Potluck: Tokyopop Twofer, Hayaku Crew Assembles, 1 DBZ Sales Figure
Posted on October 15th, 2008 by calaggie in Potluck
This blog takes no official position on smoking but it does support multicolored skies.
In this edition of Potluck: reaction to Mario Parva’s interview and to some unsubstantiated Amazon listings, a different sort of team blog is born, and a small morsel of anime sales data.
Tokyopop’s Parva Mentions Scanlation Sites #
ICv2 posted a two-part interview with Tokyopop Associate Publisher Mario Parva on Monday where he expressed optimism for the market in the near future and talked about upcoming projects such as the CSI: Interns manga (which looks decent at the moment). The highlight for me was when answering a question about lighter title output and how the market might grow, Parva brought up “online pirate sites” – or scanlation hubs – in one of the first times I have heard ANY publisher openly discuss this emerging drag on sales.
He continued to say that while TP knows about some of those sites, they are “ubiquitous” and it would a challenge to fight them with the resources they have. Perhaps a consortium could fund a task force ’cause I’m sure that Random House (Del Rey’s parent company), Hachette Book Group USA (Yen Press) and Shogakukan & Shueisha (Viz Media) have monies available in their coffers they could devote to such a cause.
I know a fair number of people who read manga through such sites to keep up and they are regular buyers of physical volume but it’s a pretty small sample. For the past year, I have been quietly concerned about illicit digital copies of manga affecting publishers as more young fans come accustomed to using manga hosting sites. Though their existence has not impacted sales as drastically as fansubs have in that market due to the “paper factor” among other elements, their growing use and prevalence is something publishers must continue to monitor as they reassess their release patterns.
Phantom Dates for Unannounced Licenses #
The other TP story I wanted to talk about were next summer’s product listings on Amazon, which ANN scooped from Kuri-osity. Among the “on paper” release dates were Hoshi no Witch v.1 on 5/5/09, Game x Rush v.1 on 5/5, Future Diary (Mirai Nikki) v.1 on 5/12, Animal Academy v.1 on 5/12, Summoner Girl v.1 on 8/4, Bloody Kiss v.1 on 8/11, and Momogumi Plus Senki v.1 on 8/11 (from later ANN story). I don’t particularly want TP to handle Future Diary based on a deep feeling that they might mishandle it – I care less about the other series. Alas, post-April dates have not been confirmed by retail solicitations so I would hold off even considering pre-ordering these until at least some adapted cover art is released. They’re more than six months off from now, what’s the hurry?
Aside those new series, the months between volumes for some key titles can be determined. TP featured Pixie and Luuna as full color world manga during their AX panel and it appears both will have 4 months between their 1st and 2nd volumes. Momo Tama will have 4 months between v. 1 & v. 2 and three months between v. 2 & v. 3; Togainu no Chi will also have 4 mos. between 1 & 2 and 3 mos. between 2 & 3; Maid-sama! v.2 is slated four months after its mid-April debut volume and so are Tsubasa: Those Without Wings, NG Life, and This Ugly Yet Beautiful World. These are not unusual spans for TP as the final volumes of Fruits Basket are spaced 4 months apart but they seem still long from a non-typical reader’s (read: my) perspective.
A Site Still On the Launch Pad #
Now onto a cooperative blog that is just starting out – Oi, Hayaku! The introductory posts from the contributors have been trickling out over the past couple weeks and those lending their effort and keyboards include: Omisyth creating lists and not selling out, Ibrevis covering movies, otou-san promoting the site, beanbrew evaluating soundtracks and OP/EDs, maggeh injecting “insanity” referencing the current culture, Baka-Raptor FreeWriting and counteracting other bloggers such as Author, coburn bringing a serious side to discovering new things, Xephfyre operating as a servant-class newsman and blog scout, and Riex managing the whole operation. I suspect there are a few more in hiding so how large IS this collaboration, exactly?
The site aims to provide “quality entertainment and experimentation to the otakusphere” (source) and be an alternative to the team blogs that mostly sustain themselves on episode-specific posts. I’m holding off judgment on them for now since the contributors have not begun posting their main content and since the proof of the pudding is in the eating, I’ve only gotten the slightest whiff of scents emanating from the oven and have yet to taste their true handiwork as a collective.
A Blip on the Major Sales Charts #
According to entertainment tracking website the-numbers.com, the Dragon Ball Z Season Six box set sold an estimated 38,800 units in the week ending Sept. 21st, generating $1,163,612 in revenue for FUNimation during its first six days. It ranked just behind the first season of Chuck (39,694), which blows my mind because that show is a dumber version of Jake 2.0 that lacks nanotech superabilities.
For some comparison, Avatar Book 3 vol. 3 sold 51,801 copies ($517,492) the week ending May 11th, Book 3 Vol. 4 sold 43,066 copies ($516,361 in sales) in the week ending August 3rd, and Metalocalypse Season 1 sold 57,537 ($1,322,776) in its first week when it debuted October 7th of last year.
DBZ is a high-profile anime in terms of name recognition and FUNi may have had more success in promoting this volume compared to previous seasons. The site’s figures are estimates “based on studio figures, publicly available data, and private research on retail sales” so specialist online retailers like TRSI and RACS are not counted, meaning the actual number could be a little higher. I wanted to write about this blip because numbers for anime sales are few and far between and although I would like to have privileged access to pre-order and three-month sales data, the actuals would likely let me and others down but would not hamper my yearning for raw figures.
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