Anime Sales in Japan - 2013 (Released volumes)

[something]

Tamako hanging onto double digits for just under a day now, but just barely. I'm guessing it'll be back in triple digits soon. Certainly not a bad reception (most shows would kill for that), but one that's hard to read much into. Time for more wait and see. What I'm really looking for is for it to get to the point where it stays double digits all week between episodes. Just peaking at ~70 after an episode then dropping back to 150-200 between isn't too exciting.

Originally Posted by symbv

I would add all those **,*** shows that we are forced to take as Zero when we are to include them in any series average calculation.

Yeah that too. Just to clarify (I know this is what you meant, but some people new to sales may not realize how it's calculated), they aren't counted as zero literally, so *,*** + 1,000 + 1,000 is a 1,000 average (2000/2) not 667 (2000/3). But it's definitely still a shame when we don't see sales numbers, even if it's really small.

And I just found ViviPan v1 is #1 in HMV Ranking. IIRC last season it was Chuunibyou that ruled the HMV chart last season. (Tomakoma v1 is at #14 now)

Yeah, Chuunibyou owned the chart most every day for months. Don't know who the HMV king is for Winter yet. Even Tamako dominated the top 10 initially but it's since dropped a lot, so I don't know if Vivipan will stick there either. Not that I'd be shocked if it did. Chuunibyou is still taking up three spots in the top 10.

As for Gamers, last season it was Little Busters, this time it's obviously Love Live.

[symbv]

For Tamakoma, my gut feeling is that it may lose to Love Live for v1 sales, but may catch up with or beat Love Live in later volumes, thus having a higher series average than Love Live. The TOP FOUR for v1 may not see Tamakoma then but the overall TOP FOUR for the season would have Tomakoma (I am assuming ViviPan, MaoYuu and Haganai Next will be the top three).

Originally Posted by something

Just to clarify (I know this is what you meant, but some people new to sales may not realize how it's calculated), they aren't counted as zero literally, so *,*** + 1,000 + 1,000 is a 1,000 average (2000/2) not 667 (2000/3).

I wonder if the series average done by 2ch uses the same approach? I do not pay a lot of attention to the averages and somehow I always think they just treat **,*** as zero in their calculation. Perhaps I have got it wrong there.

[something]

Originally Posted by symbv

I wonder if the series average done by 2ch uses the same approach? I do not pay a lot of attention to the averages and somehow I always think they just treat **,*** as zero in their calculation. Perhaps I have got it wrong there.

Oh ok, thought you knew. They definitely do it the same way I do (since I based my way off theirs, or rather off the DVDBD Wiki which 2ch uses). If you treat it as zero, you get a skewed number.

For example, see the average for Ookamikakushi, here. Listed as 330.

Look at the series page and notice that it ranked for 2 of 6 volumes. 315+345 / 2 = 330. 315+345+0+0+0+0 / 6 = 110 which obviously isn't right.

Ignoring unranked volumes can sometimes skew the final average. Take a 12 volume series that sells 1,500 first volume due to a discount of extra, then never ranks again. It almost certainly didn't average 1,500. But the average was definitely closer to 1500 than 125 (1500/12)! Obviously that's an extreme example, and not common, especially nowadays. In any case, assuming 0 will almost always get you significantly farther from the real number than not counting the volume at all as even major bombs can move a couple hundred volumes.

What the DVDBD Wiki does do is put an average in parentheses like (330) to indicate that not all volumes ranked.

By the way, DVDBD Wiki explains their methodology here. I can't read all of it but I know from the data that I follow the same method. There's a (very very) small handful of cases where my number is a little different (not enough for me to remember an example off the top of my head though), but not by much. Usually it doesn't result in much difference.

[something]

Originally Posted by symbv

For Tamakoma, my gut feeling is that it may lose to Love Live for v1 sales, but may catch up with or beat Love Live in later volumes, thus having a higher series average than Love Live. The TOP FOUR for v1 may not see Tamakoma then but the overall TOP FOUR for the season would have Tomakoma (I am assuming ViviPan, MaoYuu and Haganai Next will be the top three).

At present, I would agree. Love Live v1 is ranking much higher than its subsequent volumes.

Comparing the two shows, keeping in mind Love Live was solicited three days earlier:

*87位 (**1,756pt) ラブライブ! 1 (初回限定版) [Blu-ray]
545位 (***,481pt) ラブライブ! 2 (初回限定版) [Blu-ray]
664位 (***,450pt) ラブライブ! 3 (初回限定版) [Blu-ray]
628位 (***,445pt) ラブライブ! 4 (初回限定版) [Blu-ray]
639位 (***,434pt) ラブライブ! 5 (初回限定版) [Blu-ray]
642位 (***,440pt) ラブライブ! 6 (初回限定版) [Blu-ray]
646位 (***,430pt) ラブライブ! 7 (初回限定版) [Blu-ray]

*92位 (***,643pt) たまこまーけっと (1) [Blu-ray]
184位 (***,459pt) たまこまーけっと (2) [Blu-ray]
194位 (***,444pt) たまこまーけっと (3) [Blu-ray]
196位 (***,438pt) たまこまーけっと (4) [Blu-ray]
199位 (***,436pt) たまこまーけっと (5) [Blu-ray]
198位 (***,437pt) たまこまーけっと (6) [Blu-ray]

Current rank is a stark difference, but median rank for Tamakoma v2+ is about 100 places higher than for the Love Live v2+ too. Plus Tamakoma will have DVD sales to consider, while Love Live is BD only.

So Tamakoma already has the same v2+ points accumulated in three less days and without a big initial solicitation boost like Love Live had. Love Live could see quite the drop after the first volume with its discount and event ticket are out of the way.

This kinda reminds me of a couple past KyoAni shows. K-ON!! seemed to be a bit short of Angel Beats! at first, only to end up with a significantly higher average and higher v1 in the long run. So too Hyouka, which seemed to be neck and neck with Nyaruko but pulled well ahead in later volumes.

Not that Love Live doesn't have plenty of time to win over the people who initially planned just to buy it for the event ticket application. And not that Tamakoma can't easily lose all of its (currently fragile) momentum later on. And Tamakoma isn't showing clear signs of being the stronger B&M title yet. So we'll see!

[Edit: Speaking of, Stalker updated and Tamakoma is ranked higher than Love Live for the first time ever, I believe.]


Side note: Kotoura-san is looking pretty dark horse, eh? It's just hit a new peak, at #144. I bet it's not long before we see it in the top 100. I haven't seen the second episode yet, but it seems like the good impression the first left wasn't a fluke.

[something]

Originally Posted by hpulley4

Must remember not to play with my Garupan orders though. Don't want to lose my early preorder status. I always check stuff before I mess with an order to make sure the dates haven't changed or anything.

I imagine I should still be good to order v2 late January for my February order. I will be keeping an eye on it, to see if I need to do my February order early, though. I might actually do it in the next few days, instead of waiting until the 26th or later like I usually do. This is one of those very rare situations where there's actually a (very) small chance of it going out of stock before the preorder period ends. Last time I ran into this was Mouretsu, though it ended up not being an issue to wait even though it released near the beginning of the month.

[RyanSaotome]

Now GirlPan vol. 1 is in stock Feb 28th. They burned out of all the stock they had for the 12th fast.

[symbv]

Originally Posted by RyanSaotome

Now GirlPan vol. 1 is in stock Feb 28th. They burned out of all the stock they had for the 12th fast.

All the more impressive given that no discount is given for GirlPan v1 in Amazon (where usually there is a 25-29% discount for anime BD volumes which at >2000 Yen is no negligible amount). Usually fans are willing to pay the full price at storefront only because of the store specific extra or some value-added/frequent-buyer plan initiated by the store, and they go for Amazon for the price factor (though those who do not live near an anime store must buy from an online retailer and Amazon is one of the many who sell anime BD/DVD online). I cannot remember an anime BD/DVD sold at listed price with no discount on Amazon and still ranks this high.

Also, though I don't know how reliable the information is, the rumor in 2ch is that the re-stock added today has 1000 copies for Amazon, and the current restock (for Feb28) has 300 copies. If this is true, it can easily mean that very soon we will see GirlPan v1 going out of stock again.

In the meantime, while GirlPan v1 is held to #2 by Zoid BD Box, GirlPan v2 now rises to #5 !

[Damius]

Originally Posted by symbv

In the meantime, while GirlPan v1 is held to #2 by Zoid BD Box, GirlPan v2 now rises to #5 !

Which means, GirlPan v1 is probably the best sellers currently. Impressive, purely impressive.

[symbv]

With the broadcast of Kotoura-san ep.2 in Tokyo, its BD v1 finally breaks into top 100 and is now at its highest position yet: #81. It is now above many popular shows like Love Live (#90), Minamike (#118) and Tamakoma (#124). Only ViviPan, MaoYuu and Haganai rank above it. If MaoYuu is a dark horse, Kotoura-san can only be the pitch-dark horse of the season. At least we know the original LN of MaoYuu has many solid fans, who would have guessed Kotoura-san could make such waves? From what little I read so far, personally I find the manga of Kotoura-san is weaker than the anime in most aspects: the art, the drama appeal, the presentation of humor. I can only think that this is one quite uncommon case of an adaptation clearly improving on the original.

[hpulley4]

Originally Posted by symbv

With the broadcast of Kotoura-san ep.2 in Tokyo, its BD v1 finally breaks into top 100 and is now at its highest position yet: #81. It is now above many popular shows like Love Live (#90), Minamike (#118) and Tamakoma (#124). Only ViviPan, MaoYuu and Haganai rank above it. If MaoYuu is a dark horse, Kotoura-san can only be the pitch-dark horse of the season. At least we know the original LN of MaoYuu has many solid fans, who would have guessed Kotoura-san could make such waves? From what little I read so far, personally I find the manga of Kotoura-san is weaker than the anime in most aspects: the art, the drama appeal, the presentation of humor. I only think that this is one quite uncommon case of an adaptation clearly improving on the original.

I have three volumes of the manga coming next week so I hope it is better than you say...

The anime I love and one of those preorders is mine. One of only two shows it looks like I will be picking up this season as Maoyuu and Oreshura are off my list though something else could still surprise me. The first two episodes of Mouretsu were a bit slow after all... But after that it was amazing.