Japan's Weekly Blu-ray & CD Rankings for Dec 10 - 16

jmal said:
It's from a mainstream act, not anisong singers, named SID. All their recent albums and singles have debuted top 10, some even #1. So I assume it sold based on the band, not the anime. That goes for many high-selling anime OP/EDs.

Niyawa said:
I can understand Ixion Saga DT numbers, but Magi OP is really that good?

Amarrez said:
Can't wait for next week though. GuP vs Jojo's vs TLR vs Chuuni for the top selling spots.

jmal said:
GirlPan should sell a good deal more more than the others there, by maybe 5k, possibly a good deal more.

jmal said:
Chuunibyou might be second of the ones coming out next week (putting aside Gintama which is just a few new eps, not a full season) but it's been pretty flat the past week or two so I'm not sure how waiting for the final ep might be affecting sales.

Limechan said:
How are sales for LB! looking? It also comes out next week (or in 2 weeks, I'm not sure since it's out on the 26th).

Amarrez said:

5-6k, somewhere in that bracket.

http://www27392u.sakura.ne.jp/show.cgi?n=B009ES4JK6

Amarrez said:

5-6k, somewhere in that bracket.
http://www27392u.sakura.ne.jp/show.cgi?n=B009ES4JK6

dtshyk said:

Single CD
11, 12,475 *12,457 Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun "White Wishes"
15, *6,688 *28,008 Psycho-Pass "Namae no Nai Kaibutsu"
31, *2,740 *39,754 Sword Art Online "Innocence"
32, *2,735 *26,004 Sword Art Online "Overfly"
40, *2,193 *46,375 Magi "V.I.P."
47, *1,876 *36,163 Ixion Saga DT "DT Suteru" "Let's go ED"

Amarrez said:
LB is doing alright, but not amazingly. More than enough to make some profit.

Sakurasou is on course to flop. Might not even get 2k sales.

GuP will almost certainly be the highest selling show of the season, I'd say around 20k.

Limechan said:
Is that good? I don't know much about sale values, so...
LB!, GuP and Sakurasou are my favourite animes of this season, so I'd love to see them all selling well.

Gash_V-D_Hetchum said:
K.
Season 2 when?

j0x said:
please no, sequels most of the time just ruins the original

symbv said:
Let's check one by one:

LB! - Much lower than the initial expectation when the season starts. The strong franchise of the VN does not seem to have much effect on the sales of this anime. Perhaps it is because it is animated too late, perhaps the initial routes are not as attractive to people who are not fans of the VN. It is still being watched by many but it has got less and less attention as time passes. It has done quite a lot of work to make sure it sticks close to the spirit of VN (choice of seiyuu, music, important elements of the VN story) but it seems some VN fans still find fault with the adaptation. The current predicted sales is kind of decent for a TV anime series (anything above 6k is) but definitely a disappointment for a franchise this famous.

GuP - The Dark Horse of this season. The unexpected Cinderella success story that no one predicted when the season starts. It has gone from strength to strength with one episode after another that strikes many fans as awesome. The positive feedback and acclaim by fans in Japan is as universal as I have ever seen for some time. Originally it was expected to sell no more than 3k by fans in Japan with even the most optimistic predicting at most 5k. The line has been moving up ever since, and currently the range of prediction of its sales is 12k-18k for its first week and 15k-21k for final sales. The one thing to note is that a sales of >10k is considered a major hit for a midnight TV anime series, and GuP is now almost sure to make that. It is likely to be the top seller of this season's anime too (assuming Nekomonogatari is not counted, which is debatable). And all this despite all the production problems and delay of broadcast (with the final 2 episodes only coming out in March next year). A legend that will live in anime history.

Sakurasou - One of the "air anime" this season. "Air anime" is used by Japanese fans to indicate anime that, regardless of its production quality or technical merits, fail to gather much attention to at least generate enough sales. "Air anime" is usually assumed to be struggling to get to a 3k sales line, a line that fans in Japan use to separate the "winner" and the "loser" for a sesaon's anime. There may be a lot of people watching it because of a pleasing character design or some interesting moments in the story but it is not really "loved" so much by fans to the extent that they will buy the BD/DVD. In Sakurasou's case it is not really a fully "Air" anime because at least I can see quite a number of blogs reviewing it. However, its prospect is hit by the firestorm caused by the change in the anime to switch a dish (cooked to feed Nanami when she was ill) from a simple Japanese dish in the LN to a Korean dish, which touched some raw nerves among anime fans in Japan who stirred up huge anti-Korean protests in internet and attacked the anime and its staff on the net. Of course it has the result of drawing attention to this anime (so that it is not as "air" as before) but the net result may not be beneficial to the sales of its BD. In Amazon the entries of the various volumes of the BD are filled with angry 1-star reviews. Actually this has happened before to Kokoro Connect in the last season (which also got a firestorm in internet because of some controversy), and what happened there does not bode well for Sakurasou.

Limechan said:
I understand what happened with Kokoro Connect and all that, but this about Sakurasou is ridiculous!

Limechan said:
Ok, J.C. Staff could've sticked to the LN, but it's not something so offensive that deserves to make the anime's sales bad.

jmal said:
Oh god, is that why I kept seeing screenshots of the food on yaraon?

Gash_V-D_Hetchum said:
K.
Season 2 when?

jmal said:
Limechan means the Korean thing, which shouldn't be offensive, but you've noted apparently was to a few xenophobic anime fans. Still, I'm going to assume it's one of those "annoying vocal minority" things, which the vast majority of controversies end up being.

dreznovk said:
^ Just currious, does this kind of racism only apply to Korean ? What about other foreign country, if the dish was, for example, a Chinese food, would fan react the same way ?

jmal said:

Korea seems to get special hatred, but China usually isn't far behind. Especially with the immature hysterics going on over a couple of rocks in the ocean right now.

symbv said:

Besides what jmal said, the funny thing is that precisely the same question was brought up in places like 2ch, and you know what is the most common answer I saw?

"I love Chinese food so it's fine, but I don't like Chinese people."

Gash_V-D_Hetchum said:
K.
Season 2 when?

dreznovk said:
What the deal between Japanese and Korean anyway, i though you guys were getting along.

dreznovk said:
Back to the topic, any chance Hidamari Sketch will sell more than Stalker prediction ? What about previous seasons, how did it predict HS sales ?

jmal said:

I'm clinging to this hope, but I haven't seen it ranking at HMV or Animate or Softmap or Gamers.

jmal said:

Which means I worry about whether Honeycomb sells enough to get a fifth and presumably final season, because Vol. 1 has the event ticket application and Vols. 2+ can be expected to drop.

jmal said:
And for anyone wondering, yes next week is completely brutal and many releases won't rank at all especially when you consider all the mainstream Ghibli and Disney and Pixar parents will be buying for Christmas presents.

symbv said:
Chuunibyou is being viewed less and less favorably by fans in Japan, and the latest episode (ep.11) has one of the worst feedbacks I have seen for KyoAni anime in the last 2 years. I know you consider ep.11 to be one of KyoAni's recent best but unfortunately it is the opposite case in Japan. The limited number of people who read the original novel hate it. Most of those who have not read the novels are uncomfortable with the delicate balancing act of comedy vs drama, and the various weight placed on different characters. There are a few who love the recent development but they are outnumbered by those who dislike it. The final episode may give solace to those who feel they are disappointed by what they've seen so far, but many already think even so it is too little too late to save this anime. Still the KyoAni brand is powerful and there seem to be sufficient people who still find the anime to their liking to keep it very competitive to be one of the top 4 sellers among this season's anime.

jmal said:
It remains to be seen whether some people complaining on 2ch actually amounts to anything, though.

Yvese said:
This week was meh. Next week is the moment of truth.

Been waiting for this day since the start of the season!

jmal said:
It remains to be seen whether some people complaining on 2ch actually amounts to anything, though. While it hasn't shot up the way I would have liked for release week, it's still beating everything from Fall except GirlPan (and Gintama if you do cumulative points). The only anime that have been ahead of it consistently the past week or two are Nekomogatari, GirlPan, Ookami Kodomo, and the KuroBas fandisc - all totally expected. Jojo was ahead of it for a few hours here and there on the strength of a strong episode I assume, but now it and Darkness and Chuunibyou are running pretty close together. And Chuunibyou is still dominating HMV.

The long term ranking history also continues to show consistency so I'm not yet convinced this is a big deal. Looks like DVD+BD combined Stalker points just passed 10k in the last day or so too.

jmal said:
I'd settle for "everything KyoAni must be a solid seller" maybe, i.e. I would agree that anything below 5 or 6k might be disappointing with their frame count and brand recognition.

jmal said:
In any case it's rising after the final episode, with Vol. 1 now up to 28th from ~40 before airing, and most of the volumes are back in the top 100 too, so yay.