While not an entirely accurate title, I wanted to make a counter part to the post about Japan's Most Successful Manga. This post will look at the top 10 highest selling single volume sales in Japan for both DVD's and BluRay Disks. The majority of the leg work on this one though is credited to the amazing person/persons who run and maintain http://www.someanithing.com/ which is a pain staking site devoted to tracking the weekly video sales as listed by Oricon.
Oricon is Japan's media ranking service which tracks sales and trends for all manner of media consumption. Think of it as the Billboard for everything media related in Japan that the public can buy. They rank, weekly, monthly, etc music, movies, tv, books...all sorts of things. But the biggest problem is, at least as I have ever found, they don't have a very accessible historical archive for ranks. So who ever is behind SomeAnitTing goes through the arduous process of capturing those rankings and compiling them in a a variety of formats for research. This is an amazing feat by its self but the ways they allow the public to modulate that data to pick out specific information is even more incredible. Oh yeah, its free too. So someone/ones are steadily compiling all this data, hosting it online, displaying it in a variety of ways all for free.
Before we get into the data and analysis a few things need to be covered. Oricon has this nasty habit of not tallying everything and on a weekly basis if a particular title hasn't sold a specific amount they won't even list it. So the data gathered isn't down to every single volume of a title sold. There is a great FAQ section on SomeAniThing that goes over this and what type of impact it has on the actual numbers. For the top 10 its more of a moot point as these titles move plenty of copies. The other aspect is the importance of BluRay sales over DVD sales. BluRay sales are a good indicator of hard core otaku buying habits over DVD sales currently for anime it's self. DVD sales are more associated with the casual buyer over all. Also, Oricon doesn't separate out Japanese animation from non-Japanese animation, so cope and stop being so elitist. So here we go.
Top 10 highest selling BluRay Disks as of May 2016.
1. Frozen. 2.4 million units sold.
2. Neon Genesis Evangelion movie 2.22 - You Can (not) Advance. 464,000 units sold.
3. Neon Genesis Evangelion movie 3.33 - You Can (not) Redo. 400,000 units sold.
4. Big Hero 6. 331,000 units sold.
5. Love Live! School Idol Movie. 221,000 units sold.
6. Monsters University. 211,000 units sold.
7. Cars 2. 209,000 units sold.
8. Toy Story 3. 181,000 units sold.
9. Neon Genesis Evangelion movie 1.11. 181,000 units sold.
10. Tangled. 160,000 units sold.
Top 10 highest selling DVD's as of May 2016.
1. Spirited Away. 2.4 million units sold.
2. Finding Nemo. 1.6 million units sold.
3. My Neighbor Totoro. 1.25 million units sold.
4. Howl's Moving Castle. 1.22 million units sold.
5. Ponyo. 912,000 units sold.
6. Castle in the Sky. 779,000 units sold.
7. The Incredibles. 757,000 units sold.
8. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. 667,000 units sold.
9. Monsters Inc. 571,000 units sold.
10. Kiki's Delivery Service. 536,000 units sold.
There you have it. BluRays are comprised of Disney movies, Evangelion and Love Live. DVD's are comprised of Disney and Studio Ghibli productions. As stated earlier BluRay's are a better indicator of the popularity with otaku. They are more concerned with special features and quality. DVD's, which are on the way to being a less purchased product, still represent the over all purchasing habits of the population at large. Ghilbi movies, particularly ones directed by Miyazaki Hayao, are incredibly popular and successful with general audiences in Japan. Spirited Away has the highest grossing box office sales for any movie in Japan.
Here is what the lists would look like if we took out foreign animation.
Top 10 highest selling BluRay Disks as of May 2016.
1. Neon Genesis Evangelion movie 2.22 - You Can (not) Advance. 464,000 units sold.
2. Neon Genesis Evangelion movie 3.33 - You Can (not) Redo. 400,000 units sold.
3. Love Live! School Idol Movie. 221,000 units sold.4. Neon Genesis Evangelion movie 1.11. 181,000 units sold.
5. Puella Magi Madoka Magica movie 3: Rebelion. 154,000 units sold.
6. Mobile Suit Gundam UC vol 5. 122,000 units sold.
7. Mobile Suit Gundam UC vol 4. 120,000 units sold.
8. Mobile Suit Gundam UC vol 1. 118,000 units sold.
9. Mobile Suit Gundam UC vol 3. 118,000 units sold.
10. Mobile Suit Gundam UC vol 7. 118,000 units sold.
Top 10 highest selling DVD's as of May 2016.
1. Spirited Away. 2.4 million units sold.
2. My Neighbor Totoro. 1.25 million units sold.
3. Howl's Moving Castle. 1.22 million units sold.
4. Ponyo. 912,000 units sold.
6. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. 667,000 units sold.
7. Kiki's Delivery Service. 536,000 units sold.
8. Neon Genesis Evangelion movie 2.22 - You Can (not) Advance. 375,000 units sold.
9. Princess Mononoke. 366,000 units sold.
10. Neon Genesis Evangelion movie 1.01 Rebuild. 297,000 units sold.
Evangelion, 20 years on, still retains massive popularity and importance in otaku communities and with the general audience as well. Cruel Angel Thesis, the TV shows opening theme, is the most played song in karaoke bars across the country. To it's credit all 7 volumes of the original MS Gundam Unicorn fill in 13-18 in the top 20 best selling BluRay Disk ranking, at around 118,000 copies of each volume. DVD sales of 11-20 are filled up with more Disney and Ghibli movies with appearances by Evangelion and Lupin.
So what does it all mean? Even in Japan, where anime is ingrained in the population a lot of it doesn't sell very well in comparison to other things. Even in Japan anime is a niche market, particularly in the past 15 years. Another factor in this data is the over all tendency of the Japanese populace to rent video's instead of buying them to own. The rental industry in Japan has always been strong and I can imagine digital rental services are making it even stronger. Some day I will look to see what sort of ranking data exists for that market...I'm sure Oricon has it some where.
Oricon is Japan's media ranking service which tracks sales and trends for all manner of media consumption. Think of it as the Billboard for everything media related in Japan that the public can buy. They rank, weekly, monthly, etc music, movies, tv, books...all sorts of things. But the biggest problem is, at least as I have ever found, they don't have a very accessible historical archive for ranks. So who ever is behind SomeAnitTing goes through the arduous process of capturing those rankings and compiling them in a a variety of formats for research. This is an amazing feat by its self but the ways they allow the public to modulate that data to pick out specific information is even more incredible. Oh yeah, its free too. So someone/ones are steadily compiling all this data, hosting it online, displaying it in a variety of ways all for free.
Before we get into the data and analysis a few things need to be covered. Oricon has this nasty habit of not tallying everything and on a weekly basis if a particular title hasn't sold a specific amount they won't even list it. So the data gathered isn't down to every single volume of a title sold. There is a great FAQ section on SomeAniThing that goes over this and what type of impact it has on the actual numbers. For the top 10 its more of a moot point as these titles move plenty of copies. The other aspect is the importance of BluRay sales over DVD sales. BluRay sales are a good indicator of hard core otaku buying habits over DVD sales currently for anime it's self. DVD sales are more associated with the casual buyer over all. Also, Oricon doesn't separate out Japanese animation from non-Japanese animation, so cope and stop being so elitist. So here we go.
Top 10 highest selling BluRay Disks as of May 2016.
1. Frozen. 2.4 million units sold.
3. Neon Genesis Evangelion movie 3.33 - You Can (not) Redo. 400,000 units sold.
4. Big Hero 6. 331,000 units sold.
5. Love Live! School Idol Movie. 221,000 units sold.
7. Cars 2. 209,000 units sold.
8. Toy Story 3. 181,000 units sold.
9. Neon Genesis Evangelion movie 1.11. 181,000 units sold.
Top 10 highest selling DVD's as of May 2016.
1. Spirited Away. 2.4 million units sold.
2. Finding Nemo. 1.6 million units sold.
4. Howl's Moving Castle. 1.22 million units sold.
5. Ponyo. 912,000 units sold.
6. Castle in the Sky. 779,000 units sold.
7. The Incredibles. 757,000 units sold.
8. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. 667,000 units sold.
10. Kiki's Delivery Service. 536,000 units sold.
There you have it. BluRays are comprised of Disney movies, Evangelion and Love Live. DVD's are comprised of Disney and Studio Ghibli productions. As stated earlier BluRay's are a better indicator of the popularity with otaku. They are more concerned with special features and quality. DVD's, which are on the way to being a less purchased product, still represent the over all purchasing habits of the population at large. Ghilbi movies, particularly ones directed by Miyazaki Hayao, are incredibly popular and successful with general audiences in Japan. Spirited Away has the highest grossing box office sales for any movie in Japan.
Here is what the lists would look like if we took out foreign animation.
Top 10 highest selling BluRay Disks as of May 2016.
1. Neon Genesis Evangelion movie 2.22 - You Can (not) Advance. 464,000 units sold.
3. Love Live! School Idol Movie. 221,000 units sold.4. Neon Genesis Evangelion movie 1.11. 181,000 units sold.
5. Puella Magi Madoka Magica movie 3: Rebelion. 154,000 units sold.
7. Mobile Suit Gundam UC vol 4. 120,000 units sold.
8. Mobile Suit Gundam UC vol 1. 118,000 units sold.
9. Mobile Suit Gundam UC vol 3. 118,000 units sold.
10. Mobile Suit Gundam UC vol 7. 118,000 units sold.
Top 10 highest selling DVD's as of May 2016.
1. Spirited Away. 2.4 million units sold.
3. Howl's Moving Castle. 1.22 million units sold.
4. Ponyo. 912,000 units sold.
5. Castle in the Sky. 779,000 units sold.
7. Kiki's Delivery Service. 536,000 units sold.
8. Neon Genesis Evangelion movie 2.22 - You Can (not) Advance. 375,000 units sold.
9. Princess Mononoke. 366,000 units sold.
Evangelion, 20 years on, still retains massive popularity and importance in otaku communities and with the general audience as well. Cruel Angel Thesis, the TV shows opening theme, is the most played song in karaoke bars across the country. To it's credit all 7 volumes of the original MS Gundam Unicorn fill in 13-18 in the top 20 best selling BluRay Disk ranking, at around 118,000 copies of each volume. DVD sales of 11-20 are filled up with more Disney and Ghibli movies with appearances by Evangelion and Lupin.
So what does it all mean? Even in Japan, where anime is ingrained in the population a lot of it doesn't sell very well in comparison to other things. Even in Japan anime is a niche market, particularly in the past 15 years. Another factor in this data is the over all tendency of the Japanese populace to rent video's instead of buying them to own. The rental industry in Japan has always been strong and I can imagine digital rental services are making it even stronger. Some day I will look to see what sort of ranking data exists for that market...I'm sure Oricon has it some where.
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