Monogatari Series Merchandise (Figurines, Artbooks, DVDs, etc.)

[Daniel Lind]

So has anybody seen this supposed new ED animation?

Yeah, it's Ueda Hajime being his usual self, now with Matrix monitors.

Surprisingly, there's no episode title card in episode 2 (assumingly, 3 and 4 as well), they kept the numberless black card from the broadcasting version and the episode number was moved to the OP:

[redgrnbluylw]

Originally Posted by Daniel Lind

Yeah, it's Ueda Hajime being his usual self, now with Matrix monitors.

Oooooh now I want to watch it. Shaft OP and ED animations are always the best. May I ask where I can watch it online?

[Azuma Denton]

48k initial sales for Neko (Kuro) !!!
Good job SHAFT !!!

[Azuma Denton]

What is this promotion about??

http://yaraon.blog109.fc2.com/blog-entry-15759.html

[vaden]

Cursory reading of the announcement says that it's some sort of test on the series contents, where those who receive a passing grade get copies of illustrations by VOFAN or Akio Watanabe as prizes.

The entry fees are certainly in standardized test territory, I'll say that much.

[omimon]

Originally Posted by vaden

Cursory reading of the announcement says that it's some sort of test on the series contents, where those who receive a passing grade get copies of illustrations by VOFAN or Akio Watanabe as prizes.

The entry fees are certainly in standardized test territory, I'll say that much.

So basically it's the Monogatari version of Hidamari King?

[omimon]

The first disc didn't even break 40k. Generally it's very good but compared to past seasons it's not even close. :'(

[redgrnbluylw]

Originally Posted by omimon

The first disc didn't even break 40k. Generally it's very good but compared to past seasons it's not even close. :'(

I know it's upsetting, but we're already pretty far into the series. At this point, I think only hardcore fans of Monogatari would buy the Blu-ray. There can only be so many of them. I think it's understandable.

[DorkingtonPugsly]

Originally Posted by omimon

The first disc didn't even break 40k. Generally it's very good but compared to past seasons it's not even close. :'(

Wow that's sad. It's definitely the lack of Senjougahara and Nadeko not being 'cute & cudly' anymore, amongst other things like the broken up arcs and break times inbetween.

I don't know...

[Shikijin]

Originally Posted by DorkingtonPugsly

Wow that's sad. It's definitely the lack of Senjougahara and Nadeko not being 'cute & cudly' anymore, amongst other things like the broken up arcs and break times inbetween.

I don't know...

It is completely normal that the number of DVD/BDs sold (preorder sales, to be exact) decreases with time. It happens with every series.

[ultimate_noob]

Oricon and soundscan did not count aniplex shop's sales yet. From what I've heard, almost 15k fans bought it there because of the keyframes being bundled with the blurays. We will see come nekoshiro's last volume sales if they will count it because they'll ship the two volumes together in one box-set.

If someone can confirm oricon and soundscan counts their data by purchase and not by shipping though, then those 39,000 disc sales for volume 1 are correct.

[blakstealth]

Recently got the Bake BD Boxset and watch the first 5 eps. The show looks amazing in da HD.

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by ultimate_noob

Oricon and soundscan did not count aniplex shop's sales yet. From what I've heard, almost 15k fans bought it there because of the keyframes being bundled with the blurays. We will see come nekoshiro's last volume sales if they will count it because they'll ship the two volumes together in one box-set.

You can order it either separately or together, and either way you will get the bonus that ships with the second volume. (And it'll be like that for every two--disc story arc 'till the end.) That being said, I have no idea if they count these sorts of direct sales in either case.

Regardless, as was said, the level of attrition here (even if this is completely accurate) is nothing to be disappointed about, particularly when you keep in mind that this is a 12-disc release. I know a number of collectors who found that prospect daunting and decided to not continue collecting the series as a result (or are contemplating collecting only their favourite arcs, which this release structure encourages). Some may also have in their head to hope for an eventual boxset release rather than doing the 12-disc marathon as well.

In the end, even if it averaged down to 30k sales over 12 volumes at these prices, that's a pretty great showing.

[ultimate_noob]

Oricon counts the sales in the aniplex shop. Madoka recap movies had a 20,000+ sales from aniplex+ alone. The prediction was 60,000. First week sales has 80,000.

For monogatari, obviously many people chose to ship their copies together than doing it separately because shipping costs. I see around 2 people on twitter that chose to ship their aniplex copies separately though. Hence the low count for the first neko volume.

I doubt monogatari can add an additional 20,000 though. Just around 2-3,000 is enough.

That hope of a box-set is pretty much dim at this point. That defeats the purpose of aniplex putting each arc in a box-set lol. Good luck to those people.

Profits-wise, aniplex, shaft and kodansha are usually swimming with money.

Numbers-wise, 42,000 total sales on the second week is ridiculously good for anime, but a bad start for monogatari.

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by ultimate_noob

Oricon counts the sales in the aniplex shop. Madoka recap movies had a 20,000+ sales from aniplex+ alone. The prediction was 60,000. First week sales has 80,000.

Is that itself taken as evidence that they're counting Aniplex+? Those prediction algorithms tend to be more flaky at the extreme ends, and particularly with shows with extensive store-front sales, even with Aniplex+ excluded (since they're based on Amazon numbers).

Originally Posted by ultimate_noob

That hope of a box-set is pretty much dim at this point. That defeats the purpose of aniplex putting each arc in a box-set lol. Good luck to those people.

If nothing else, they can reverse-import from America, where it'll no doubt be released by AoA in somewhat more comprehensive sets (perhaps 3 sets for the whole show?) at a lesser price, though I suppose they may have to deal with locked subs. But, this aside, I do think the show still will likely be released in a JP box at some point, though it may take a while.

Originally Posted by ultimate_noob

Profits-wise, aniplex, shaft and kodansha are usually swimming with money.

Numbers-wise, 42,000 total sales on the second week is ridiculously good for anime, but a bad start for monogatari.

Honestly, I don't put very much faith in this quasi-silly fan-logic. What really matters from the business perspective is meeting or exceeding your expectations, and I'm quite sure they figured out that this sort of release would see a drop but would still pay off in the long run. If that means this anime doesn't end up ranking as the top-selling anime of the year in volume by volume, oh well...

[ultimate_noob]

Originally Posted by relentlessflame

Is that itself taken as evidence that they're counting Aniplex+? Those prediction algorithms tend to be more flaky at the extreme ends, and particularly with shows with extensive store-front sales, even with Aniplex+ excluded (since they're based on Amazon numbers).

The amazon algorithms obviously only counts their share. Of course we don't know if all the additional 20k did come from aniplex. But with aniplex having the best bonus within all the non-amazon stores, majority of who didn't buy at amazon went there.

If you meant Oricon counting aniplex+ sales, http://www.oricon.co.jp/rank/index2.html#shisu

Originally Posted by relentlessflame

Honestly, I don't put very much faith in this quasi-silly fan-logic. What really matters from the business perspective is meeting or exceeding your expectations, and I'm quite sure they figured out that this sort of release would see a drop but would still pay off in the long run.

I think it pays extremely well for them indeed. Having aired nekoshiro again days before and after the bluray release means they got all their costs covered with just one volume and have the allowance to buy two time slots. Though I doubt the three companies are only looking into the business side of things.

Originally Posted by relentlessflame

If that means this anime doesn't end up ranking as the top-selling anime of the year in volume by volume, oh well...

I think most people who looks at disc sales figures of anime look by the average and not volume by volume. Monogatari, at least for now, has a chance to be the top averaging show if Shingeki bluray sales will drop a little bit.

[ultimate_noob]

Something to be happy about despite the low sales of monogatari second season DVDs.

All monogatari discs combined have sold more than a million as of last week according to Oricon: http://www.oricon.co.jp/news/2031587/full/

I think there was a similar article on ANN about this last year but whatever.

I looked the sales of neko's second volume and it looks like sales jumped by 1,000 copies. Impressive but still...hopefully kabuki and the rest will climb.

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by ultimate_noob

Something to be happy about despite the low sales of monogatari second season DVDs. [...]

As was said before, it's going to be one of the, if not the top-grossing anime TV series of the year in disc sales alone (pending how future volumes hold up). Do fans really need "something [else] to be happy about"? (Sequel demanding nearly double the total investment has 30% less sales of the previous TV series, and it's like the sky is falling... )

[DorkingtonPugsly]

Kabuki Vol.2 Cover~ Nice!

[Dodgers]

I can understand where people come from when they're worried about the BD/DVD sales, but in the end, what does it matter how it fares compared to the previous installments when stand-alone sales are the only important factor? 30.000+ sold copies for Neko:Shiro Vol. 1 is very good for such a fairly niche market in my opinion (even more so when this franchise isn't as mainstream as say Shingeki, plus S2 is the fourth installment anyway), and I'm fairly sure Shaft doesn't operate like Capcom or Square-Enix, who consider well-selling games as financial losses just because their sales predictions weren't down to earth.

To be fair, I too have a hunch some of the other arcs will have better sales (Neko:Shiro's reception was fairly varied from what I noticed), but as far as the whole picture goes, I don't think there's any reason to worry at the moment. And of course, there are those people who prefer to wait for box-sets either based around seperate arcs or the entire series for convinience's sake, so again, it's too soon to worry about sales. If anything, I'm more curious whether Neko:Kuro and S2 will have english releases or not, but that's a whole different matter altogether.