Madoka Magica - General Discussion

[zato_1one]

Originally Posted by Kaioshin Sama

Though honestly it's really not that hard to guess what will sell well in Japan versus what won't. Sometimes there's the odd surprise seller that comes out of nowhere, but typically if it has a big name(s) behind it and/or has lots of cute character designs it'll move notable numbers. Very rarely are their exceptions.

Denpa Onna will prove if it's true or not. But it's actually one of the great show in this season. IMO

I'm still not sure if SHAFT is considered as big name. But I'm pretty sure that character designs in this series have little contribution to its success. The fact that no characters in this series can pass the preliminary round in this year ISML actually makes me LOL.

[Solace]

Originally Posted by zato_1one

The fact that no characters in this series can pass the preliminary round in this year ISML actually makes me LOL.

That's an easy one to answer, sadly. Madokas characters lack a lot of the usual fanservicey things that typical ISML voters pick. I've often noticed that most discussions here and on other sites are typically devoid of the usual "waifu" comments where fans eagerly discuss their favorite characters quirks or glorified fetish/fanservice.

So no boobs (Mami's are big but there's never any emphasis on them like in other shows), adorable loli sayings (Neepah!), pantsu, moe moments (ok, episode 10, but after about five minutes your mind is blown for the rest of the episode anyway), girls in futons, tsundere, dere..blah blah, etc.

The designs are cute, but the show never really focuses on attracting the otaku audience by pandering to their usual fanservice fetishes.

This image sums it up imo:

[omimon]

Originally Posted by Solace

That's an easy one to answer, sadly. Madokas characters lack a lot of the usual fanservicey things that typical ISML voters pick. I've often noticed that most discussions here and on other sites are typically devoid of the usual "waifu" comments where fans eagerly discuss their favorite characters quirks or glorified fetish/fanservice.

So no boobs (Mami's are big but there's never any emphasis on them like in other shows), adorable loli sayings (Neepah!), pantsu, moe moments (ok, episode 10, but after about five minutes your mind is blown for the rest of the episode anyway), girls in futons, tsundere, dere..blah blah, etc.

The designs are cute, but the show never really focuses on attracting the otaku audience by pandering to their usual fanservice fetishes.

There's no waifu talk because the fans know the characters are into each other. The people accept their yuri-ness.

[Bri]

Originally Posted by xizro345

I wonder why people are so obsessed with sales? Not to mention, I'd rather avoid Eva comparisons, again...

Fans kind of interpret it often in a similar way like the popularity ratings of sites like ANN, anidb, MAL etc. People just like to see their favorite series do well.

For people interested in the industry it's a proxy for income of a studio for a given show. And it tells us more about what anime fans in Japan actually spend money on. Which can be quite different from anime that get good reviews. Interpreting why an anime gets worse or better sales then expected is usually pretty good food for discussion.

Originally Posted by zato_1one

I'm still not sure if SHAFT is considered as big name. But I'm pretty sure that character designs in this series have little contribution to its success. The fact that no characters in this series can pass the preliminary round in this year ISML actually makes me LOL.

It isn't just the name of the studio that matters but also, if not more so, the names of the creative team. They often bring their own fanbase. The combination of an original animation directed by Shinbo, writing Gen Urobuchi and character designs by Ume Aoki drew a lot of attention before anything was released.

ISML focuses heavily on whether a character acts/is moe. Some of the most popular female characters in anime never make a dent in the contest simply because they don't really act overly cute.

So I wouldn't underestimate the character designs of Madoka, Ume Aoki created some very impressive designs, which are a great contrast to the darkness of the story.

[Pachael]

Originally Posted by kobejin

madoka magica vol.1 (DVD) *9097
madoka magica vol.1 (*BD) 53000

62k BD+DVD. That's really good, considering the sound issue/recall. Could still be looking at 6 figures lifetime.

As for pandering, well, that's a bit hard to say right? Even Working!! made 30k or so over its selling lifetime.

[FlavorOfLife]

Originally Posted by Solace

That's an easy one to answer, sadly. Madokas characters lack a lot of the usual fanservicey things that typical ISML voters pick. I've often noticed that most discussions here and on other sites are typically devoid of the usual "waifu" comments where fans eagerly discuss their favorite characters quirks or glorified fetish/fanservice.

I put it down to terrible timing. Basically it came down to this in terms of the general feeling about the characters at that time

Madoka -> Whiny do nothing
Homura -> Cold
Sayaka -> Idiot
Kyoko -> Crazy

The only character that was generally accepted at that time was Mami and we all know what happened to her.

If the contest was redone, my guess is that we would see a general increase in support for Kyoko (ep 9), Homura (ep 10) and Madoka (ep 12) in that chronological order

[applejuice]

Originally Posted by FlavorOfLife

The only character that was generally accepted at that time was Mami and we all know what happened to her.

She killed her team, though. u.u~~

Current appreciation I'm seeing generally in 2ch is;

Homura = HOMUHOMUHOMUHOMUHOMU
Madoka = GODDESS
Sayaka = The greatest victim of this series = Sympathy votes
Kyoko = 'Want to eat?' + 'Saint girl'
Mami = Chunibyou character + Big boob + Dullahan

[Westlo]

Originally Posted by Pachael

62k BD+DVD. That's really good, considering the sound issue/recall. Could still be looking at 6 figures lifetime.

As for pandering, well, that's a bit hard to say right? Even Working!! made 30k or so over its selling lifetime.

No chance it does 6 digits period

[zato_1one]

Originally Posted by Westlo

No chance it does 6 digits period

It's debatable but I wouldn't rule out the possibility at this time. BD disc 2 has OST and it is one of the best thing in this series.

[applejuice]

Originally Posted by Westlo

No chance it does 6 digits period

It still broke the record of Bakemonogatari in its own way. BD-sales for 1st week was higher than Bakemonogatari's record for final volume. Knowing that 2nd volume is inevitable to sell even more than 1st one due to its handicap of recall, we can expect even more record breaker.

[Pachael]

Also consider that Bake v1 started with about 45k in its first week and ended up at 80k or so
forums.animesuki.com/showpost.php?p=3173606&postcount=407

Madoka is trending about 30% higher at this point but who knows what the spending capability of viewers are?

[applejuice]

Originally Posted by Pachael

Also consider that Bake v1 started with about 45k in its first week and ended up at 80k or so
forums.animesuki.com/showpost.php?p=3173606&postcount=407

Madoka is trending about 30% higher at this point but who knows what the spending capability of viewers are?

Bakemonogatari sales was due to Aniplex's underestimation of its sales. They only printed 50,000 disks for 1st volume, and when they printed 20,000 more, even that was not enough, thus printing even more. That's why 1st volume took long time to build up its actual sales.

In case of Mado Magi, we have recall happened during the second day of its sales, and defect was found right after its release. We all know Mado Magi's sales will be a bit more than this.

[Westlo]

Bake was a suprise monster hit, the only reason it did 45k combined in the first week is because that's all they printed. Demand exceeded supply by a massive margin and later volumes doing 70k opening weeks showed what the first couldve done.

As for madoka breaking the bd record, well i'll just say in a years time if something has a 62k opening week combined it will break that 53k mark as well. Since as time goes by the bd to DVD ratio keeps going in Bds favour.

Also madoka has no guarantee of keeping up the avg of vol 1, whatever it ends up with.. 70-75k I guess... Bakes consistancy is just about unheard of when it comes to anime... All the big hits have drop offs after the first volume to sone degree... Aside from bake.

Bake was helped by the extensive reanimation fiasco and the last 3 episodes being webrips, but even mayois volume had little drop off from vol 1. I also don't think the recall would've had that much effect unless it limited stock that was able to be bought. Personally 2 lines of audio wouldn't stop me from getting my hands I something I really wanted day 1... especially when I can exchange it for a fixed copy a few weeks layer at no charge after I've watchedit a dozen times... Would it stop you? Well see I guess with the following weeks and vol 2 onwards... Anyway still a fantastic effort by madoka and an amazing success for all involved. I guess this and uc gunfam being overestimated by amazon stalker shows the way they rank single digit rankings is flawed...

[sa547]

Originally Posted by Kaioshin Sama

Anyway I actually have Madoka on my to watch list, but it's pretty far down the line so it's not something I'll be watching for at least a couple of months.

Watch PMMM first before making your judgment call; don't be put off by the cutesy looks or the sugary pink veneer -- there's more to it than you think at first. To put down the show in your list is a mistake of underestimating its impact.

That's all.

[applejuice]

Originally Posted by Westlo

Also madoka has no guarantee of keeping up the avg of vol 1, whatever it ends up with.. 70-75k I guess... Bakes consistancy is just about unheard of when it comes to anime... All the big hits have drop offs after the first volume to sone degree... Aside from bake.

It is guaranteed to do consistently... It will do better in the second volume, and final volume will hit the top, trust me.

Originally Posted by Westlo

Bake was helped by the extensive reanimation fiasco and the last 3 episodes being webrips, but even mayois volume had little drop off from vol 1. I also don't think the recall would've had that much effect unless it limited stock that was able to be bought. Personally 2 lines of audio wouldn't stop me from getting my hands I something I really wanted day 1... especially when I can exchange it for a fixed copy a few weeks layer at no charge after I've watchedit a dozen times... Would it stop you? Well see I guess with the following weeks and vol 2 onwards... Anyway still a fantastic effort by madoka and an amazing success for all involved. I guess this and uc gunfam being overestimated by amazon stalker shows the way they rank single digit rankings is flawed...

Yes it does. The flaw of dvd/bd was found on the day of its release, and I actually saw many people canceling the preorder until hearing Aniplex's recall order.

[Archon_Wing]

Originally Posted by sa547

Watch PMMM first before making your judgment call; don't be put off by the cutesy looks or the sugary pink veneer -- there's more to it than you think at first. To put down the show in your list is a mistake of underestimating its impact.

That's all.

I don't think Kaioshin has made a judgement call, rather there's just higher priority stuff on the list of stuff. I would know, since I take a while to get around to stuff.

[BaKaBaKaOtaKu]

well, i have faith that madoka can outsell bake!! =DD It's selling so high in spite of lacking fanservice. that's telling something. one thing more is, it doesn't have a previous fanbase. i do hope that a non-LN based shaft show like this can do it!! XDD

[FlavorOfLife]

Originally Posted by applejuice

She killed her team, though. u.u~~

Current appreciation I'm seeing generally in 2ch is;

Homura = HOMUHOMUHOMUHOMUHOMU
Madoka = GODDESS
Sayaka = The greatest victim of this series = Sympathy votes
Kyoko = 'Want to eat?' + 'Saint girl'
Mami = Chunibyou character + Big boob + Dullahan

Now, yes but IIRC, Homura and the other girls had their round in mid March. Its the ISML that i think its being referred to?

Possibly Saimoe might give a good showing. Still i don't see Sayaka doing well in either contest. She's on exhibition now in ISML i think. Homura is manly not moe (except Moemura) so i'm not too sure if she would do well either. Maybe SaiGar if its still running

[BaKaBaKaOtaKu]

HOmura might have a chance in AST. i'll be the happiest man in the world if ever.

as for KBM...augghh..it seems like koreans love tenshi though.. >.>

btw, homura, moe or not, she's gonna win. XD well, i hope. XD

[kobejin]

TV series DVD+BD sales ranking (vol.1 2000~)

first week * total

*1 44,885 82,803 Bakemonogatari
*2 56,760 80,635 GUNDAM SEED DESTINY
*3 30,147 71,081 GUNDAM SEED
*4 21,450 64,992 Fullmetal Alchemist
*5 39,548 64,981 Macross Frontier
*6 36,634 62,527 Code Geass
*7 62,027 62,027 Madoka magica
*8 36,000 59,041 Code Geass R2
*9 40,452 53,472 K-on!
10 34,500 49,943 GUNDAM 00 second season
11 30,378 42,433 K-on!!
12 22,847 42,415 GUNDAM 00
13 34,857 41,512 Angel Beats!
14 21,812 40,036 The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya 2009
15 28,729 39,102 The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
16 25,917 38,671 Lucky Star
17 29,368 34,501 IS <Infinite Stratos>
18 14,931 32,400 WORKING!!
19 16,161 29,653 Durarara!!
20 23,178 28,350 Ore no Imouto
21 19,464 27,834 CLANNAD
22 20,337 26,886 Toaru Kagaku no Railgun
23 18,671 26,537 Fate/stay night
24 17,062 24,859 Gin Tama
25 18,665 23,688 Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Strikers
26 17,779 23,434 Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
27 15,471 23,432 Negima!
28 14,993 21,766 Gurren Lagann
29 17,521 20,450 CLANNAD AFTER STORY
30 12,535 19,519 Tsukihime