The Retail High Striker Sings Aimo For Christmas
There was a news byte on ANN today that caught my eye, where it listed the high rollers in DVD/BRD, CD and merchandise sales in anime-related categories for Amazon Japan. I presumed they did not combined DVD and BRD SKUs, and bunched LE and RE together.
It wasn’t a very long time ago since when buying large number of copies of a single or a CD for your favorite artist/show/character became the “in” thing, the badge of fanboy’s pride for those Akiba-kei types. But I don’t think you needed to take that into account to see why Macross Frontier tie-ins destroyed the top 10 charts for CDs. Amazon Japan is one of the more preferred outlets for this kind of aggressive number-pushing too.
Indeed, if we wait another 3 weeks the 6th place winner may very well be Nyan Tama. (Watch out for the CDJapan referral links!) Well, I actually doubt that because it is still mostly a “best of” album with tracks from the previous CDs.
But first, let’s get our fellow bloggers out of the way:
Indeed, the real strength behind sales comes from the organic groundswell that pushes a memorable title and a smartly designed cash-milking campaign to the fore. Was Macross Frontier the most memorable anime in 2008? I don’t even know. But if there was a thing that sold music better in recent memory, I do not know about it.
What’s the secret?
Is it just because Shoji Kawamori is working with the right people towards the right product–a musical? Or because he took it seriously unlike this guy? And it’s not just in CDs; if we recall correctly, Macross Frontier is the title that set in stone the Blu-Ray::anime correlation (in Japan). There’s a lesson here that probably deserves looking into further.
Especially if you are Sony…
As you know, a high striker gets progressive harder the higher it reaches. Do you think this rests on the apex? (And if you want to go in and split that four ways, let me know…)
[edit: Mai’s site now has a more detailed drill-down on the Amazon listing, plus some Oricon Year-to-date numbers for you]
WTF on the last link… cost almost as much as my new phone! And I don’t know about BANPRESTO, they’ve never been high on my list in terms of quality for figures =/
…what the hell is your new phone!
I don’t know about the figures, but they look fine in the picture. Plus, don’t you want those nyan nyan non-perishable food items? ;)
WTF it’s one return flight ticket to Japan. And yeah, won’t buy the figures unless better manufacturers are involved.
Can’t wait for my Nyan Tama, though it’s a best-of, we got many new versions.. right?
omo, I didn’t get what you meant by Kawamori taking it seriously unlike Nabeshin?
I am glad that you asked, because people usually don’t :)
Nabeshin is the only other anime director that I know of that played with the idea of an anime musical. In fact he made one explicitly with the fact that it is a musical as a draw. It’s a comedy show that evokes the Blues Brothers image (think of the 1980s movie).
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=6366
He didn’t take the idea very seriously I think.
Oh, I’m not familiar with his works, that’s why I didn’t get it :D Thanks :)