Forum - View topicNEWS: Funimation Clarifies Witchblade's Best-Selling Debut
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Siegel Clyne
Posts: 200 |
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According to Oricon sales data...
Witchblade has been a rather poor seller on DVD in Japan. Karas and Gonzo's Romeo x Juliet have failed to sell on DVD in Japan. Some American theatrical and direct to video animated features from certain big Hollywood movie studios - Disney/Pixar (e.g. Finding Nemo, Lilo and Stitch, Monsters Inc., The Little Mermaid); Dreamworks (e.g., Shrek, Madagascar) - have sold well on DVD in contemporary Japan, but little else. In the past 2-3 years of following animation DVD sales in Japan, I have not encountered even one non-Japanese television animation series which has sold significantly on DVD in Japan. Not one. Studio Ghibli, especially with Hayao Miyazaki at the helm, is the undisputed king of animation in Japan, both at the box office and on DVD. In general, if Japanese animation studios want to sell well on DVD in the USA today, it appears they have to make anime titles which appeal to casual viewers in America, rather than those which target niche audiences in Japan (e.g., otaku), who watch and then buy late night / UHF / BS / CS broadcasted anime on DVD, and who support much of the current anime industry in Japan. |
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Randall Miyashiro
 Posts: 2451 Location: A block away from Golden Gate Park |
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Indeed, very few animated television series from the States sell well in Japan. I think Tom and Jerry might be the most successful non-Disney television series, but even that doesn't break the top 10,000 there. Shows like Simpsons and South Park do much worse.
On the other hand a full 1/4 of the top 100 amazon.jp list is anime. It really is flipped from what we see on the amazon.com lists. In regards to amazon.com compared to other retailers I will try to find some sort of data. I believe most mega chains where a huge percentage of DVDs are sold reflect amazon's figures. When I worked at Borders we would usually only receive one or two copies of most anime titles compared to the boxes of copies for the newest Hollywood release. We would occasionally sell a copy of Bebop or Evangelion, but most of the anime titles sat on the shelves collecting dust. At Barnes & Noble the almost all of the volume 1 anime titles lited in the previous post rank between 20,000 and 60,000 as well. Ergo Proxy 1 got a awful 54.000. The numbers reflect those at amazon with Karas being the only title to crack the top 1000, followed by Miyazaki and various shows that aired on television. |
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Richard J.
 Posts: 3367 Location: Sic Semper Tyrannis. |
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A big part of what hurts "pure" Japanese anime over here is that people have an inherent bias toward their own culture. It's extremely rare to come across someone who is completely open and accepting of other cultures. With anime, this translates to most non-Japanese not wanting to watch it simply because it is foreign (whether they admit that's the reason or not.)
Most anime fans here in the US are people who were already a part of another sub-cultural group, thus willing to embrace different things. Television exposure helps to get people who might otherwise avoid something interested because it doesn't require the same level of financial commitment. (Which is why more anime needs to get on TV.) Having familiar players from previously enjoyed forms of entertainment also help to get people to take notice of anime outside of Japan. Personally, I think anime companies are often failing to promote and market aspects of releases that could help sales. Take Death Note from Viz. The series will likely sell quite well regardless of what they do. However, the VA for L in the English dub is a popular actor from Battlestar Galactica, one of Sci-Fi channel's biggest hits. Viz could almost certainly increase sales by promoting this fact and might have been wiser to get the show on Sci-Fi's Ani-Monday block rather than [adult swim]. This is part of why I don't like mono-lingual releases in the R1. They completely ignore the potential benefits of marketing to groups beyond anime fans. If an English dub VA has a popular role in a videogame series, television series, or a movie, why not play that up to get some of those other fans to come in as well as the fans of the anime itself? If you want to make money, you have to make an effort. At the very least, promote your product. No one's going to buy it if they don't know about it and not everyone who might buy an anime series is already an anime fan. Also, get your product into Wal-Mart. I don't care how much people want to attack their anti-union policies, they are one of the biggest retail chains on Earth. Anime needs a greater presence on those shelves. (Karas and Miyazaki movies are sold in Wal-Mart. They have fantastically high sales numbers. Coincidence?) |
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Xanas
Posts: 2058 |
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Richard J. would you expand on what you mean by "sub-cultural group"?
I think I agree with you in general though, the marketing could be a bit better. Do you think the reason that they don't try your suggestions is that they can't, or that they have failed in the past? It's difficult to imagine that they wouldn't realize some of the things you have mentioned since they seem to be pretty obvious. I didn't even know L was from Battlestar Galactica. |
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Dargonxtc
 Posts: 4463 Location: Nc5xd7+ スターダストの海洋 |
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I was just wondering if anyone here subscribes to the Hollywood Reporter or Billboard? Don't they offer Videoscan data that includes actual scan numbers, as well as historical data charts for subscribers? You would think that the actual numbers would be easier to get a hold of.
Anyway, was just wondering. |
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