Top 15 Greatest Anime Which Sold Abysmally
- Categories: Anime, News
- Date: Aug 18, 2012 01:29 JST
- Tags: Blu-ray, Comparison, DVD, DVD Extras, Marketing, Otaku, Rankings
Anime fans have sought to identify those anime which sold atrociously (in this case less than 2,000 or so copies per volume) despite actually being quite good, although in the case of some of their choices whether everyone would agree these pitiful sales were undeserved is another matter…
The ranking (with the semi-official average sales figures for each volume of the disc release – “unknown” generally indicating sales so embarrassingly low that figures were never published):
1. Kaichou wa Maid-sama! (1,707)
2. Taishou Baseball Girls (1,392)
3. Chihayafuru (Unknown)
4. Kurenai (1,922)
5. Kamisama Dolls (1,355)
6. True Tears (2,079)
7. Croisée in a Foreign Labyrinth (1,234)
8. Kill Me Baby (Unknown)
9. Princess Jellyfish (1,321)
10. Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit (1,997)
11. Sora no Manimani (1,231)
12. Shiki (1,225)
13. Softenni (783)
14. Wandering Son (1,007)
15. Sasameki Koto (Unknown)
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WHAT?! Shiki was fucking amazing. I can't believe it did so poorly. Kamisama dolls was also pretty good :/
well you know how it is if it doesn't have loli's or fanservice it won't sell high.
But Kamisama has loli and fanservice... and a plot too complicated for most otaku, I guess.
true true, most people don't have tastes as deep and complex as you, wow you must be the king of being deep and thoughtful
how the hell drama comedy can have complicated plot?? unless the majority otaku has less than 100 IQ
Say what you will, but it DID have a more complex plot then most loli-action shows. That's probably why it didn't sell. Sure, it was only mediocre, but many of those still sell.
@DmonHiro
It's just untrue that people don't enjoy stories and plots and only fanservice sells though. Yes, they do sell a bit, but it's a mediocre sale compared to the ones that truly shine. Fanservice and ecchi don't really sell things that much, the creators just think it does and therefore add it to stories that they think need it.
They're just thinking in terms of survival now, and for the foreseeable future unfortunately.
If half of us even bought DVD box sets of the decent shows, everything would change. I do buy the ones I like, special edition versions. Each sale counts more now than it ever has. At a con I was told how sales of around 3K DVDs are excellent now, when 10 years ago 10K sales was pathetic. That means that unlike government, every 'vote' counts when we buy DVD box sets. Very, very much.
Vote with our pockets. It's simple. If you buy nothing, you deserve nothing.
Complexity and simplicity are derivative of function, origin and context.
A Gordian knot is hard to untangle, but easy to cut through. Swimming pools don't imitate the shape of natural glacial lakes very often, but instead go for what may count as simple in geometry. The choice between queening and knighting a pawn is one thing when you are a king, and another one when you're playing chess. Which policy is the default?
A story that's convoluted or hard to digest didn't have to be hard to write, but neither it had to be easy. The key to creativity may lie in hiding one's origins, as the wives of some IQ high scorers probably could certify. And some otaku are very "meta" about their content, so they respond to such details as soon as they are made to respond to the issue of a plot.
Not that I think it applies to Kamisama Dolls. Popularity is an arbitrary bitch, but it's hard to like what one doesn't know. If the the mutual adulation society picks something up, it thrives, but niche material with a cliche title needs some memetic luck - and tractability - for that.
@HouseLife
Tell that to Funimation. They've said that the fanservice shows sell really well, dramas don't.
Kamisama dolls had loli and fanservice, but it was less than medicore.
Then what the hell happened to Astarotte no Omocha?
didn't follow the manga, got worse as it went on
Sadly this is true in the market today, so many ecchi animes are made because it sells. I don't know why they if they want anime porn its not hard to find it. I also agree on Shiki being great, I enjoyed it quite a bit, wish it was longer though.
Japan's going through its own guerrilla form of sexual revolution right now I believe. And most anime porn isn't very good in case you haven't noticed. I think it's something more fundamental. In Japan, sex and everything else seem to be discussed very separately, and there's a bit of an irony that there are so many stories where sex is an integrated portion of the plot and character development in some form or another (for better or worse).
Take Highschool DxD. That wouldn't have been nearly as entertaining if he weren't that type of character in that type of environment. We've seen that basic plot before, but that twist on it was just fun. And it wasn't necessary to hold the actual story together, but wouldn't have been the same without it.
Plus, people are taking it too seriously. These are jokes. Almost every panty shot is basically a joke, all the breasts bouncing unrealistically is a joke. They are plays off of peoples' mentality of anime for the fun of it, at least that's what I'd do in those instances if it were 'required' anyway. They're so prudish about sex as a human concept that they're basically tunneling through that concept using anime.
One shot that comes to mind in Highschool DxD was when Akeno stood up and was talking, so just became a still on her skirt. She continued talking, it stayed on her skirt as she turned around. She continued talking, and finally she bows and there's a shot of her crotch with the skirt up. The entire shot remained in preparation for that. If you're not taking yourself too seriously, you basically have to laugh because it's like the director/animators brought you in on the inside joke. They were able to make a fun, entertaining story while not taking certain elements too seriously. If people think of it as perversion, then they're just going to make themselves tired. Think of it as the joke it is, and you just get entertained.
@01:46 That's some bullshit logic you have there.
Shows like Fate/Zero & P4 The Animation are selling very high.
easy to believe that...nothing great about it, bored to death beside the ending kills which felt just like a displaced ending.
I see someone has the attention span of an ADHD raven in a coin factory.
Well, luckily for you the latest anime seasons are filled with masterpieces such as generic harem tits'n'ss anime #26 and the generic shounen mecha #14.
God bless the industry and it's viewerbase.
Sorry bro, but that anime SUCKED. I gave it a chance because my friend kept telling me to watch it. I went through 4 LONG and BORING episodes waiting for it to get good, but alas, it never happened.
your poor taste is the reason you say that, but then again, we cant argue that lack of taste of yours.
"your poor taste is the reason you say that, but then again, we cant argue that lack of taste of yours."
It's quite funny that you say that, since people exactly like you are the reason that 90 years ago we had Nosferatu, and since 2005 we have faggots that sparkle in the sunlight like diamonds.
Congratulations you spent a whole grueling hour and twenty minutes from a twenty four hour day. Like they said: ADHD.
>Your tastes are different than mine!
>You must have ADHD
>2deep4u!
Shiki wasn't all that great, get over it.
Shiki took too long explaining things, not selling well is not that surprising. Damn good series thou, once you get passed the first 5-7 episodes.
The constant delay in episode didn't heap either I think...
I can kinda understand what people see in Shiki, but honestly speaking, I really didn't think it was as great as people tend to make it out to be. The ending, especially, seems like a mess... just takes a few seconds for the humans to know the truth, and suddenly, it's a god damn slaughterfest with only a scant few putting up much of a decent fight.
They also try to force some sympathy for the okiagari... there were a few good eggs amongst them, to be sure, but in retrospect, this was the side that forcibly converted humans into them in the first place. And seriously, what human would WANT to become them? These have got to be some of the shittiest vampires in ANY form of fiction out there. I mean, aside from the typical vampire weaknesses, up to and including sunlight (taken to such an extreme that even SHADE can almost kill them... quite pathetic considering diurnal humans can get by just fine in their less preferred half of the day with just a little fire or electricity; how did vampire media manage to become so exaggerated from the classic Dracula, who only had his powers dulled in sunlight at worst?), they're just a sitting duck during an entire half of the day, and even at night, they prove incapable of overpowering an average human. Also, they try putting a scientific spin on things yet still have some stuff that makes no friggin' sense (as I recall they never gave a valid reason for okiagari being weakened by religious symbols). At least the jinrou seem pretty cool... though, the almost impossible odds of becoming one aren't worth joining them.
Kamisama dolls really good. But would you be willing to spend a grand for the BD set?
Would you be willing to spend a grand just for some softcore porn? Esp. considering how easy it is to get hold of some real porn for free on this thing called "the internets"?
Otaku are.
Although its always sad to see a good anime sell poorly, I'd say the real travesty is with shows like Kaichou wa Maid-sama! and Princess Jellyfish, great anime that will never get a second season.
I honestly don't know if its rampant greed or just plain stupidity, but the Anime industries current business model is clearly on a one way path to self destruction and no one in the industry seems to care.
It's really sad looking at this list and knowing that Princess Jellyfish and Wandering Son will probably never see 2nd seasons.
At least neither of them really need sequels. Maybe with luck those will be two shows that stand the test of time and end up being more popular later. (My non-otakue roommate likes Jellyfish Princess which is a good sign, although her comparing it to the House Bunny is kinda weird.)
Japanese tastes....
There's no way we could ever understand that.
Shiki had way too much faggotry to sell well.
Shiki was good, but it wasn't amazing. It started off slow, but picked up around ep 7 or 8. What turned me off was the main character and his (homoerotic?) relationship with his friend. I liked the ending. It didn't make the vampires look good, it just made the humans look as bad as the vampires. Worse, even, as the vampires pointed out they kill for food. The humans just killed.
moribito is one of the best anime i have seen....
really cant believe that...
Moribito probably sold that much in the US. I bought it at friggin Walmart. They don't buy 10 of something.
Out of these I've only seen Princess Jellyfish and Wandering Son, but they were both excellent.
Wandering Son was rather.. creepy
http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/212/336/madotsuki_puke_parody_ikachan_by_mugenjohncel-d41hry2.jpg?1323038591
please die
Shiki? Moribito? Princess Jellyfish? Kurenai?
Failures?
Otaku have such terrible taste.
Taisho Baseball Girls was mediocre, though.
Just goes to show that sales don't mean that something is bad or not... Just look at CoD or Battlefield for the proof of opposite.
and this is why mainstream gaming in the west (or maybe just America?) saddens me nowadays.
I only assume it means the Kurenai OVA, that sucked sweaty balls. The actual anime was amazing.
Sasameki Koto e Kaichou: fucking awesome animes
What? Kaichou wa Maid-sama was ubber garbage and I regret everything about seeing it except seeing it with friends.
Sasameki Koto was good but a) Falls short of the godly manga it is based on and b) mother fucking mainstream can't appreciate Yuri.
"Sasameki Koto"'s problem was the girls were way too real for the otaku. They needed to be naive airhead middle-schoolers who act oblivious about everything. You know, like "Yuru yuri".
I'm deeply in love with Ayuzawa Misaki. Really.
Yah her ass hasn't expanded yet.
They all sucked they deserve it.
> Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit
The books (by Nahoko Uehashi) sold well. Probably anime adaptation wasn't up to the level.
Like e.g. with the 12 Kingdoms. I started hating the anime adaptation as soon as I finished reading first book. All shite I hated in the anime wasn't present in the book. The books are just heads above the anime.
P.S. Off to google the books of Nahoko Uehashi...
Shiki? Really?
Well fuck me.