Index Novel Sales Figures and Discussion

[LevelSeven]

^thats true

[ACertainStark]

Japan's Weekly Light Novel Rankings for Aug 8 - 14
*2.　*50,124　*50,124　Shinyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index Vol.16 - Out Aug 10th.
http://myanimelist.net/news/47393781

[dniv]

Originally Posted by ACertainStark

Japan's Weekly Light Novel Rankings for Aug 8 - 14
*2.　*50,124　*50,124　Shinyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index Vol.16 - Out Aug 10th.
http://myanimelist.net/news/47393781

Sorry, sorry, sorry. Still isn't exactly that good considering it came out on weds and sales went through Fri. Hopefully SAO is why and it'll improve by next week...? Meh, I need to order my copies of 13/14/15 soon. Am planning on doing so though with the money I made from my summer part time job.

[Kuroageha]

So no changes and the drop continues.

Surpassing OT16 Kamachi says?

[ACertainStark]

Originally Posted by dniv

Sorry, sorry, sorry. Still isn't exactly that good considering it came out on weds and sales went through Fri. Hopefully SAO is why and it'll improve by next week...? Meh, I need to order my copies of 13/14/15 soon. Am planning on doing so though with the money I made from my summer part time job.

My post wasn't directed at you dniv. My bad if it seemed like that. It was general. Anyways, I'm guessing it will hit around 80-90k again by the end of the month in terms of visible rankings, which is still good stuff. And I consider SAO a factor, yeah.

[dniv]

Originally Posted by Kuroageha

So no changes and the drop continues.

Surpassing OT16 Kamachi says?

Originally Posted by ACertainStark

My post wasn't directed at you dniv. My bad if it seemed like that. It was general. Anyways, I'm guessing it will hit around 80-90k again by the end of the month in terms of visible rankings, which is still good stuff. And I consider SAO a factor, yeah.

Lol, don't worry about it, I felt responsible for posting there as well. I really am just hoping that it is the case that we aren't just making up and convincing ourselves that there's an invisible component that if we could see it would be reflecting that Index is doing better pretty well right now. Aside from that, why are so many fans of Index buying digital copies instead of hard copies? Wouldn't SAO fans tend to get digital copies first lol since it's a tech oriented series. Or is it just that even after accounting for the invisible sales component for SAO LN's it still sells that much hard copy wise?

Thanks for your input in advance.

[ACertainStark]

@dniv: Well, Index is quite the long running series. To still hit so high this many years later is still quite a feat. IIRC there was a steep drop for several DB titles at one point as well, so lot of things come into play. As for SAO, I think there's a re broadcasting going right now + the movie hype so I think that's natural.

[dniv]

Originally Posted by ACertainStark

@dniv: Well, Index is quite the long running series. To still hit so high this many years later is still quite a feat. IIRC there was a steep drop for several DB titles at one point as well, so lot of things come into play. As for SAO, I think there's a re broadcasting going right now + the movie hype so I think that's natural.

Well that makes me feel a bit better lol. Thanks bro.

Lol, I hope that the sales do pick up... More than that, I hope against all hope that a season 3 happens some day, because I'm pretty certain it would fix that sales problem...

[DragonXX]

Originally Posted by dniv

Well that makes me feel a bit better lol. Thanks bro.

Lol, I hope that the sales do pick up... More than that, I hope against all hope that a season 3 happens some day, because I'm pretty certain it would fix that sales problem...

Well I also think that Index will most likey get around 80K-90K. I do ageed that one of the reasons the sales are so low is the fact that it is a really long series up to 40 books now.SAO coming out on the same day is also a problem because people like to buy series that are Wish-Fullfillment characters and Touma is fall less of a character that is a Wish-Fullfillment character after the horrorable crap he go through in like 1 month.

Also if they keep on bring out SAO or Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei or even Accel World because of the movie on the same day as Index.I will start to believe that Dengeki Bunko itself is trying to destory Index for some reason or another.

[dniv]

Originally Posted by DragonXX

Well I also think that Index will most likey get around 80K-90K. I do ageed that one of the reasons the sales are so low is the fact that it is a really long series up to 40 books now.SAO coming out on the same day is also a problem because people like to buy series that are Wish-Fullfillment characters and Touma is fall less of a character that is a Wish-Fullfillment character after the horrorable crap he go through in like 1 month.

Also if they keep on bring out SAO on the same day as Index.I will start to believe that Dengeki Bunko itself is trying to destory Index for some reason or another.

Lol, still though. In at least a few senses, Touma is a wish-fulfillment character. People want to be able to accomplish what he, himself, is capable of achieving. In that sense, he is wish-fulfillment. It's just "better" wishes. Instead of being OP and picking up girls, it's more like, being a hero ... (and many other things) ... and picking up girls...

Anyway, yeah, sigh, at least I hope that sales go up someday. I think the only way that could ever happen is if the fans who stopped reading the series after the Index III fiasco, get rewarded with Index 3 sometime... though in the end, as long as Kamachi has clearance to write until he finishes the whole plot of the series, then I won't mind. I just don't want it to be cut short for any reason.

Edit: Amusingly enough. I just realized, that the reason why this volume has so many digital sales instead of hard copy sales may literally just be because of the fanservicey cover so if you buy it digitally you don't have to worry about the embarrassment if you're more interested in the philosophy than in the fanservice. That's sort of funny if you think about it actually...

[ACertainStark]

@DragonXX: You have to look at it another way though... Think about it: Dengeki this month releases volumes from two of its biggest series. That's a lot of money for this month and how they market it on their website and social media.

[entei08]

I still don't understand how the price of this volume was mysteriously bumped up despite having fewer pages.

[LevelSeven]

^mostlikely that is the reason,
by higher income per book but less copies they can still gain the same money

[dniv]

Originally Posted by LevelSeven

^mostlikely that is the reason,
by higher income per book but less copies they can still gain the same money

Then that's not actually so bad is it lol? That could be an effective strategy excuse to keep the series continuing for longer lol.

[Kuroageha]

Isn't a good idea for the mid and long term if the fans willing to buy keep on decreasing.

[dniv]

Originally Posted by Kuroageha

Isn't a good idea for the mid and long term if the fans willing to buy keep on decreasing.

No the point is that people are buying it digitally as opposed to hard copy wise. It might be a new trend that some types of light novel readers are following more than others. I really do think it may be possible.

If we want to really have a better idea of things we need to send out someone to scout out 2ch and tell us what Japan is saying about the volume sales lol. I'm sure they have more info than we do...

[Kuroageha]

It applies to DL too, did you thought it doesn't applies to every series or just to Toaru?

[dniv]

Originally Posted by Kuroageha

It applies to DL too, did you thought it doesn't applies to every series or just to Toaru?

No I see your point. Though I think it might be different in this case. The series is long enough where some fans will just continue to buy it regardless of small changes in price as long as the quality meets that same desired standard. I think that Long series rarely get more readership, but as long as Qualiry stays good it's also easy to avoid losing super core readership.

That's why I'm saying I think we might not be looking at decrease in sales. It could just be that Oricon can't do a good job of looking at the DL data.

[Natsurin]

When a series runs for this long with technically five (movie included even if it's original) anime adaptations going for it, it naturally takes the gamble of either having a name big enough that it alone will sell the volumes (à la SAO) or flopping towards its long-time buyers due to over-extensive plot boring the average reader. In a sense, considering how poorly known Index is to the populace compared to other novel adaptations of recent years, it's almost a miracle it made it this far since, as regrettable as it is, Index will never reach the same threshold of popularity as those other novels will.

It wouldn't change much if they released Index III, IV, and V, since there's only so much new anime seasons can do even if the main goal of an anime adaptation is to boost the LN sales via positive reception and growing popularity.

But honestly, this outcome doesn't surprise me too much. I'd definitely hate for Index to get the Bleach treatment (God, so many people have complained about it today), but unless there's been a general complaint as to how Oricon does things, it strikes me as odd at best that this poor data analysis issue would only target Index every time a novel related to it releases.

[Kuroageha]

Originally Posted by Natsurin

It wouldn't change much if they released Index III, IV, and V, since there's only so much new anime seasons can do even if the main goal of an anime adaptation is to boost the LN sales via positive reception and growing popularity.

I disagree here, for example, DRRR SH, sequel to DRRR like NT is to OT did terribly bad in sales, so bad I laughed (because Narita was legit at fault here), however the anime actually gave a huge boost to their sales making it sell good again.