How are anime sequels determined?

[Optic]

Found an interesting website on anime Blu-ray and DVD sale statistics. I was always under the impression that the majority of income was from Japanese DVD and Blu-ray sales but it seems there are more factors in play.

 

1.1 How important are DVD/BD sales?

It depends! Great disc sales can make a show, but low sales won’t necessarily break it. A detailed explanation of “how the business works” requires a lot more detail but for now it’s sufficient to know that DVD/BD purchases are only one revenue stream sharing the burden with potentially many others, such as:

– Manga and novels

– Figures and toys

– Character merchandise

– Music and drama CDs

– Video games/visual novels/mobile games

– Rentals

– Ratings (advertising)

– Retailer collaborations (e.g. Famima, Lawson)

– International licensing

Anime merchandise is quite expensive. Especially when you import it and add shipping on top. And for those in Europe or in countries that charge duty on top I do feel for you. But it's good to know there are so many opportunities to support the studios out there.

 

Specifically though in regards to DVD and Blu-rays, the rankings through localised releases (FUNimation, Madman, Sentai, etc.) are not as prominent as buying the Japanese releases. But of course the majority of Japanese releases don't have English subtitles, so the only reason you'd buy Japanese releases is if you are either fluent in Japanese OR have a high passion for a certain anime series.

 

2.5 How are sequels determined?

There are many factors that go into deciding if a show will get a sequel. These relate to the original intention of the show. For example, if Kadokawa makes a series to promote a light novel title, and they feel there’s still room for growth of the novels, a sequel can be greenlit. If the editorial board of the label feel the title has reached its peak and no additional seasons would raise enough additional sales of the novels, there’s no reason to greenlight another season in favor of another title that would see growth of its sales. Aniplex and King Records are in charge of promoting their disc sales first and foremost, so titles led by them depend more on those than associated print material.

 

However, anime itself is not always merely a promotion. As noted in the spreadsheet, there are several series with a TV station at its helm. If they make an original show (or mostly original), then there may be additional seasons if ratings are high enough to justify the costs (eg. Log Horizon and Phi Brain being funded by NHK or Gatchaman Crowds from NTV). Thus the answer to “Is (blank) able to get a second season?” is nearly always “look at the committee and see if the first couple of companies got their investment back and see stabilization or growth possible with a second season.”

So basically source material (potential advertising) vs original titles influenced heavily by TV ratings. Sadly not much you can do here to influence this unless you live in Japan.

 

Feel free to check the website out, it's an interesting read.

 

Source: http://www.someanithing.com/sales-faqguide

[Ace]

*sigh* The chances of a NGNL sequel are most likely slim... Even if it was rather popular, that tracing incident was probably too much...