Anime Sales in Japan - 2011

[superdry]

Originally Posted by something

Spring update:
Steins v2 starts at 12,984, a 10% increase over v1. Though I imagine that's just a matter of people like me having this one ordered by release week, but not having ordered v1 as quickly. I received v1 and v2 together yesterday. We'll see if it passes v1 in the end.

Denpa Onna v2 stays strong, 5532/1305 for 6,837, going up 3% on higher BD numbers.

Hidan doesn't drop a whole lot actually. 3625/2030 for 5,655, only 11% down from v1 week 1.

A Channel v3 3887/1353 for 5,240, increase of 4.6%.

These interest me. The sales of Steins Gate look to be good. 5pb is doing another Steins;Gate game (8-bit style) that might be a direct sequel to the original...possibility of a 2nd season down the road thanks to good sales of the show? Most likely though we'll see an anime adaption of their next visual novel in the same timeline Robotics;Notes before another Steins;Gate.

The sales for Hidan and A-Channel aren't bad...still has the sales potential to get a 2nd season.

I'm curious to see what Yumekui Merry vol. 5 sales are going to be like next week....

[superdry]

Originally Posted by Draneor

I still want a source for they claim that Amazon.jp is the primary retailer for anime though. Mainly because I haven't encountered any data whatsoever on where anime is bought, and I'm interested in the topic.

I'm interested in this too. I can't imagine that Amazon.jp is the go-to retailer for otaku. Sure their discount is nice, but everyone else offers store bonuses and exclusives and we all know otaku sure love to collect things. I think the store bonuses outweigh the discount sometimes unless you're a poor otaku.

[something]

Originally Posted by superdry

These interest me. The sales of Steins Gate look to be good. 5pb is doing another Steins;Gate game (8-bit style) that might be a direct sequel to the original...possibility of a 2nd season down the road thanks to good sales of the show? Most likely though we'll see an anime adaption of their next visual novel in the same timeline Robotics;Notes before another Steins;Gate.

Nitro+ apparently has 5-6 anime adaptations in the pipeline right now, though how many will actually materialize, I don't know. Everyone seems to want a Saya no Uta adaptation but I can categorically state that I'd never be able to stomach that... already read the whole plot description before. I'm sure it's a very engaging game and all that but the content is definitely beyond me.

I'm curious to see what Yumekui Merry vol. 5 sales are going to be like next week....

It came out 7/29 so it's this week. DVDs clearly aren't going to rank (no surprise) but BDs should be in the full list tomorrow. Probably a piddling 1.6k or something. Merry can be definitively deemed a failure now. Ah well.

Edit: Oh uh, wait, v4 only did 1.3k BDs... so it'll likely be even worse.

[something]

Originally Posted by superdry

I'm interested in this too. I can't imagine that Amazon.jp is the go-to retailer for otaku. Sure their discount is nice, but everyone else offers store bonuses and exclusives and we all know otaku sure love to collect things. I think the store bonuses outweigh the discount sometimes unless you're a poor otaku.

I wouldn't be so shocked if Amazon were one of the top few players in the space. It's the site everyone seems to be focused on online, and otaku certainly seem like a very online bunch. And I doubt being Japanese makes the discounts less important, or that the average otaku is any more independently wealthy than we are. My own guess is that Amazon gets a lot of the business of the heavy buyers. But it might be less important if you're buying just the one or two shows you really like in a year, and want all the bonuses for. I also imagine Amazon sees less business for items that have an external bonus which pretty much everyone but Amazon will carry.

At the very least, Amazon rankings are generally a pretty good indicator of overall sales for late night anime, and often as not when they're off, it's because something was disproportionately bought at Amazon (low sales per point) rather than not at Amazon (high sales per point).

But no, I have no more evidence than anyone else at this point. Doubt we'll ever find out anyway. Even if we did, there are so many potential retailers that surely no one destination can account for that high a percentage.

[Fencedude]

Originally Posted by something

Nitro+ apparently has 5-6 anime adaptations in the pipeline right now, though how many will actually materialize, I don't know. Everyone seems to want a Saya no Uta adaptation but I can categorically state that I'd never be able to stomach that... already read the whole plot description before. I'm sure it's a very engaging game and all that but the content is definitely beyond me.

I don't know if I could even manage to watch a Saya no Uta anime.

[Suzuku]

Originally Posted by Draneor

Suzuku, I apologize if I am interpreting your comments as a bit more antagonistic than they are intended it to be. Part of it may be because I don't change my tone depending on the website (i.e., if I did post on 4chan, I'd still write like I do here).

I still want a source for they claim that Amazon.jp is the primary retailer for anime though. Mainly because I haven't encountered any data whatsoever on where anime is bought, and I'm interested in the topic.

Originally Posted by superdry

I'm interested in this too. I can't imagine that Amazon.jp is the go-to retailer for otaku. Sure their discount is nice, but everyone else offers store bonuses and exclusives and we all know otaku sure love to collect things. I think the store bonuses outweigh the discount sometimes unless you're a poor otaku.

What something said p. much sums it up. There is no market study or anything like that breaking down the percentage of where things are bought, it's just a commonly accepted fact that most late night anime are purchased off of Amazon, or rather I should say, the vast majority of the numbers that Oricon report are from Amazon, which is the only thing that matters to us. That's why Amazon rankings are paid so much attention to. If you look at other online retailers you'll notice that what sales well on them are often out of lock step with the reported numbers. Amazon's rankings are right at least 80% of the time. Since Amazon is the biggest online retailer, most buyers just naturally migrate to it.

Originally Posted by something

Nitro+ apparently has 5-6 anime adaptations in the pipeline right now, though how many will actually materialize, I don't know. Everyone seems to want a Saya no Uta adaptation but I can categorically state that I'd never be able to stomach that... already read the whole plot description before. I'm sure it's a very engaging game and all that but the content is definitely beyond me.

Nitro+ didn't really develop Steins;Gate, 5pb. did. Nitro+ had a bit of input in the story but 90% of it came from 5pb, so I doubt they're counting any of the science adventure series in that tally. I'm really interested in those projects though, 5-6 is pretty much every VN they've released to date lol. Madoka really put them on the map, and it's awesome that their interesting ideas are finally getting the chance to be put in anime form. I just hope that all the projects are produced by Aniplex and MBS though.

Originally Posted by superdry

These interest me. The sales of Steins Gate look to be good. 5pb is doing another Steins;Gate game (8-bit style) that might be a direct sequel to the original...possibility of a 2nd season down the road thanks to good sales of the show? Most likely though we'll see an anime adaption of their next visual novel in the same timeline Robotics;Notes before another Steins;Gate.

You're not talking about Renrin no Darling are you?

[something]

Originally Posted by Suzuku

Nitro+ didn't really develop Steins;Gate, 5pb. did. Nitro+ had a bit of input in the story but 90% of it came from 5pb, so I doubt they're counting any of the science adventure series in that tally.

I guess I was just assuming that the 5-6 included anything they were involved in, even if it was primarily developed by others.

Wiki lists 19 Nitro+ visual novels, not counting the Chiral branch or 5pb stuff. So there's a lot to choose from at least.

[Draneor]

Originally Posted by something

I wouldn't be so shocked if Amazon were one of the top few players in the space. It's the site everyone seems to be focused on online, and otaku certainly seem like a very online bunch. And I doubt being Japanese makes the discounts less important, or that the average otaku is any more independently wealthy than we are. My own guess is that Amazon gets a lot of the business of the heavy buyers. But it might be less important if you're buying just the one or two shows you really like in a year, and want all the bonuses for.

The question is, though, what percentage of buyers make up the casual otaku market for anime (uh, did I just say casual otaku). Even in the US market, while TRSI is popular online, most DVDs are still sold in stores as far as I know. It doesn't surprise me that there is a strong correlation between Amazon.jp rankings and overall sales. However, if a certain demographic is more likely to buy in store than online, that does go to explain the discrepancies. The other thing is, among the hardcore, I'm sure stuff like points and store bonuses really do matter. We're talking about those who will buy multiple copies just to get them all.

I wouldn't doubt Amazon.jp is the largest online retailer, but without some sort of evidence I'm skeptical that Japanese online sales exceed B&M sales.

As far as Nitro+ goes, pretty much anything after Demonbane is right out for me.

[Suzuku]

Originally Posted by Draneor

I wouldn't doubt Amazon.jp is the largest online retailer, but without some sort of evidence I'm skeptical that Japanese online sales exceed B&M sales.

Otaku are some of the most tech savvy people in the world, it wouldn't surprise me at all if a lot have forgone in-store sales. Of course, it's still a big part of it the distribution chain, so it's not like they're extinct or anything, it's just clear that most of the numbers that Oricon report come from Amazon, which is the only thing we need to concern ourselves with.

Also something, since Sket Dance vol 1 comes out on the 26th, I think we should just forgo listing that v0.

[Draneor]

Originally Posted by Suzuku

Otaku are some of the most tech savvy people in the world, it wouldn't surprise me at all if a lot have forgone in-store sales. [...] it's just clear that most of the numbers that Oricon report come from Amazon, which is the only thing we need to concern ourselves with.

No doubt. Although I've yet to see a break down of where Oricon gets their data from either. 7-Eleven doesn't apparently report to them, for example, yet Neowing/CDJapan does. Certainly, the Amazon.jp rankings are often highly correlated with Oricon sales. However, again, unless I know for certain that Amazon.jp provides most sales reported by Oricon I'm skeptical.