Anime Sales in Japan - 2010

[bloo]

As far as Macross is concerned, I think Oricon made the right decision in aggregating it within the game category rather than as a BD. Glorified demo or not, it doesn't change the fact that the release benefited from the distribution network of the video game industry, which is much larger than that for anime.

For example, the K-ON! PSP game sold over 200k in its first couple of weeks despite the BD+DVD disc sales pulling in only around 40k a volume. If the production committee decided they wanted to make an OVA and packaged it in with the game, would you say that the OVA sold over 200,000 copies? I wouldn't, as there's no way to tell what it would have sold as a standalone product.

I'm not trying to discount the Macross bundle sales (as they're impressive, bundle or not), but I don't think it's fair to compare them to a normal release such as Shoushitsu or Nanoha. There's simply too many questions that can't be answered.

Now as for Haruhi, I think 97k is fantastic. Though I do expect it's numbers to increase by quite a bit in the coming weeks once all the stock issues are taken care of and everyone who wants a copy has had a chance to get one. Unfortunately, I don't think the RE BD will be able to rank again this week (if it did indeed rank last week) due to the flurry of new releases coming in. Although I doubt it would affect the number of total sales all that much anyway.

[Westlo]

Originally Posted by something

Yes, I know you're convinced it would have sold gigantic amounts.

When I say it's a glorified demo, I mean it. It's like five 3 minute levels and you can't save your game, it's clearly a trial run for a full blown PS3 version later on, the name alone says as much.

3) TV sales, a little more than Haruhi 2k6 (43k vs 41k).

Satelight
46147 *9 Macross Frontier

Kyoto Animation
41038 *8 Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu

Also keep in mind that over 65k people bought Episode 1 of MF (and that's based on the figures not updated) while only only 39,000 bought Episode 0 of Haruhi, 45k for the final volume, so that's a 20k gap in peak volume sales. Haruhi had amazing consistency though.

The one thing in its favor, which can't really be quantified, is the Macross name. A Haruhi movie is really only going to be watched by someone familiar with Haruhi while Macross is a name everyone in Japan knows (not just 20-something otaku) and the movie might get picked up for that alone.

Macross is only behind Eva and Gundam when it comes to name recognition for mecha series, and the Frontier part of Macross is strong... best selling tv series of the last 5 years not counting Bakemonogatari...

That's why also I expect Gundam 00 Trailblazer to pass 100k BDs first week. Although in that case I'd honestly have expected box office earnings to completely blow Shoushitsu away instead of be roughly the same. There's obviously some important data missing here.

I'll be very surprised if Gundam 00 doesn't sell 100k BD in week 1, I heard it's awful but like that stops stuff from selling.

[something]

Originally Posted by Westlo

Satelight 46147 *9 Macross Frontier
Kyoto Animation 41038 *8 Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu

Suki has 44,243 average (ah, 43k was a typo) but they might be incomplete (not including year-end aggregation or something). Either way, we're not talking a huge difference.

Originally Posted by bloo

As far as Macross is concerned, I think Oricon made the right decision in aggregating it within the game category rather than as a BD. Glorified demo or not, it doesn't change the fact that the release benefited from the distribution network of the video game industry, which is much larger than that for anime.

Yeah, this is basically how I feel about it. Brilliant business decision (at least as much for the price it let them charge as the units moved), but not a straight up comparison with other releases not handled that way.

Now as for Haruhi, I think 97k is fantastic. Though I do expect it's numbers to increase by quite a bit in the coming weeks once all the stock issues are taken care of and everyone who wants a copy has had a chance to get one. Unfortunately, I don't think the RE BD will be able to rank again this week (if it did indeed rank last week) due to the flurry of new releases coming in. Although I doubt it would affect the number of total sales all that much anyway.

Yeah, REs are probably a tiny fraction of Haruhi's sales. Nanoha's RE's added a combined 2700 units... DVD just barely charted. Haruhi was probably even more skewed toward the LE than Nanoha was. And more BD-skewed as well.

I wonder how the K-ON! movie will do. On the one hand, it's brought in even more sales than Haruhi, both in DVD/BD and especially CDs. On the other hand, while I expect the movie to be wonderful I would be shocked if it's quite the utter masterpiece Shoushitsu is. K-ON! lends itself to silly fun more than the kind of brilliant drama of Shoushitsu. Although I guess that distinction is irrelevant to sales.

Probably depends on how well they keep up interest in the franchise in the long dead period between the last BD and the release of the movie, however long that'll be. We'll probably see a hell of a marketing blitz in late 2011.

[Westlo]

Originally Posted by bloo

For example, the K-ON! PSP game sold over 200k in its first couple of weeks despite the BD+DVD disc sales pulling in only around 40k a volume. If the production committee decided they wanted to make an OVA and packaged it in with the game, would you say that the OVA sold over 200,000 copies? I wouldn't, as there's no way to tell what it would have sold as a standalone product.

Of course but you look @ things than.

Here is the previous PSP Macross game than the Trial Frontier is just updated from.

Famitsu Sep 28-Oct 4 (2009)
05./00. [PSP] Macross Ultimate Frontier (Namco Bandai Games) - 84,506 / NEW

You factor in that the PSP is far more popular than the Ps3 in japan, in fact it's currently the best selling gaming machine in Japan atm for the year to date.

__________________________________________________________________________________            
|System | This Week | Last Week | Last Year |       YTD |  Last YTD |        LTD |            
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------            
|  PSP  |   159.933 |   325.528 |    71.292 | 2.451.060 | 1.980.762 | 16.194.148 |      
|  NDS  |   119.011 |    78.526 |   113.793 | 2.432.283 | 3.444.931 | 31.711.363 |      
|  WII  |    79.424 |    56.095 |   106.555 | 1.365.689 | 1.419.425 | 10.970.888 |      
|  PS3  |    41.882 |    41.760 |    57.782 | 1.395.957 | 1.341.841 |  5.897.324 |

You also factor in that Trial Frontier has 5-6 three minute levels and is clearly a demo and the bundle is clearly packaged as a movie with an extra. But ignoring that, lets pretend that 5-6 three minute levels are an amazingly enticing thing to buy @ that price along with a "bonus" movie.

So lets assume every first week buyer of Macross Ultimate Frontier bought the movie in its opening week as well, even though chances of that are obviously not high since there is 3x as many PSPs sold than Ps3s. Anyway 152,699-84,506 = 68193 BD sold week 1 + 21,040 DVDs to make week 1 = 89233 combined. So that's what it would've sold if we discount every opening week sale for the previous PSP Frontier game. That's just being extreme, I'll apply common sense from here on out.

As for your K-ON comparison, no I wouldn't say the OVA sold 200,000 copies because clearly the actual game is the driving factor and the anime is a bonus. It would be like saying the Kurenai OVAs bundled with the manga volumes sell 70k+ (or whatever it is, just an example) and are far more popular than the Tv series. Macross Trial Frontier is obviously the bonus for the Macross Movie, in those 2 examples, it's the other way around. They obviously help increase sales but so do LE bonus items, it's just another form of that. I might as well discount Star Driver's future Volume 1 LE sales and say everyone wanted it just for Fish Girls song (not far from the truth though lol).

And yes yes Macross did get to be sold in more places but it's Macross name helps with that as well.. it's the advantage of being a big name.

[Fencedude]

Itsuwari no Utahime certainly overperformed, given the data we have to work with. Why this is is probably a combination of several factors. It will be interesting to see how the second movie is handled.

Though I really think Nanoha is the biggest overperformer, though I'm struggling to think of another franchise that persistently increased sales like it did.

[something]

Originally Posted by Fencedude

Though I really think Nanoha is the biggest overperformer, though I'm struggling to think of another franchise that persistently increased sales like it did.

It just seems to get exponentially more successful each iteration. I can't think of anything similar either, but then most otaku franchises don't go three seasons and a movie. Or if they do, sales remain consistent or drop off.

[Fencedude]

Originally Posted by something

It just seems to get exponentially more successful each iteration. I can't think of anything similar either, but then most otaku franchises don't go three seasons and a movie. Or if they do, sales remain consistent or drop off.

I really wonder what would have happened if they'd followed up StrikerS with a 4th TV series. Could they have doubled sales again and averaged in the 40k range? I find that unlikely, but who knows?

[einhorn303]

Originally Posted by Fencedude

I really wonder what would have happened if they'd followed up StrikerS with a 4th TV series. Could they have doubled sales again and averaged in the 40k range? I find that unlikely, but who knows?

Moore's Law applying to Nanoha? That's an amusing thought.

[something]

http://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=277593

I don't understand why these yearly lists can't just wait until the actual end of the year.

Anyway this cuts off mid-December so Shoushitsu (would be #8 BDs, maybe #6 by end of year) is not included, and it's separate lists for DVD and BD so anything that did a decent number in both might not appear as expected, but might as well post it.

In short, it's entirely the big movie releases plus Gundam UC plus Bake and K-ON!!. Not the most surprising list. I'd like to see a combined DVD+BD top 50 or something like that. Granted the top would still be the same stuff.

[something]

Originally Posted by something

http://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=277318
Preliminary DVD list.

http://jbbs.livedoor.jp/bbs/read.cgi...1168328827/993
http://yaraon.blog109.fc2.com/blog-entry-139.html

Full list. This was quite the week, although for movies and OVAs, not TV series. I'd forgotten B★RS was also coming out.

Fall Vol 1s:
Nothing.


Summer updates:
Amagami SS Vol. 4 (Kaoru pt2) sells 3,756/1,469 for 5,225. Vol. 5 (Sae pt 1) sells 3,494/1,330 for 4,824, both first week.


Spring updates:
Angel Beats!
AB! Vol 1: 40,442 (*4 wk)
AB! Vol 2: 35,483 (*4 wk)
AB! Vol 3: 33,251 (*4 wk)
AB! Vol 4: 31,782 (*4 wk)
AB! Vol 5: 30,922 (*3 wk)
AB! Vol 6: 29,676 (*3 wk)
K-ON!!
!! Vol 1: 42,433 (12 wk)
!! Vol 2: 39,247 (*9 wk)
!! Vol 3: 38,747 (*7 wk)
!! Vol 4: 38,019 (*5 wk)
!! Vol 5: 38,916 -> 39,707 (*5 wk)
!! Vol 6: 32,036 (*1 wk)

28,260/3,776 for K-ON!! 6 first week. And wow, Vol. 5 should crack 40k easily. I don't think we'll see it next week though, because of the sheer massive number of new releases coming out.


OVAs, Movies, Boxsets etc:
Suzumiya Haruhi no Shoushitsu does 77,056/19,667 LE and 2,030/1,283 RE for 100,036. Yay for REs, it did pass 100k first week after all! We were only about 130 RE DVDs away from it not ranking and not knowing for sure.

Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu BD Box adds 700 for 34,000 on the nose.

Black★Rock Shooter BD does 18,026 LE / 734 RE for 18,760. It'll pass 20k easily.

Gintama Benizakura-hen sells 96,014 LE/11,076 RE for 107,090 DVDs.

Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha The Movie 1st adds 1,957 BDs (DVD didn't rank) for 99,807 after 4 weeks. Jeeze, so close! It's obviously passed 100k with whatever DVDs it did this week (cut-off 1,156, probably did about 1,000) but it won't be "official" until next week...

Macross F Music Clip Collection does 19,385/8,949 for 28,334.

To Aru Majutsu no Index I set 1 does 4,249 LE / 1,554 RE for 5,803.

Trigun Badlands Rumble does 4,747/2,311 for 7,058.

Gundam UC Vol. 2 is at 159,323.


Spring Vol. 1 | Summer Vol. 1 | Fall Vol. 1