The practice of adapting visual novels into anime has a long and illustrious history, so it’s interesting to see from this ranking just which have accrued most success, if we can equate DVD sales with success (which may be quite reasonable).
Number one should come as no surprise, though it looks as if it will not be in the top slot for much longer…
The numbers are the average number of DVDs sold for each volume (it’s not specified, but these are surely domestic figures):
26,047 Fate/stay night
24,346 AIR
23,924 CLANNAD
22,536 魔法少女リリカルなのはStrikerS / Nanoha Strikers
18,170 Kanon (京アニ版 / Kyoani Version)
14,216 真月譚月姫 / Tsukihime
13,360 D.C.～ダ･カーポ～ / D.C. Da Capo
11,251 魔法少女リリカルなのはA’s / Nanoha A’s
10,856 To Heart (VHS+LD+DVD)
9,591 乙女はお姉さまに恋してる / Otome wa Boku ni Koishiteru
8,919 Kanon (東映版 / Touei Version)
8,223 君が望む永遠 / Kimi ga Nozomu Eien
7,189 うたわれるもの / Utawarerumono
6,826 D.C.S.S. ～ダ・カーポ セカンドシーズン～ / Da Capo Second Season
5,981 らいむいろ戦奇譚 / Raimuiro Senkitan
5,476 SHUFFLE!
Fate/stay Night occupying the top position is unsurprising, though judging by the success of Clannad After Story, it could soon be at or near the top… It only has to improve on the performance of Clannad by 10% to seize the crown.
Other results too seem unremarkable, though we might wonder at the poor performance of Utawarerumono. Looking for a trend we might conclude that it pays to be unadventurous in adapting a visual novel, since the majority are plain romances?
A look at light novels in this context may also be interesting.
how did the anime that doesn’t exist get onto the top 10. Besides everyone knows that there is no such thing as a Tsukihime anime.
Also, I’m sure sooner or later they will eventually come around and do something like an alternate sotry with the Fate characters. Someting like Illya being a magical girl, the Tiger Collseum bit, or even something that involves Saber Lilly in some way shape or form one of these days.
Those Tsukihime sales must be pre-orders in case an anime is ever made.
I would love to see more FSN anime. Maybe make a new season that covers the unlimited blade works route or do a Fate/Zero or Tiger Colosseum ova.
But Clannad is NOT an eroge! Only the spin-off Tomoyo After has sex scenes, and KyoAni is not animating that.
I did say “visual novels” in the first sentence.
Then why title is “Eroge Anime” instead of “visual novels”? Grip marketing? 😉
Most of them are eroge, and even Clannad has eroge products in the franchise as you say… There isn’t really much difference?
The Nanoha series spun off from the Triangle Heart eroge trilogy (sort of a magical girl variant set in an alternate universe – stylistically, there’s little resemblance between the two), but they’re original productions. Definitely not adaptation.
Why is Nanoha A’s on the list as well? There was an eroge for that?
Nanoha started as a spin-off from Triangle Hearts, which is an eroge.
By the way, these figures are actually average sold per volume, not total sold. All of the series in the list are above-average sellers (including Utawarerumono — but do the figures include Blu-Ray sales?), and the typical rule of thumb is that any late-night anime selling above 10,000/disc is doing quite well.
Updated to correct that ambiguity, thanks.
It seems unlikely that Blu-ray will have any significant effect on these older titles, but for newer ones it could become quite important I think.
And yes, 10,000 is definitely the magic number… Much fanfare when the recent Strike Witches DVD broke through that mark.