimatemegax]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

I used Chihayafuru as an example of how an anime can stimulate manga sales. I didn't know the details of the production committee. So Kodansha reaps the rewards of greater manga sales without spending a yen. How nice for them.

Was Chihayafuru already so successful as a manga that another company thought they could profit from the anime rights? I hardly pay attention to the details of every show produced, but not having the manga publisher on the production committee for an adaptation is pretty unusual, right? And making a spin-off anime adaptation on its own is rare, too, yes? A few original productions appear each season, but I've not before heard of an adaptation that was made without any participation by the publisher of the source material.

It's a similar situation to older series and how other television programming works. NTV, the TV station, had a producer that wanted to make it into an anime and got rights from Kodansha to make the series, but couldn't get a full committee formed like they could for other shows. Instead, NTV funded it with the help of their video/audio subsidiary VAP like they would any other show (non-anime). This meant it was more reliant on ratings and word of mouth than anything sold (though it would help).

NTV and NHK are the two big TV stations that do this. While Fuji Television, TBS and TV Tokyo fund a lot of anime blocks/programming, they rely a lot on additional financial support. NTV used to require some financial assistance for manga adaptations like Kimi ni Todoke, but that wasn't the case for Chihayafuru or Chronicles of the Going Home Club. The latter's publisher, Square Enix, is rarely on committees to begin with as well. It's not uncommon to see TV shows/movies that were adapted from books/manga/etc without the publisher contributing to the costs in mainstream or older anime shows. Things have just changed now to the production committee format for recent shows as it gives the publishers more ability to control what's being advertised.

[Zephuros]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

@Zephurous - I found "GoHands" with Ctrl-F. It is at the end of the line that begins with 'K', with the single quotes. I don't know this show, but I knew it was recent so I searched up from the bottom of the companion sales thread. The entry here also shows the 7,649 figure for average total sales that ultimatemegax reported.

'K' *2,021+*5,628=*7,649 (7, not including preview) (GoHands)

What's that 7,649? (Total sales? Debut week sales?) and also for one volume (first disc?) or the whole BD/DVD..? (kinda confuse on how to read the numbers..)

'K' *2,021+*5,628=*7,649 (7, not including preview) (GoHands) << what's the 2k and 5k and 7k? DVD, BD, and then total sales? total sales for umm.. what? (i know it's a stupei question, I just don't know how to look at this...
2012/11/07 *2,084 Vol. 1 (One episode)
11/07 *1,359 Vol. 2 (Two episodes up to Vol. 7)
12/05 *1,243 Vol. 3 this means vol.3 sold 1.2k for its DVD on its first week?
2013/01/09 *2,167 Vol. 4
02/06 *2,071 Vol. 5
03/13 *2,528 Vol. 6
03/13 *2,695 Vol. 7
<Blu-ray>
2012/08/01 *1,115 Image Blu-ray WHITE & BLACK (preview)
2012/11/07 *6,926 Vol. 1
11/07 *5,216 Vol. 2
12/05 *4,973 Vol. 3 and this is 4.9k BDs sold in the first week for vol.3?
2013/01/09 *5,077 Vol. 4
02/06 *4,793 Vol. 5
03/13 *5,978 Vol. 6
03/13 *6,433 Vol. 7

[Ithekro]

Response in red.

Originally Posted by Zephuros

What's that 7,649? (Total sales? Debut week sales?) and also for one volume (first disc?) or the whole BD/DVD..? (kinda confuse on how to read the numbers..)

'K' *2,021+*5,628=*7,649 (7, not including preview) (GoHands) << what's the 2k and 5k and 7k? DVD, BD, and then total sales? total sales for umm.. what? (i know it's a stupei question, I just don't know how to look at this... This is the average sales of all the volumes of the DVDs and BD, then totaled for the series using existing data. The 7k is the average number of disc, of both types, sold per volume of this series.

2012/11/07 *2,084 Vol. 1 (One episode)
11/07 *1,359 Vol. 2 (Two episodes up to Vol. 7)
12/05 *1,243 Vol. 3 this means vol.3 sold 1.2k for its DVD on its first week? This means that 1.2k has been reported sold of this DVD volume as of the last update if the post. It is updated every few weeks as sources of sales information update. The date listed is the release date.
2013/01/09 *2,167 Vol. 4
02/06 *2,071 Vol. 5
03/13 *2,528 Vol. 6
03/13 *2,695 Vol. 7
<Blu-ray>
2012/08/01 *1,115 Image Blu-ray WHITE & BLACK (preview)
2012/11/07 *6,926 Vol. 1
11/07 *5,216 Vol. 2
12/05 *4,973 Vol. 3 and this is 4.9k BDs sold in the first week for vol.3? This means 4.9k sales of the BD of this volume as of the present via known sources.
2013/01/09 *5,077 Vol. 4
02/06 *4,793 Vol. 5
03/13 *5,978 Vol. 6
03/13 *6,433 Vol. 7

Space Battleship Yamato 2199's average is slightly over 36,500 presently.

Uchuu Senkan Yamato 2199 *9,652+26,899=36,551 (7) (Xebec, AIC)

2012/05/25 12,061 Vol. 1 (Two episodes)
07/27 10,955 Vol. 2 (Four episodes up to current episode)
11/22 *9,980 Vol. 3
2013/02/22 10,171 Vol. 4
05/28 10,996 Vol. 5
07/26 11,487 Vol. 6
10/25 10,990 Vol. 7 < indicates most recent new update

<Blu-ray>
2012/05/25 28,854 Vol. 1
07/27 27,171 Vol. 2
11/22 27,166 Vol. 3
2013/02/22 27,377 Vol. 4
05/28 26,992 Vol. 5
07/26 26,109 Vol. 6
10/25 24,626 Vol. 7 < indicates most recent new update of a BD

[Zephuros]

Ah..! Finally I get it @@!
Everyone, thank you ver much for helping xD!
(wooh! this is why i like this forum, resourceful database with knowledgeable users >w<!)

[TJR]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

I used Chihayafuru as an example of how an anime can stimulate manga sales. I didn't know the details of the production committee. So Kodansha reaps the rewards of greater manga sales without spending a yen. How nice for them.

Was Chihayafuru already so successful as a manga that another company thought they could profit from the anime rights?

The manga was already selling around 200,000 copies per volume before the anime aired.

I recall reading that NTV failed to attract sponsors in spite of this popularity. However, as a company, they're more resilient to financial loss on an anime program than most producers.