Anime Sales in Japan - 2011

[Draneor]

Originally Posted by MelancholicMariya

It's the fact that Type-Moon is a software publisher and since they only publish video games they, the sellers such as Amazon etc, do not have much choice as to how to categorize it.

That's not true. Every large to decent size visual novel company publishes and sells more than just games. From magazines, to CDs, to DVDs, to toys, etc. Often, this stuff is limited in number and only sold at a certain event or on their website for a couple days. I've seen OSTs only sold at Comiket (in LE). Whenever anything published by an eroge company does hit Amazon.jp, it's always classified as software. I've seen this happen to even character novels!

Originally Posted by MelancholicMariya

And this isn't about visual novels, either. I know video games can't be shipped outside of Japan from specific retailers. My point is that what Type-Moon is selling does not come under visual novel, software or video game at all.

It's not the product--it's the audience. I think the problem is you're thinking as Carnival Phantasm as similar to a commercial anime designed to promote a franchise when it's really an anime Type Moon is making for their customers. These kinds of products aren't intended to sell 10,000s of units. It's not the same as a Bandai Visual OVA. Not to mention that Type Moon has the reputation of sometimes running their company like a doujin circle.

Originally Posted by MelancholicMariya

Some retailers just do not stock their products because they know what they sell and have no business selling it, but cannot stock this because Type-Moon distributes software only and that's what this is listed under and that specific retailer cannot stock that item because of it's category. I'm not talking about a little hobby store I'm talking about big retailers like HMV and Neowing (depending on your definition of big with Neowing).

Most mainstream stores aren't going to want to sell eroge. I don't find it surprising at all that places like HMV don't stock stuff from an adult publisher, regardless of whether that specific work has adult content in it. I'm sure Eroge companies would prefer to keep a low profile too.

[Draneor]

Originally Posted by relentlessflame

My attitude about this is always: it's their market, and we're the uninvited guests. If we have to jump through hoops to get their products, it's up to us to do so. I really hate when I see "we foreigners" get into arguments with Japanese merchants about the way they do business, especially when they never intended that we be invited to the table in the first place. In a lot of cases, we're only here because we're being conveniently ignored. I'd kind of rather keep it that way, if (since?) the alternative is being shut out even further.

Yes. Exactly. It's best to keep a low profile and just jump through the hoops. We get what we want and our purchasing channels aren't shut down because someone made too big of a stink about it. I know both you and I bought that LE D.C. PSP set (300 made) via Tenso. The last thing we need is for Japanese companies to start blocking it and other methods because foreigners have a reputation for being troublemakers. As it is now, we can get almost anything if we're willing to pay for it.

Originally Posted by MelancholicMariya

Has a product by Type-Moon ever been licensed? (As big of a fan I am of Type-Moon I really don't think about it's western status for some reason.)

Not directly. Both the anime and manga for Tsukihime and Fate/Stay Night have been licensed, but Type-Moon likely was not directly involved. I know they are one of the top requests for Mangagamer, but there have been unstated difficulties preventing any sort of deal (not the least being there's no viable market for translated eroge).

[EmperorBrandon]

Originally Posted by something

Roukyuubu OP/ED single, from that pretty heavily marketed idol super group (I swear they get at least as many magazine spreads as the Sphere girls), did first week sales of 17.4k, pretty impressive.

Huh, I thought it was one of those seiyuu groups meant to promote just the one series in which they voiced the characters? I think I rather like the OP of Ro-kyu-bu (it also slightly amuses me they all sound so much deeper than the characters with their solo singing parts in the OP - Hidaka Rina stands out particularly in that regard to me), so it's good to hear, though.

[something]

Originally Posted by EmperorBrandon

Huh, I thought it was one of those seiyuu groups meant to promote just the one series in which they voiced the characters?

Well, as far as I know it is. But they're allllll over seiyuu magazines. I have no idea what their backers intend to do after RKB is over. Naming them after one show makes it hard to package them into more music, so I'm guessing it'll be done when RKB is.

[something]

I've been noticing how much of a non-presence Idolmaster is in the Amazon rankings. Looked on stalker and, well, outside of its first 7 days it hasn't touched the top 100. it's currently sitting above 400.

Chart of whole run
Chart with rank threshold of 100

I'm ignoring DVDs because, well, they don't matter.

While it doesn't come out for a long time (one of the last Summer series to be released) and it is two cour, these aren't really the rankings of a mega hit. Compare to Steins;Gate, another two cour show that started very strong then seemed to droop before coming back strong in the end. Steins was rarely out of the top 100, and ended up around 16k after 6 weeks so far. What then for Imas? Even 10k?

Obviously I'm taking the game bundle into consideration... but a really good question is just how high a percentage of the sales is it going to be? If Imas is going to be a 40k mega hit (not that we may ever know with any certainty) and Vol. 1 non-bundle might not even crack 10k, the game bundle would need to be three quarters or more of sales.

Which is possible, as it was ranking exceptionally well... but how many of those buyers intend to buy the rest of the BDs? Or, how many will continue to buy only though the uncounted Gravure for You Bundles? For what it's worth, non-bundle BD v2 has only broken the top 100 for about 1 day's worth of hourly updates nd never got above the mid 60's for a few hours. Currently in the 200s.

Too bad we have to wait so long to know, and even then with highly imperfect knowledge.

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by something

Obviously I'm taking the game bundle into consideration... but a really good question is just how high a percentage of the sales is it going to be? If Imas is going to be a 40k mega hit (not that we may ever know with any certainty) and Vol. 1 non-bundle might not even crack 10k, the game bundle would need to be three quarters or more of sales.

To respond to speculation with more speculation, I would think that 75% game bundles is not out of reach because it's certainly the best Limited Edition. If every subsequent release also comes in a Game Bundle LE, I could see that continuing to the end. Even if I didn't have a PS3, as a collector I would buy the game bundles, not to mention there will also be a crowd who don't care about the anime all that much, but will buy the game bundles just to get the game content.

Now, I have no idea if Imas will be a "mega hit". If you had asked for my guess, I would have put it somewhere more near 20-25k (first volume notwithstanding due to the full game bundle). But time will tell.

[something]

http://jbbs.livedoor.jp/bbs/read.cgi...1293278942/165

Full list is out, and the following was added on the BD side. Original post has been updated accordingly.


2011 08/15~08/21 BD List
-- (36) 25 *,426 26,735 *4 Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae wo Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai v2
-- (43) 51 *,375 27,512 *5 Tiger & Bunny v3
-- (46) 52 *,358 30,255 32 Tenkuu no Shiro Laputa

350 threshold on the top 50.

AnoHana v2 adds 426 to total 32,054.

Tiger & Bunny v3 adds 375 for 29,092. This is week 5, didn't rank in week 4 but we can calculate 331 that week.

[something]

***,*14位 (---,--- pt) [-,---予約] 2010年05月26日 ヱヴァンゲリヲン新劇場版：破　EVANGELION:2.22 YOU CAN (NOT) ADVANCE.【通常版】 [Blu-ray]　※更新停止
***,*81位 (---,--- pt) [-,---予約] 2010年05月26日 ヱヴァンゲリヲン新劇場版：破　EVANGELION:2.22 YOU CAN (NOT) ADVANCE.[DVD]　※更新停止

I found the above just hilarious.I check the latest Stalker updates, and all of a sudden... Eva 2.22 BD RE and DVD? Haha, all the way to #14 simply from the third movie being given a vague release date more than a year away? Oh Eva...

[Suzuku]

Persona 4 vol 1 was registered pretty early, and it's already at number 2 in the rankings. Reminds me of S;G back in the spring, those install bases are really something. And Persona has an install base of over 300k in Japan, 10 times as much as Steins;Gate's base...wonder how high it'll go and if it will drop like S;G did.

Speaking of Persona's volumes, I wonder if there will be game bundle announced with a remastered version of P4 for PS3? After Macross and iM@S it doesn't seem like a far-fetched possibility.

[MelancholicMariya]

Originally Posted by Suzuku

Speaking of Persona's volumes, I wonder if there will be game bundle announced with a remastered version of P4 for PS3? After Macross and iM@S it doesn't seem like a far-fetched possibility.

It's very, very possible seeing as this popped up this week.