Solo Leveling Anime Records Surprisingly Poor Sales

@Angglio_1 I see a pattern here. People seem to don't like poorly written action animes, but seem to appreciate well written action anime.
Who would have thought?

I guess not enough underage loli characters like "I Was Reincarnated as the 7th Prince" nor a cuck MC crossdressing for Japanese to like it (I guess not after first episode).

Japan hating the anti-Japanese plot would be hilarious, since they worship Americans in every possible anime and even show Chinese in better light while having racist characters who are brown or black left and right.

Don't get me wrong, South Koreans are incredibly racist as well, especially towards Indians, but cmon..

Damn i hope they will continue making all seasons but this doesnt look good

@Avicebrons I’ve always wondered why the biggest basement dwellers on the internet love the word “cope” so much, but apparently I learned recently it’s some sort of 4chan thing, which explains a lot. Anyway, 20,000 BD sales isn’t much in the grand scheme of things, compared to the hundreds of millions that watch anime worldwide. Uma Musume sold 5 times as much and isn’t very popular outside of otaku circles:

By far most of the revenue that mediocre but popular shows like JJK make is from tv ads and streaming services. It’s also why series like Fire Force are on their way to a 3rd season despite poor sales, or why Solo Leveling is getting another season.

@Account-Deleted1
Pointless ad hominem aside, BD sales are a big deal in Japan. It's obviously not the entirety of their revenue, but it does play a role. A larger one than many people care to admit. Especially in gauging possibilities for a second season. And you mention Solo Leveling getting another season, but you fail to see that it was already planned for a second season right from the start. This is common. Considering SL's popularity and how they went all in with production and getting Sawano on board and such, it seems clear that they were expecting this to be a smash hit. So they planned for two seasons.

One important thing to also remember is that popularity does not equal profit. And vice versa. As you yourself mentioned, Uma Musume sold a ton of BDs, and it's not even overtly popular. Solo Leveling was probably watched by an absurd more number of people, but I'm willing to also bet that many of them watched it on pirate sites and chose not to support the studio. Unlike something like Uma Musume.

@Avicebrons It’s only ad hominem if it’s not true ;)

BDs are really only a big deal only for the most *otaku-pandering* shows.

You got a source saying that SL had a second season from the start? Otherwise I’ll take it as something you made up. You really overstate how important BDs are, which can be seen through basic calculations. A popular show selling even 20,000 BDs at $100 each only makes $2 million, which doesn’t even cover the animation budget for a middle budget series. Fire Force is getting a 3rd season with atrocious sales because it makes ad money and streaming money.

It was officially confirmed by the CEO of D&C Media right after the airing of Episode 01. (https://www.hankyung.com/article/202401026755i)
Most leakers also indicated it to be split cours, and one of the initial trailer adapted a popular panel from later chapters.

As someone who loved this anime, it pains me to know that it's not selling well, this is a quality anime IMHO, and I only hope the low sales don't affect the production of S2.

@xZabuzax where do you see the quality? besides the action scenes, there's nothing else that you can say it's good.

@xZabuzax where do you see the quality? besides the action scenes, there's nothing else that you can say it's good.

@Account-Deleted1 It's still ad hominem. Whether it's true or not is irrelevant. So I'm not sure you actually understand what ad hominem means.

I could turn around and say if you have a source saying it wasn't? Personally, I think it's extremely obvious considering this is how the anime industry has functioned in regards to renewals for quite a while now, and Solo Leveling follows it to a T. Of course maybe there's some super whacky stuff behind the scenes that caused them to renew for another reason, but in that case it would be the exception. And I would say the burden of proof tends to fall on proving it to be an exception, rather than the opposite. But hey, if you can provide a source that says they renewed Solo Leveling for a second season due to something else, then I'd love to see it. Otherwise, all signs points to it being pre-planned.

Edit: Alexioos95 provided a source showcasing that it was already confirmed for a S2 by the time the first episode rolled out - https://www.hankyung.com/article/202401026755i

I think you're underselling BDs impact. I never argued that BDs cover the entire anime's budget on top of being a net positive for the studio. I even said something of that effect in my reply. So not sure why you think that it not being able to cover the entire budget of an anime has any relevance to the point I'm making. An anime has several source of revenue streams, BD sales are only one of them. BD sales does however, cover a non-negligible portion of a studio's income. That is my point. Especially when it comes to big-shot names like Solo Leveling. The studio probably had a high expectations of BD sales. That's also why the CEO of Mappa mentioned BDs specifically, and his disappointment that they failed to reach that part of the audience. Chainsaw Man is another one of those big-shot names that probably had very high expectations for BD sales.

I'm not saying it's physically impossible to get a season 2 without BD sales and that you're financially ruined if you don't sell BDs. I'm saying that people are underestimating the impact BD sales have.

@Avicebrons Yeah, that’s not how it works, you tard. The burden of proof is with the one who makes a claim without evidence. The other person gave a source (not you) that still says nothing of the show’s viewership or revenue. But that’s fine for this argument.

On a different note, you also ignored the other shows like Fire Force and Nagatoro with poor sales getting multiple seasons (Fire Force even getting its third season). And you also ignored the breakdown of how much BDs actually make for an anime.

The fact that people still buy br/dvd in the first place is hilarious to me

@Angglio_1 I see a pattern here. People seem to don't like poorly written action animes, but seem to appreciate well written action anime.
Who would have thought?