Gonzo Plans Ero-Anime to Avert Bankruptcy?

An animator with insider knowledge reports that troubled anime studio Gonzo is considering turning to ero-anime (as in hentai, rather than merely ecchi) to rescue itself, with sacking a quarter of its staff and reducing anime output by half apparently not sufficient to restore it to profitability.

The animator revealed the plan on his Mixi diary, apparently based on his conversation with a Gonzo employee:

Apparently, there are even problems paying employees? We also hear:

“If it’s Gonzo doing an ero-anime then the quality could be pretty good, right?”

“Only the worst, most useless staff are left…”

So a Gonzo produced H-anime may not be as great as one might hope.

It must be noted that this is otherwise unconfirmed, and so should be taken sceptically.

Observers point out that ero-anime titles such as eroge-adapted “Sora no Iro, Mizuiro”, with two OVA volumes, look to have strong sales, with those titles looking to manage some 20,000 in total.

In comparison, Gonzo has only two titles to have broken through the critical 10,000 copies sold milestone, those being Vandread and Strike Witches. Thus Gonzo might be lured into creating adult titles, which is considered something of a last resort in the industry.

Their other titles have managed only moderate sales of 5,000-7,500, and some have done much worse.

Below you can see the rather unimpressive sales data for Gonzo’s top sellers, showing week 1 sales for various first volume DVD releases (first number is the rank at the time, followed by first week sales and weekly period sales, with the number of weeks after):

12 *8,720 12,318 *3 ストライクウィッチーズ 1 / Strike Witches 1 LE
*8 *9,764 11,906 **2 ヴァンドレッド 1 / Vandread 1
16 *6,601 *6,601 **1 ラストエグザイル 1 / Last Exile 1 LE
*7 *6,124 *8,029 **2 ヴァンドレッド the second stage 1 / Vandread II 1
35 *5,092 *6,606 **2 ロザリオとバンパイア 1 / Rosario+Vampire
20 *3,423 *7,403 **2 ゲートキーパーズ 1  / Gatekeepers 1
19 *5,667 *6,992 **2 キディ・グレイド 1  / Kiddy Grade 1
17 *4,528 *6,376 **2 HELLSING 1
24 *4,568 *5,990 **2 最終兵器彼女 1 / Saishuuheiki Kanojo 1
21 *3,390 *5,558 **2 フルメタル・パニック! 1 / Full Metal Panic 1
29 *4,332 *4,332 **1 クロノクルセイド 1  / Chronocrusade 1
90 *3,998 *3,998 **1 BLACK CAT 1
52 *3,821 *3,821 **1 瀬戸の花嫁 1 / Seto no Hanayome 1
57 *2,759 *3,773 **2 ドルアーガの塔 ～the Aegis of URUK～ 1 / Druaga 1
53 *3,538 *3,538 **1 ウィッチブレイド 1  / Witchblade 1
50 *3,074 *3,074 **1 超重神グラヴィオンツヴァイ 1 / Gravion Zwei 1
64 *2,732 *2,732 **1 巌窟王 1 / Gankutsuou 1
67 *2,722 *2,722 **1 GANTZ 1
74 *1,978 *1,978 **1 風のスティグマ 1 / Kaze no Stigma 1
94 *1,802 *1,802 **1 ガドガード 1 / Gad Guard 1
84 *1,668 *1,668 **1 超重神グラヴィオン 1 / Gravion 1
64 *1,542 *1,542 **1 SAMURAI7 1
31 *1,508 *1,508 **1 SAMURAI GIRL Real Bout High School 1
73 *1,374 *1,374 **1 月面兎兵器ミーナ 1 / Getsumento Heiki Mina
79 *1,278 *1,278 **1 ブラスレイター 1 / Blassreiter 1

You can follow a good collation of sources here.

Perhaps they should try for a Strike Witches ero-anime? Whatever they try, Gonzo appears to be in truly dire straits…