Anime Sales in Japan - 2010

[einhorn303]

What I'd really like to do is recalculate this chart's ranking based on the number of average volumes sold * MSRP of volume, to see if it fluctuates. Though the fact that they're combined DVD, BD, RE, and LE volumes with different unit prices makes it a bit more complicated. Is this data of average volume sales available in a way broken down by different type of volume?

[pianocello]

Originally Posted by EmperorBrandon

Oh neat, I don't think I ever came across the fact that Hand Maid May was such a good DVD-seller in Japan before (not that it surprises me, I guess).

So where's the 2nd season?

[Fencedude]

Originally Posted by pianocello

So where's the 2nd season?

Good sales don't guarantee a second season.

Though, IIRC, one of the main companies involved went bankrupt not long after (remember the Hand Maid Mai fiasco?)

[something]

Originally Posted by einhorn303

What I'd really like to do is recalculate this chart's ranking based on the number of average volumes sold * MSRP of volume, to see if it fluctuates. Though the fact that they're combined DVD, BD, RE, and LE volumes with different unit prices makes it a bit more complicated. Is this data of average volume sales available in a way broken down by different type of volume?

Generally speaking, anything in the pre-BD era can be calculated as if only the DVD LE existed. REs for TV anime do not sell. They may as well not exist, and almost never make the rankings. even a show that sold as much as Bakemonogatari didn't see a single RE DVD chart, and REs were just as rare in the early part of the decade. So if a show is listed as selling 10,000/vol, that's almost certainly going to be 10% or 95+% for the LE, which means you don't need to guess at how much was for each, you can just use the LE's msrp.

In the BD era you do need to separate the different prices of DVD and BD. The Suki lists have this breakdown for some shows from late 20009 onward.

Getting the MSRPs can be done at Amazon or other retailers (cdjapan will get you price without tax too) though older stuff may not be listed anymore. Reissues with cheaper MSRPs are rare at least which would make it simpler. At any rate the best sources will be in Japanese. A complicating factor is that not all volumes cost the same. The calculation gets increasingly complex and tedious at this point.

Oh, and you'd want to further break it down by number of episodes. This would favor one cour shows at the expense of cheaper per-episode costs of most two cour shows. Can probably safely ignore $/min at least since almost all TV series are the same episode length.

Anyway an example:

Bakemonogatari
2009/09/30 24,755 Vol. 1 DVD LE * ¥6000 = ¥148,530,000
2009/09/30 58,048 Vol. 1 BD * ¥7000 = ¥406,336,000
2009/10/28 22,557 Vol. 2 DVD LE * ¥7000 = ¥157,899,000
2009/10/28 53,396 Vol. 2 BD * ¥8000 = ¥427,168,000
2009/11/25 20,901 Vol. 3 DVD LE * ¥7000 = ¥146,307,000
2009/11/25 51,862 Vol. 3 BD * ¥8000 = ¥414,608,000
2010/01/27 26,058 Vol. 4 DVD LE * ¥6000 = ¥156,348,000
2010/01/27 57,909 Vol. 4 BD * ¥7000 = ¥405,363,000
2010/02/24 22,698 Vol. 5 DVD LE * ¥7000 = ¥158,886,000
2010/02/24 53,844 Vol. 5 BD * ¥8000 = ¥430,752,000
2010/07/28 22,576 Vol. 6 DVD LE * ¥6000 = ¥135,456,000
2010/07/28 55,734 Vol. 6 BD * ¥7000 = ¥390,138,000

Total: ¥3,377,791,000 (~$39.7m USD)
Per episode: ¥225,186,066 (~$2.6m USD)

Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny
2005/02/24 80,635 Vol. 1 DVD * ¥6000 = ¥483,810,000
2005/03/25 73,115 Vol. 2 DVD * ¥6000 = ¥438,690,000
2005/04/22 69,751 Vol. 3 DVD * ¥6000 = ¥418,506,000
2005/05/27 68,416 Vol. 4 DVD * ¥6000 = ¥410,496,000
2005/06/24 65,649 Vol. 5 DVD * ¥6000 = ¥393,894,000
2005/07/22 66,509 Vol. 6 DVD * ¥6000 = ¥399,054,000
2005/08/26 60,431 Vol. 7 DVD * ¥6000 = ¥362,586,000
2005/09/23 62,330 Vol. 8 DVD * ¥6000 = ¥373,980,000
2005/10/28 58,228 Vol. 9 DVD * ¥6000 = ¥349,368,000
2005/11/25 61,066 Vol. 10 DVD * ¥6000 = ¥366,036,000
2005/12/23 67,052 Vol. 11 DVD * ¥6000 = ¥402,312,000
2006/01/27 64,745 Vol. 12 DVD * ¥6000 = ¥388,470,000
2006/02/24 95,544 Vol. 13 DVD * ¥6000 = ¥573,264,000

Total: ¥5,360,260,000 (~$63.0m USD)
Per episode: ¥107,205,200 (~$1.3m USD)

Doing that one manually was all kinds of tedious. Without a nicely set up spreadsheet or database with price information fed in automatically it would take a looong time to compile this.

[SeijiSensei]

Originally Posted by something

2000-Present (2010-08-23 Weekly Ranking) ~TV Anime Series Total Average Sales~ [Initial release only, no boxset, OVAs]

[snip]
46) *12,879 - Mononoke

I'm hardly an expert on what shows have been licensed, but looking down that list it seems like every one of the shows in the top-50 slots is licensed in R1 except for Mononoke!

[Quarkboy]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

I'm hardly an expert on what shows have been licensed, but looking down that list it seems like every one of the shows in the top-50 slots is licensed in R1 except for Mononoke!

Uh, no...

Neither are
1. Bakemonogatari
5. Macross Frontier
13. Angel Beats!
21. Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS
26. Ookiku Furikabutte (s2)
28. Working!!

[Westlo]

Originally Posted by Quarkboy

Uh, no...

Neither are
1. Bakemonogatari
5. Macross Frontier
13. Angel Beats!
21. Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS
26. Ookiku Furikabutte (s2)
28. Working!!

Most of those are just are a matter of time I guess.. except for Macross of course... sigh.

[Quarkboy]

Originally Posted by Westlo

Most of those are just are a matter of time I guess.. except for Macross of course... sigh.

Big Windup has already been passed up by Funimation officially. Chances of season 2 being picked up are really slim, since if Sentai did it they wouldn't dub it and that would cause insane backlash. In this case the good dub of season 1 is, I think, seriously hurting any change of S2 coming over.
I suppose Bakemonogatari might come over eventually, but looking at it from a business perspective it's simply too "artsy" to sell in the west. Name another anime as experimental as Bakemonogatari is in terms of its presentation that's sold well in the west.
The gap between sales expectation in the east and sales expectation in the west is just too large. Perhaps one day, maybe years from now. But this is Kodansha we're talking about.

Angel Beats and Working could definitely be done by aniplex themselves if Durarara sells well.
StrikersS might be picked up by someone eventually.

And Macross is f*cked.

[Damius]

Originally Posted by Westlo

Most of those are just are a matter of time I guess.. except for Macross of course... sigh.

I hope you're right.

[hissatsu]

Originally Posted by Quarkboy

Name another anime as experimental as Bakemonogatari is in terms of its presentation that's sold well in the west.
The gap between sales expectation in the east and sales expectation in the west is just too large. Perhaps one day, maybe years from now. But this is Kadokawa we're talking about.

Don't you mean Kodansha? Not that it makes a difference. I don't expect to see it here any time soon, though I really can't say I even care much. After all the hours I invested in "fixing" the subs for this show for the BDs, I think I can live just fine with the BDs I have.