Anime DVD/BD Sales in Japan: Discussion

[Siegel Clyne]

MOD NOTE: Cumulative DVD/BD Sales Reports have now been moved to this thread.
All related discussion and other reports/data should go in this thread.

---

Animation (Anime) DVD Sales in Japan for 2005, 2006...

Top 10 Animation (Anime) Series DVD Sales Figures Ranking in Japan For 2005 - Oricon Examination, Animedia Magazine, February 2006

01. Mobile Suit Gundam SEED DESTINY (Volumes 1-10) 645,512 Copies Sold
64,551 Copies Sold Per Volume

02. AIR (Volumes 1-6 + SUMMER + MEMORIES) 174,299 Copies Sold
21,787 Copies Sold Per Volume

03. Initial D Fourth Stage 146,024 Copies Sold

04. BLEACH (Soul Society Shinigami Daikou-hen Volumes 1-5, Soul Society Sennyuu-hen Volumes 1-5) 126,429 Copies Sold
12,643 Copies Sold Per Volume

05. Mahou Sensei Negima! [Negima] (Volumes 1-6) 103,661 Copies Sold
17,277 Copies Sold Per Volume

06. DRAGON BALL Z (Volumes 1-6) 99,576 Copies Sold
16,596 Copies Sold Per Volume

07. Mai-HiME [My-HiME] (Volumes 1-9) 98,025 Copies Sold
10,892 Copies Sold Per Volume

08. Ghost in the Shell S.A.C. 88,865 Copies Sold

09. Keroro Gunsou [Sergeant Frog] 85,077 Copies Sold

10. Aa! Megamisama! [Ah! My Goddess] (Volumes 1-8) 78,681 Copies Sold
9,835 Copies Per Volume Sold

Studio Ghibli and Disney animation DVD sales are excluded.

[Contemporary Disney television animation series tend not to sell in Japan.]

------------------

Top 20 Television Animation (Anime) DVD Sales Figures Ranking in Japan for 2006

Television Animation DVD Sales Figures Ranking in 2006 (2006/01/02 - 2006/12/04 {January 2, 2006 - December 4, 2006})

01.*568,216*DRAGON BALL Z*(Volumes 7-39)
17,219 Copies Sold Per Volume

02.*339,610*Mobile Suit Gundam SEED DESTINY*(Volumes 11-13, Special Edition Volumes 1-3)
56,602 Copies Sold Per Volume

03.*225,293*Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu [The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya]*(Limited Edition Volumes 00-5, Regular Edition Volumes 2, 4)
37,549 Copies Sold Per Volume

04.*194,973*Fate/stay night (Volumes 1-7 + Volume 8 Limited Edition)
24,372 Copies Sold Per Volume

05. 108,181 BLEACH (Soul Society Kyuushutsu-hen Volumes 1-5, Baunt-hen {Bount-hen} Volumes 1-6)
9,835 Copies Sold Per Volume

06.*100,334*ARIA*(The ANIMATION Volumes 1-6, The NATURAL Volumes 1-5)
9,121 Copies Sold Per Volume

07.**88,456*NANA*(Volumes 1-5)
17,691 Copies Sold Per Volume
Note: NANA Volume 1 sold over 50,000 copies; for nearly three months after its release date in Japan, the retail price was around 700 or so yen (less than 7 US dollars).

*8.**81,011*Shakugan no Shana*(Volumes 1-8)
10,126 Copies Sold Per Volume

09.**78,017*Mai-OtoHiME [Mai-Otome; My-Otome; Mai-ZHiME; My-ZHiME] (Volumes 1-9)
8,669 Copies Sold Per Volume

10. *76,528 Gintama (Volumes 1-5)
15,306 Copies Sold Per Volume

11.**72,221*BLOOD+*(Volumes 1-12)
6,018 Copies Sold Per Volume

12.**66,627*Initial D Fourth Stage*(Volumes 10-12)
22,209 Copies Sold Per Volume

13.**64,903*Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha A's [Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's]*(Volumes 1-6)
10,817 Copies Sold Per Volume

14.**60,631*Eureka 7*(Regular Edition Volumes 6-13, UMD Volumes 8-13)
7,579 Copies Sold Per Volume

15.**55,712*Rozen Maiden Traumend*(Volumes 1-6)
9,285 Copies Sold Per Volume

16.**54,762*Keroro Gunsou [Sergeant Frog]*(2nd Season Volumes 4-13, 3rd Season Volumes 1-2)
4,564 Copies Sold Per Volume

17.**54,116*Honey and Clover*(Volumes 5-9, II Volumes 1-2)
7,731 Copies Sold Per Volume

18.**53,263*SHUFFLE!*(Volumes 3-12)
5,326 Copies Sold Per Volume

19.**48,038*Pani Poni Dash!*(Volumes 2-7)
8,006 Copies Sold Per Volume

20. *46,830 Mushishi (Volumes 1-5)
9,366 Copies Sold Per Volume

As usual, non-Japanese television animation DVDs fail to sell in Japan. Only some non-Japanese movie animation DVDS (e.g., Pixar) sell well in Japan.

There is not much correlation between television audience ratings and animation DVD sales in Japan.

In Japan, television animation series with the highest television audience ratings - e.g., #1 Sazae-san, #2 Chibi Maruko-chan, #3 Crayon Shin-chan, #4/#5 Doraemon, #4/#5 Meitantei Conan (Detective Conan aka Case Closed) - hardly sell on DVD, if they sell them at all, except maybe for the movies.

The television animation series which has the highest sales figure for a single volume in Japan during 2006 is Mobile Suit Gundam SEED DESTINY.

Summer 2006 DVD sales figures show that Volume 13 of Mobile Suit Gundam SEED DESTINY sold at least 93,739 copies - by far the most sold of any single volume of any television animation series in Japan during 2006.

According to sales figures, Mobile Suit Gundam SEED DESTINY Volume 13 by itself appears to have outsold all but five or six other television animation series on DVD in Japan during 2006.

Last edited by Siegel Clyne : 2007-01-02 at 23:59 PDT. Reason: Fate/stay night had 8 volumes, not 7 volumes, released in Japan during the January 2, 2006 to December 4, 2006. Therefore, it sold 24,372 copies per volume, not 27,853 copies per volume.

[Siegel Clyne]

Animation Titles on the Top 100 DVD Bestsellers List in Japan During 2006

Animation Titles on the Top 100 DVD Bestsellers List in Japan During 2006

2006 DVD TOP 100
(Aggregate Period: 2005/12/05 - 2006/12/18)

Ranking | Estimated Cumulative Sales | Highest Ranking During Period | Title | Release Date

**5 | 483,556 | *2 | Howl's Moving Castle | 2005/11/16

*13 | 283,424 | *1 | Cars | 2006/11/08

*26 | 155,179 | *3 | Chicken Little | 2006/04/28

*27 | 150,753 | *2 | Tim Burton's Corpse Bride | 2006/03/03

*29 | 145,595 | *1 | Mobile Suit Z Gundam II -Koibitotachi- | 2006/02/24

*31 | 139,873 | *1 | Mobile Suit Z Gundam III -Hoshi no Kodou wa Ai- | 2006/08/25

*35 | 130,709 | *4 | Madagascar Special Edition | 2005/12/02

*41 | 120,189 | 16 | My Neighbor Totoro | 2001/09/28

*51 | 105,067 | *3 | Madagascar Premium Edition with "Penguin Christmas Caper" Disc | 2005/12/02

*52 | 103,624 | *5 | Robots <Special Edition> | 2005/12/16

*60 | *95,544 | *2 | Mobile Suit Gundam SEED DESTINY Vol. 13 | 2006/02/24

*64 | *90,079 | *2 | Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: Conqueror of Shamballa [Perfect Limited Edition] | 2006/01/25

*70 | *81,840 | *4 | Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: Conqueror of Shamballa | 2006/01/25

*76 | *78,699 | *1 | The Little Mermaid Platinum Edition | 2006/10/04

*82 | *74,745 | *4 | Arashi no Yoru ni Standard Edition | 2006/06/23

*92 | *68,828 | *2 | Brave Story (1 Disc Set) | 2006/11/23

*95 | *67,052 | *4 | Mobile Suit Gundam SEED DESTINY Vol. 11 | 2005/12/23

*99 | *64,745 | *3 | Mobile Suit Gundam SEED DESTINY Vol. 12 | 2006/01/27

100 | *64,059 | *4 | The Little Mermaid | 2006/10/04

Note: Howl's Moving Castle sold something like nearly 800,000 copies during its first two weeks of release in Japan back in 2005, which do not count in sales figures in Japan during 2006. According to the Oricon Style website, Howl's Moving Castle sold 708,000 copies alone during its first week of release in Japan.

[Aoie_Emesai]

I would've never thought that American made animation would sell in Japan where japanese animation rules over most other animations.

[Corn]

*reads data*




*head explodes*

[Reanimator]

Great Data. It gives me pretty good idea what Anime titles that Japanese fan are willing to spend their money on. They're not making that much sale, that for sure. If Japanese companies put decent english subtitle into their DVDs at 3000 yen or less, I'll buy whole bunch of them.

[retardation]

yeah these don't sell as high as i expected. what's the avg cost?

[rooboy]

Originally Posted by Reanimator

Great Data. It gives me pretty good idea what Anime titles that Japanese fan are willing to spend their money on. They're not making that much sale, that for sure. If Japanese companies put decent english subtitle into their DVDs at 3000 yen or less, I'll buy whole bunch of them.

I love the assumption that the Japanese would be able to put better English subtitles on them. At any rate, I would say there is approximately zero chance of this happening because:

Originally Posted by retardation

yeah these don't sell as high as i expected. what's the avg cost?

R2 DVDs (that's Japan) sell for approximately $40 to $50 (US) each. I know because I've bought some.

[tritoch]

Wow. Talk about popular- NANA and Code Geass volume 1 @ 63k and 45K respectively.

O,o

[aardvark]

Originally Posted by tritoch

Wow. Talk about popular- NANA and Code Geass volume 1 @ 63k and 45K respectively.

O,o

About those sales, the first Nana DVD cost some ridiculously low price like 600 yen or something. That'd explain why there's such a huge drop in sales for the other DVDs as they're 3500+ yen.

[Siegel Clyne]

Oricon DVD sales figures in Japan for the week of Monday, January 29, 2007 to Sunday, February 4, 2007 show that:

1) My Neighbor Totoro (Tonari no Totoro), from director Miyazaki Hayao and Studio Ghibli (September 28, 2001 release), sold 1,385 copies during the week - for a grand total of 703,816 copies sold.

2) Spirited Away (Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi), from director Miyazaki Hayao and Studio Ghibli (July 19, 2002 release), sold 1,272 copies during the week - for a grand total of 2,276,909 copies sold.

Spirited Away is, by a substantial margin, the bestselling DVD in Japan ever.

According to Video Research Ltd.'s Top 30 Most Watched Television Programs During 2003 in the Kantou Region (Tokyo, Yokohama, Kawasaki, Saitama, Chiba, etc.), Japan, the television broadcast debut of Spirited Away on NTV (Nippon Television Network), Friday, January 24, 2003, 20:30 - 23:09 (8:30 PM - 11:09 PM), finished at No. 1, scoring a television audience rating of 46.9% - presumably, the highest recorded by any animated program in history.

Spirited Away is the highest grossing film of all time at the Japanese box office.

[Question]

How the hell did dragon ball z get on that list?! Or gundam seed destiny for that matter...gah...

[bayoab]

Originally Posted by Question

How the hell did dragon ball z get on that list?! Or gundam seed destiny for that matter...gah...

Dragonball was recently re-released in special boxsets. And Japanese (gundam) fans will plop down money for anything gundam...

[Nightengale]

Originally Posted by Question

How the hell did dragon ball z get on that list?! Or gundam seed destiny for that matter...gah...

Because they're popular?

Originally Posted by bayoab

And Japanese (gundam) fans will plop down money for anything gundam...

Care to explain the 1/10th difference between SEED/GSD sales compared to Turn A then? Especially when it's clearly stated that majority of DVD purchasers of the Cosmic Era trilogies are not conventional Gundam fans, but rather fujoshis who fap to Kira and Athrun.

[Siegel Clyne]

Japan's Namco Bandai FY net profit jumps 71 pct; weak PS3 sales to slow growth - Forbes.com

'Sales of the DVD box featuring our original Mobile Suit Gundam TV animation series was a smash hit beyond our wild expectations, which boosted profit margin,' Namco Bandai president Takeo Takasu told a news conference.

In Namco Bandai toy & hobby business news...

Namco Character Sales: Fiscal Years 2000-2006

NAMCO BANDAI Principal Individual Characters - Individual Sales Trends

A fiscal year (FY) ends in March of the following year. Example: Fiscal Year 2006 ends in March 2007.

Each single unit in sales represents one hundred million yen (100,000,000 yen). Example: "178" represents 178 hundred million yen = 17.8 billion yen (nearly 150 million US dollars).

FY2000 | FY2001 | FY2002 | FY2003 | FY2004 | FY2005 | FY2006 | Characters

***160 | ***200 | ***272 | ***320 | ***251 | ***213 | ***178 | Gundam

****64 | ***110 | ***131 | ***130 | ***116 | ***108 | ***101 | Sentai Series [Super Sentai]

***118 | ****94 | ***139 | ***120 | ****79 | ****65 | ****71 | Kamen Rider

****44 | ****50 | ****60 | ****80 | ****80 | ****81 | ****88 | Anpanman

****28 | ****64 | ****62 | ****54 | ****31 | ****** | ****** | One Piece

*****5 | ****15 | ****16 | ****28 | ****11 | ****** | ****** | Sailormoon

*****- | *****- | *****- | *****- | ***101 | ***123 | ****60 | Pretty Cure

****60 | ****94 | ****48 | ****31 | ****59 | ****39 | ****36 | Ultraman

****52 | ****16 | *****8 | ****42 | ****51 | ****40 | ****34 | Pokemon

*****- | ****14 | ****26 | ****56 | ****61 | ****60 | ****79 | Dragon Ball

*****- | *****- | *****- | ****25 | ****42 | ****34 | ****** | NARUTO

*****- | *****- | *****- | *****4 | ****28 | ***120 | ***124 | Tamagotchi

****30 | ****24 | ****14 | ****10 | ****11 | ****** | ****** | Sanrio Characters

*****- | *****- | *****- | *****- | ****22 | ****61 | ****37 | Cinnamoroll

*****- | ****14 | ****28 | *****7 | *****- | ****** | ****** | Crash Gear

***142 | ****79 | ****45 | *****5 | *****4 | *****5 | ****31 | Digimon

*****- | *****- | ****23 | *****5 | *****- | ****** | ****** | .hack

****76 | ****65 | ****40 | *****0 | ****** | ****** | ****** | Ojamajo Doremi

*****- | *****- | *****- | ****50 | ****64 | ****** | ****** | Konjiki no Gash Bell!!

***430 | ***345 | ***340 | ***348 | ***314 | ****** | ****** | Others

*1,209 | *1,184 | *1,252 | *1,286 | *1,325 | ****** | ****** | Total

[kaito-kid]

Care to explain the 1/10th difference between SEED/GSD sales compared to Turn A then?

why are you comparing Turn A to Seed? Turn A was a commercial failure. seed on the other hand...

Especially when it's clearly stated that majority of DVD purchasers of the Cosmic Era trilogies are not conventional Gundam fans, but rather fujoshis who fap to Kira and Athrun.

like it or not, Gundam Seed is really REALLY popular. and Destiny is popular because of Seed.

[Nightengale]

Originally Posted by kaito-kid

why are you comparing Turn A to Seed? Turn A was a commercial failure. seed on the other hand...

There seems to be some perception that the Gundam brand sells, which is why the self-percieved image that GSD and SEED sucks still allow them to sell well, which I'm disputing with previous Gundam sales, which shows that SEED stood on it's own damn well. The only difference is that they appeal to a different crowd.

And I like SEED and GSD, contrary to popular opinion. It's just that there are people who just so easily throw the "It sold well because it's GUNDAM" crap simply because they dislike the show. That stand is understandable, but it's like asking a mahou shoujo or SUPER robot hater why the hell is Sailor Moon SO goddamn popular and why illogical shows of Giant Robots with moving lips and loud shouts literally gave birth to anime's Golden Era. Or why the hell one of the most illogical sports anime/manga currently, Prince of Tennis is selling well with tons of character songs, OVAs, etc.

[Stark]

CLAYMORE (Madhouse)
2007/07/25 *5,712 Limited Edition Sequence 1 (Two episodes)

Not much :S

DARKER THAN BLACK -Kuro no Keiyakusha- (Bones/FUNimation)
2007/07/25 *7,781 Vol. 1 Limited Edition (Two episodes)

Niceeeee

Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann (Gainax/ADV Films)
2007/07/25 14,933 Vol. 1 Limited Edition (Two episodes)

I expected much more :S

[aohige]

Originally Posted by Nightengale

There seems to be some perception that the Gundam brand sells, which is why the self-percieved image that GSD and SEED sucks still allow them to sell well, which I'm disputing with previous Gundam sales, which shows that SEED stood on it's own damn well. The only difference is that they appeal to a different crowd.

And I like SEED and GSD, contrary to popular opinion. It's just that there are people who just so easily throw the "It sold well because it's GUNDAM" crap simply because they dislike the show. That stand is understandable, but it's like asking a mahou shoujo or SUPER robot hater why the hell is Sailor Moon SO goddamn popular and why illogical shows of Giant Robots with moving lips and loud shouts literally gave birth to anime's Golden Era. Or why the hell one of the most illogical sports anime/manga currently, Prince of Tennis is selling well with tons of character songs, OVAs, etc.

You also have to consider, that DVD sales are NOT a good measurement of how popular series is, when it comes to franchise level of Gundam, Dragon Ball, One Piece, PuriCure, Sailor Moon, DigiMon... you get the idea.

These large marketing franchise gets most of its income from sales OTHER than DVDs, so when you want to talk about Gundam and its popularity, thread about DVD sales really isn't a very good one.

[4Tran]

Originally Posted by Stark

Not much :S

Claymore is not the kind of show that traditionally sells well in Japan. 5700 in sales for the first volume is quite respectable; I'd expect this figure to do down for future volumes, but it should still make a healthy profit.

Originally Posted by aohige

You also have to consider, that DVD sales are NOT a good measurement of how popular series is, when it comes to franchise level of Gundam, Dragon Ball, One Piece, PuriCure, Sailor Moon, DigiMon... you get the idea.

These large marketing franchise gets most of its income from sales OTHER than DVDs, so when you want to talk about Gundam and its popularity, thread about DVD sales really isn't a very good one.

Strictly speaking, that isn't true at all; both the sales of a show's DVDs and it's ratings are direct reflections of how popular a show is. The difference is that they tell us different kinds of data: sales inidicates how many people felt the show was willing to purchase at (originally) around 5000 Yen per disc. With 1.2 million in sales, that makes Seed Destiny one of the best selling Gundam show all-time. Incidentally, this would have netted Bandai around 60,000,000,000 Yen in sales, which is a very hefty portion of the total Gundam revenue for those years.

While peripheral sales also gauge popularity, it does so much more indirectly. It's also indicative of the quality of the merchandise, the appeal of said merchandise to the fanbase, and how good the show is as a 30-minute commercial. This ties into the recent Gundam shows because the traditional merchandise (mostly toys) didn't appeal to the fanbase - instead, they tended to go for music and drama CDs and the like.

[aohige]

Originally Posted by 4Tran

Strictly speaking, that isn't true at all; both the sales of a show's DVDs and it's ratings are direct reflections of how popular a show is. The difference is that they tell us different kinds of data: sales inidicates how many people felt the show was willing to purchase at (originally) around 5000 Yen per disc. With 1.2 million in sales, that makes Seed Destiny one of the best selling Gundam show all-time. Incidentally, this would have netted Bandai around 60,000,000,000 Yen in sales, which is a very hefty portion of the total Gundam revenue for those years.

While peripheral sales also gauge popularity, it does so much more indirectly. It's also indicative of the quality of the merchandise, the appeal of said merchandise to the fanbase, and how good the show is as a 30-minute commercial. This ties into the recent Gundam shows because the traditional merchandise (mostly toys) didn't appeal to the fanbase - instead, they tended to go for music and drama CDs and the like.

I totally disagree.
What DVD sales gives us, is an idea of how popular the anime is within a certain viewer base.
By that, I mean, DVD-buying adults.

All those franchise I mentioned are largely children's market, and they are NOT a DVD-buying consumer base.
A DVD of Pretty Cure may not sell as much as say, Suzumiya Haruhi.
But that only gives you an idea that Haruhi may be more popular among the older, DVD-buying otaku fanbase.
In other words, you don't see Haruhi sausage or Haruhi bubble gum or Haruhi toys being sold everywhere, like Pretty Cure.

These shows main target audiences don't buy DVDs.
DVDs are very expensive in Japan, and kids do not buy them. Period.
We're not like America, where DVDs are 20 bucks a pop.

What you're seeing, my friend, is a very foreign view of anime.
You're basing the market off what's popular from what you can see.

However, Gundam, Dragon Ball, Pretty Cure, Digimon, etc....
These are much larger franchise that does NOT rely on anime fans consumers.
You may not see much of that if you live outside of Japan, but that is the fact.

Again, I stress this.
DVD sales only gives you an indication of how popular that anime is "within adult anime fan base".
These rules do not, I repeat, DO NOT apply to these aforementioned titles.