Anime Sales in Japan - 2013 (Speculation, preorder rankings, etc)

[ultimatemegax]

Originally Posted by something

It does make me wonder if some discs just use so much space because it's there, not because they technically need it. Now I don't for a second assume Mouretsu was animated at the same quality level as Hyouka or Chuunibyou, but Tari Tari should be comparable.

Mouretsu and Tari Tari were both animated at 720p. One of the best resources for quality of anime is Anibin, who I've written a post about on my blog in more detail. The poster uses a variety of TV airings and takes screencaptures to look at the details, resizing down as needed until it's clear.

I don't have a copy of either show, but I did import Hanasaku Iroha (a PC/P.A. Works series animated in 720p like Tari Tari) and its episodes ranged around 6.18 GB per episode. That only used 20.5 GB on 3 episode discs, and given the lower quality footage, could easily explain how they fit that feature on there.

The tool that I've been using to get filesizes is BDinfo scans in my BD-rom drive on my computer. So far, the KyoAni 955p series (and of course the 1080p K-On! film) have the largest file sizes of all JP BDs I've imported, which brought up this point to begin with.

[superdry]

Originally Posted by hpulley4

How did Mouretsu get four episodes per disc? They look good to me. Only extras (aside from extra CD, booklets, etc.) on the first two episode disc? I can't remember, will check at home...

Tari Tari 6 has three episodes plus a non-credit ED and 43 minutes of event coverage but the event video is of noticeably lower quality.

Assuming BD25, the episodes were encoded at a lower bitrate that can fit on a 25gb disc (24.4gigs of usable space. 1024 bytes = 1 kilobyte). With that, each episode probably is around 5.5-5.75 gigs so then you could fit menu and possibly clean ED and OP if included.

Originally Posted by something

It does make me wonder if some discs just use so much space because it's there, not because they technically need it. Now I don't for a second assume Mouretsu was animated at the same quality level as Hyouka or Chuunibyou, but Tari Tari should be comparable.

I don't know how professionals work - do they go through the material and determine what settings to use or do they have presets that they just set and forget? Target bitrate or target filesize? I would think target bitrate with settings not to exceed a certain bitrate (BD spec is 40mbps max) and the assumption (my assumption) that anime compresses pretty consistently. I do wonder how the person encoding determines how much bitrate is needed since it varies depending on the show - preview encodes and running some analysis? After calculating bitrate, I think you can determine what file size you'll get and then adjust accordingly.

For example, A-Channel is a pretty bright and colorful show. You don't really need too high of a bitrate to really maintain good quality compressing the masters. Each disc pretty much besides one was in the 9gb range while one was around the low ~10gb. Nisemonogatari on the hand which has a lot of dark scenes - discs 1, 3, 4 and 5 the file sizes were about ~7ish gb per episode. Disc 2 took a slight dip due to three episodes with on average 6.33 gig files (all episodes took up about 19gb) - I don't remember if the quality really suffered from losing 800megs worth of bitrate though (most likely, but perceived quality probably stayed around the same). Those numbers only include one PCM audio track (commentary track if included would add a few more hundred megs).

[Nise Disc 2 complete. All three episodes with two audio tracks is 20gb and there is another file (menu?) that is 1gb with two audio tracks. I can only assume fitting three episodes+menu into 21gb was playing it safe or a slightly higher bitrate for the main feature+menu exceeded fitting onto a BD25.].

With something like Mourestu Pirates - Dunno why it was decided that four episodes would be on one volume (dunno how many volumes have four eps). Luckily, AVC is pretty efficient when it comes to compressing video (it is also possible the show also compresses really well). It was probably already determined how many episodes are going to go on each volume and bitrate was calculated with that in mind. Besides bitrate, AVS has a ton of setting that affect quality and file size. I wouldn't be surprised if Mouretsu Pirates used 4 references frames to achieve better compressibility.

Same goes with fitting three episode+special feature in Tari Tari vol. 6.

I can only think that JP anime BDs use as much bitrate as possible to achieve as good of a picture quality as possible since the encoder has a lot of space to play with.

Originally Posted by ultimatemegax

The tool that I've been using to get filesizes is BDinfo scans in my BD-rom drive on my computer. So far, the KyoAni 955p series (and of course the 1080p K-On! film) have the largest file sizes of all JP BDs I've imported, which brought up this point to begin with.

Two Shaft shows I own, Nise and Denpa Onna hit at least 14gb per two episodes with one PCM audio track. Disc 4 of Denpa Onna is 16gb for two episodes and one PCM audio track. But, looking at a few shows still on my HD, something of that size is not very common (9-13gb seems to be more of the norm). The few shows Ive looked at seems to average in the 30-35mbp range with A-Channel being the lowest with high 20s.

[Damius]

Originally Posted by ultimatemegax

One of the best resources for quality of anime is Anibin, who I've written a post about on my blog in more detail. The poster uses a variety of TV airings and takes screencaptures to look at the details, resizing down as needed until it's clear.

That sure was an educative and really interesting read. Thanks.

[hpulley4]

Snow day here today so I am tweeting during what is Friday night in Japan. I keep forgetting that Japan is not like here, shows air on different nights for different stations and cities. Here everyone watches American Idol the same night and time and tweets during and after.

I wondered why Sakurasou was so popular right now but then saw it just aired episode 17 for some locations. It is quieter now. It was the most popular hashtag while it was on.

Kotoura - san had morimorimori going for a while.

[something]

http://www27392u.sakura.ne.jp/show.cgi?n=B00B17I0IU

What's up with Zoids? Is this kids' show a huge otaku favorite? The BD Box has been ranking really, really well for quite some time, and is on par with the Gurren Lagann BD Box (around 10k points) despite being solicited a week and a half later.

It does come with a figure, but we're talking about a figure of some kind of critter, not a sexy bikini bishoujo figure. And while it could be getting overestimated a lot, it's got 9.6k points and doesn't even come out until August, so even if every point it gets for the next six months is overshooting the real amount it's still like 10k. And it's a very rare anime BD box that sells 10k.

[Megiddo]

The original Zoids/Chaotic Century was a pretty big kids show for its time. Hell, I still notice that Fiona (the lead female) gets some doujins released so the show has retained some level of otaku interest. I think most of that is nostalgia-based, so a lot of the kids who watched Zoids have now (14 years later) grown up and hold some affection for it. I imagine the limited edition model being offered with the box set is also a huge incentive for model collectors.

[something]

http://www3.atchs.jp/test/read.cgi/u.../1358138212/30

**4 **5 **6 **7 **8 **9 *10　 週
*18 *** *** *** *** **1 *** | -- | ガールズ&パンツァー 1

Hahaha. I know there's next to no competition at the moment, but this is pretty hilarious. Daily ranking of #1 again for GirlPan - a month and a half after it was released.

Nothing else thrilling this week. 2nd week sales will be the biggest thing to look out for on Tuesday and Thursday.

[meruruchan]

Originally Posted by something

http://www3.atchs.jp/test/read.cgi/u.../1358138212/30

**4 **5 **6 **7 **8 **9 *10　 週
*18 *** *** *** *** **1 *** | -- | ガールズ&パンツァー 1

Hahaha. I know there's next to no competition at the moment, but this is pretty hilarious. Daily ranking of #1 again for GirlPan - a month and a half after it was released.

Nothing else thrilling this week. 2nd week sales will be the biggest thing to look out for on Tuesday and Thursday.

That's what, week eight for it? Just pure awesome.
And they're selling it at full prize...

[Damius]

Originally Posted by something

http://www3.atchs.jp/test/read.cgi/u.../1358138212/30

**4 **5 **6 **7 **8 **9 *10　 週
*18 *** *** *** *** **1 *** | -- | ガールズ&パンツァー 1

Hahaha. I know there's next to no competition at the moment, but this is pretty hilarious. Daily ranking of #1 again for GirlPan - a month and a half after it was released.

Nothing else thrilling this week. 2nd week sales will be the biggest thing to look out for on Tuesday and Thursday.

Wow... this is more and more incredible. And with it a full MSRP at Amazon.co.jp, they are doing a lot of money with this.

[HitokiriShadow]

Originally Posted by Damius

Wow... this is more and more incredible. And with it a full MSRP at Amazon.co.jp, they are doing a lot of money with this.

Well, someone is getting more money. It could be Amazon pocketing the difference though.