Today, the definition of “success” for an anime adaptation depends heavily on sales of distribution rights to streaming services around the world. It is evident that this “success” is defined then since before the series even begins to be broadcast. However, another indicator of the success of a series is the sales of the physical packages (Blu-ray/DVD), which are not known until some time after the broadcast of a series.
And yes, as the years go by, revenue from streaming services is becoming more and more significant. It is precisely for this reason that Hollywood is paralyzed. The productions cannot advance because the Writers Guild of America went on strike until the companies respond to their requests. At the center of the dispute is the amount that writers receive each time a television show, series or movie in which they participated is broadcast on a streaming service.
Unfortunately, most of the income from an anime production goes precisely to the production committee, made up of a variety of companies that have little or nothing to do with real animation. In the anime industry in Japan, the money goes to those who put in the money, not the work. For this very reason, the studios are considered as “one more employee” at the service of the production committee, and only receives the money that is theirs, tasting little or nothing of the honey of income. Maybe if they went on strike with the Americans they could achieve something, but in Japan there doesn’t seem to be that mentality.
In short, one of the direct income that animation studios can receive comes from the merchandise and, consequently, from the physical packages. This is how we finally got to what brings us together today, and that is that a recent series was the demonstration that streaming is increasingly important to define the “success” of an anime. It turns out that oricon revealed the sales of the recently released physical packs in Japan, and the listing finally appeared spy kyoushitsu (Spy Classroom)… with 89 copies sold.
The worst part is that those 89 copies sold correspond to the DVD edition of the recently released package, since the Blu-ray edition didn’t even make it onto the list. This is understandable considering that there were important releases such as Bocchi the Rock!, Sword Art Online: Progressive, among others. But the fact that it appears with only 89 copies sold is really disappointing.
As we already mentioned ad nauseam, sales of physical packages do not determine the success of an animeand this is evidenced by knowing that spy kyoushitsu (Spy Classroom) has a confirmed second season. It can be safely said thatstreaming has saved many series“But how much of the streaming rights money goes to the animation studios? Have you ever wondered that?
In short, it was evident that the very low sales of spy kyoushitsu (Spy Classroom) were not going to go unnoticed in the comment forums:
- «Awesome».
- «It seems to be the number of the DVDs, so it doesn’t matter much. Also, the Blu-ray chart was extremely high, with most selling over 2,000 copies. So even if the Spy Classroom Blu-ray reached 500 copies sold, it wasn’t going to make the list.».
- «In other words, even with Blu-ray, they wouldn’t even sell 600 copies. The worst thing is that it is a Blu-ray/DVD BOX, a much more expensive edition».
- «I’m surprised how little it sold, maybe I should take a look».
- «I suppose this means losses for the studio, but obviously not for the production committee.
- «But, doesn’t it have a confirmed second season? Perhaps the only way to stand out is by adding erotic content».
- «Well, it seems that Spy Classroom had some eroticism, but everything else was not fully developed».
