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High Speed! Is 4th Free! Blu-ray to Top Weekly Chart
posted on by Rafael Antonio Pineda
The Blu-ray Disc release for the High Speed! -Free! Starting Days- anime film sold 14,642 copies in its debut week, and ranked #1 on Oricon's weekly animation and overall Blu-ray Disc chart for the July 18-24 week.
The Blu-ray Disc release of the film is the fourth home video release in the Free! anime franchise that has topped the overall Blu-ray Disc chart, after the second, third, and sixth Blu-ray Disc releases for the Free! - Iwatobi Swim Club anime in October and November 2013, and February 2014, respectively.
The film's DVD release sold 10,000 copies in the same week, and ranked #1 on Oricon's weekly DVD chart, and #2 on the overall DVD chart.
The film is directly inspired by the High Speed! novel that was loosely adapted into the original Free! television anime. Whereas the Free! anime centers on Haruka and the other swimmers during high school, High Speed! followed them during middle school. The second volume of the novel series shipped in July 2014.
The film opened on last December on 120 screens, selling 67,829 tickets for 95,546,400 yen (about US$774,000), and ranking #5 in attendance during its opening weekend.
The first Free! anime from Kyoto Animation premiered in July 2013, and Crunchyroll streamed the anime as it aired in Japan. Discotek released the first season on DVD in North America. Free! Eternal Summer, the second television anime season, premiered in July 2014, and Funimation released the second season for streaming and home video in North America with an English dub. Crunchyroll streamed the English dub of the first season last December.
Source: Oricon Style
