Anime DVD/BD Sales in Japan: Discussion

[Ithekro]

Fixed

55,693 Shingeki no Kyojin
44,857 Monogatari Series Second Season
38,087 Uchuu Senkan Yamato 2199
33,055 Uta no☆Prince-sama♪ Maji LOVE 2000%
30,333 Free!

[AmeNoJaku]

Originally Posted by Ithekro

Fixed

55,693 Shingeki no Kyojin
44,857 Monogatari Series Second Season
38,087 Uchuu Senkan Yamato 2199
33,055 Uta no☆Prince-sama♪ Maji LOVE 2000%
30,333 Free!

Uchuu Senkan Yamato 2199 was from 2012, not 2013

[Klashikari]

Originally Posted by Triple_R

That's not necessarily the case. K-On wasn't all that popular until it became an anime. Then its popularity took off like a rocket. There's also cases of anime with popular source material but the anime never sold that well (Umineko being a very good example of this).

When I said heavily dependant, it is obviously as a general observation.
K-on is basically one of the very few exceptions where the anime actually pushed the source material. In fact, K-on popularity by itself is just on several layers compared to other series.

I think you're putting a bit too much weight in the importance of source material popularity (it's important, but it's not as totally overriding as you seem to think it is), and not enough weight in how DVD/Blu-Ray sales are a zero sum game. Given how pricey these are, there's only so many of these that your average otaku is going to be buying in any one season, so head-to-head same-genre competition can have adverse sales impacts.

Actually, your average otaku will not buy DVD and BD in general. Those who buy them are hardcore ones who actually don't mind paying full price for the series they like. And suffice to say, it is rather a matter how they like the specific series than really having to choose between several series of the same genre.

Quantity and price isn't exactly the biggest problem there (well it is for the casual otaku, but for the target audience, not really).

Harem is perhaps an exception because it's such a massive genre to begin with.

I disagree on the fact that usual romcom also have the same implication. It isn't like you have a major shift of sales when you have a single series of a given genre. Otherwise, that would mean every series that are the only one of that given genre would sell wagons, which isn't really the case for... say Gingitsune this season.

I can say the same with Vividred Operation, which could barely reach 5k per volume, despite it potentially could rally mecha musume and MS fans, which was arguably not the case.
Generally speaking, most "non brand" Mahou Shoujo series hardly have major sales. The recent exception to this rule is Madomagi. Past that, only few franchise like Precure and Nanoha can do the trick.

Prisma Illya sticks very tightly to the magical girl genre, to the point that some even considered it a Card Captor Sakura ripoff. It's very clear to me that Prisma Illya is attempting to appeal to magical girl fans.

I never denied that. However, I'm fairly certain that if there wasn't any tie to TM universe, there would be fairly less customers in that.
Do you really think that this series would have sold around 75% of its current sales figure if there wasn't any TM content? Really?

The argument I'm making here makes plenty of sense. You seem to be arguing that Type Moon fans will buy anything Type Moon, and that's why Primsa Illya sold well. Well, if so, there shouldn't be a huge sales discrepancy between different Type Moon anime properties.

These sales discrepancies suggest to me that brand name is not the main factor here in sales success for either of these Type Moon titles.

"anything"? Not quite. Suffice to say, due to the reactions probed left and right which are mainly based on TM stuff instead of MS stuff, that's a huge given. The vast majority were discussing how cute/badass Illya was, how it is nice to see Saber Alter animated and the likes. The same can be said for a major chunk of the western fans who paid more attention of TM related stuff than inherent MS elements.
Furthermore, I already mentioned the other factors that there is no way illya could have be sold as much as F/Z. They are just not in the same league at all, just by comparing the production values and the "canon value".

[Ithekro]

Originally Posted by AmeNoJaku

Uchuu Senkan Yamato 2199 was from 2012, not 2013

Was aired on TV in 2013 from April to September.

[AmeNoJaku]

Originally Posted by Ithekro

Was aired on TV in 2013 from April to September.

OK, I checked syoboi and amozon, and the first episode both aired was available on BD/DVD back in 2012, that's probably why it was not in the 2013 list.

[Ithekro]

But have you watched it? Because of its weird release pattern, it gets skipped, a lot, in reviews.
(only one episode aired on TV in 2012 as a preview).

There has been a lot of "I'll review it when it is finished" during 2012. And now that it is finished, there is a lot of "but that was from 2012".

[AmeNoJaku]

Originally Posted by Ithekro

But have you watched it? Because of its weird release pattern, it gets skipped, a lot, in reviews.
(only one episode aired on TV in 2012 as a preview).

There has been a lot of "I'll review it when it is finished" during 2012. And now that it is finished, there is a lot of "but that was from 2012".

Nope, I haven't, but I might give it a try when I am back home to get nostalgic with friends and family with a remake of an anime we tried to watch as kids, but the distribution then was even worse than today and there was no internet

There was also another "limited" viewing or something up to episode 6 in 2012, but didn't really pay too much attention while reading about it, too many compound words I had never seen before.

[Ithekro]

Two week stints in movie theaters (10 theaters), in seven sections (2 episodes, that 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, and 4) from April 2012 to September 2013.

It will be released in North America on DVD and Blu-Ray starting in February. Under the title "Star Blazers 2199", but still in Japanese with English and Spanish subtitles. Few, it any changes will be made from the Japanes Blu-ray releases aside from the title.

[RRW]

how is Arpeggio of Blue Steel so far?

I heard it was doing decently

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by RRW

how is Arpeggio of Blue Steel so far?

I heard it was doing decently

The first volume is being released this Friday, so we should have a clearer indication in a week or two (not sure if there'll be new years delays). Pre-Order rankings are looking pretty decent, anyway.

[AmeNoJaku]

Current BD ranking in amazon (TV anime with 2-3 episodes only, not collections, movies, etc.):

2. Non Non Biyori vol.1
5. Shingeki no Kyojin vol.7
7. Monogatari Series / Mayoi Jiangshi vol.1
8. Uta Prince True Love 2000& vol.7
10. Shingeki no Kyojin vol.6
12. Aoki Hagane no Arpeggio vol.1 #pre-order
13. Monogatari Series / Hitagi End vol.1 #pre-order
14. Monogatari Series / Hitagi End vol.2 #pre-order
16. Non Non Biyori vol.2 #pre-order
19. Aoki Hagane no Arpeggio vol.2 #pre-order

These along with IS2 (at 24.) should easily sell over 10k. The rest of this season's anime are way behind already.

[Sister Princess]

I know it may be off topic here...

Why Kill me Baby sold less than 800 average during its TV run while the recent Blu-Ray Box sold about 3000?

[Ithekro]

It got better over time. Plus it seems fonder afterwards than during.
(Also that damned ending)

[Miraluka]

So, it seems Nagi no Asukara sell less than 2,900 copies.

Got the source, anyone?

EDIT:

Nvm, found it:

○P.A.WORKS TVアニメ売上一覧

(2008) *2,0**　true tears
(2009) *4,2**　CANAAN
(2010) 34,1**　Angel Beats！
(2011) *8,5**　花咲くいろは
(2012) *2,1**　Another
(2012) *8,3**　TARI TARI
(2013) **,9**　RDG レッドデータガール
(2013) *1,8**　有頂天家族
(2013) *1,1**　凪のあすから

http://dvdbd.wiki.fc2.com/

[Iron Maw]

Something I have been wondering for awhile now: Does anyone have any insight as into why there is so many 2 cour shows this season? Because it's been quite a reversal past season when shows where getting shorter and budgets more conservative. Admittingly the question might be a title beyond the scope of this thread, but asked here due the assumption like with nearly everything related to the industry, profit is the main element.

[Pocari_Sweat]

I cringe everytime I see that 34k for Angel Beats . Even more so because the worst key related product gets the most sales...

[Tranhieu]

Hanasaku Iroha was really great, but I didn't know Tari Tari was also on par.
Sad to see Nagi doing so badly. I thought it could have done much better, at least around 3k or so.

[Marcus H.]

Something I have been wondering for awhile now: Does anyone have any insight as into why there is so many 2 cour shows this season? Because it's been quite a reversal past season when shows where getting shorter and budgets more conservative. Admittingly the question might be a title beyond the scope of this thread, but asked here due the assumption like with nearly everything related to the industry, profit is the main element.

Stabilization of economy? Not sure; I heard that Shinzo Abe's still working out on some plans for the economy. I dunno. Maybe there's just so much money around that prod teams can make 2-cour anime all of a sudden.

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by Iron Maw

Something I have been wondering for awhile now: Does anyone have any insight as into why there is so many 2 cour shows this season? Because it's been quite a reversal past season when shows where getting shorter and budgets more conservative. Admittingly the question might be a title beyond the scope of this thread, but asked here due the assumption like with nearly everything related to the industry, profit is the main element.

All I can do is speculate, but this and a number of other trends suggest increased confidence in the market to me. The number of two-cour series seemed to drop significantly about ~5-6 years ago when confidence in the market seemed to be shaken, but seems to have been slowly clawing back. The increase in the amount and variety of original anime, and also various kinds of experimentation in genres/styles also suggests that there is an increased willingness to try new things. Doing two-cour shows as opposed to split-cour also suggests better budgeting of time and money, although there's still a bit of a "fix it on the BDs!" approach that hasn't really seemed to dampen sales of any popular shows. All in all, I tend to think that at least some in the industry are feeling better about the state of things at the moment.

[Tranhieu]

Originally Posted by Marcus H.

Stabilization of economy? Not sure; I heard that Shinzo Abe's still working out on some plans for the economy. I dunno. Maybe there's just so much money around that prod teams can make 2-cour anime all of a sudden.

The Abenomic is showing its positive effect on the Japan's economy. Inflation's target of 2% isn't too far off, and the job market has been bustling lately, quite an increase compared to the previous quarter. I can't recall the exact figures but the automobile industry just had a sharp increase with regards to new jobs.

Not sure how that has anything to do with anime industry, though.