Animator Suzuki Shunji Discloses Sales Failure of Nichijou

by dtshyk
Oct 1, 2011 10:34 AM | 148 Comments

Animator Suzuki Shunji (the general animation director of "Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone") posted on his twitter that the sales of Kadokawa's anime titles in this spring and summer were terrible. He attended a private meeting of people in the anime industry and heard that Nichijou was far from break-even point as well as R-15 and Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi. He said the reputation of Kyoto Animation has been completely lost.

Source: Suzuki's tweet

20 of 148 Comments Recent Comments

Great thread, I loved it how everyone found completely different explanations for it, depending on taste.

- It didn't sell because it wasn't moeblob!
- It didn't sell because people didn't need more of the same generic moeblobs as before!
- It didn't sell because Japanese Otaku don't have a sense of humor!
- It didn't sell because it didn't have good enough humor!
- It didn't sell because other spring 2011 shows were stronger!
- It didn't sell because it was too expensive!

Dec 31, 2011 1:26 PM by Alterego-X

...Eh?! I don't get it. That's really stupid for just one show. Nichijou was good too. They still have a lot of other good sales though. Nichijou just wasn't as popular as other animes. Everyone wants another KEY anime especially with myself but I liked Nichijou too..I hate how it does affect part of the work when everyone liked it, it seems.

Dec 31, 2011 11:51 AM by MadokaKaname

God, this is a bad joke.

Dec 31, 2011 10:44 AM by Hotaru_yuki

Sometimes I hate you, Japan.

Oct 25, 2011 11:38 AM by geocitiesfansite

otacu said:
Moe=/=Moeblobs

An even Kaiji can be Moe but he is not a a moeblob.

Haha, what a terrible joke.

Oct 20, 2011 11:33 PM by ringoo4

mrmuk said:
Don't dare to blame R-15!! It was one the best ecchi/romance-shows recently ;-)
Nichijou wasn't that awesome, but didn't expect it to sell that bad.
Everybody says it wasn't moe, but imho the art was quite moeish, well, maybe not as worse as K-On! xD
And wasn't the news just about the sales? Who knows how many people watched it while airing?

This type of anime depends on sales, not ratings, since it is shown late at night, i.e., it is not exactly the ideal time for getting viewers. Other series that air during primetime and regular hours are the ones that depend how many people watch them, like Naruto, One Piece, Bleach, and Fairy Tale. Previous posts have already explained this.

Oct 17, 2011 4:20 PM by Seijurou

zeroyuki92 said:

(Not that I dislike other studios but I already believe that KyoAni has proofed themself that they can make anything they touch into gold. Even though maybe this gold aren't too sell-able)

They have Hands of Midas. But it won't be too convenient for the possessor.

Oct 16, 2011 12:17 AM by allflying

R-15 was enjoyable, and I don't really mind the censors since I can just see the uncensored screen caps later and I remember the scenes.

Oct 10, 2011 1:56 PM by RyanSaotome

mrmuk said:
Don't dare to blame R-15!! It was one the best ecchi/romance-shows recently ;-)

R-15 was disappointing, it could have been an above average series easily but it was screwed over in the later eps. That censoring made it worse as it was unwatchable 70% of the time.

Oct 10, 2011 1:34 PM by Hoppy

Don't dare to blame R-15!! It was one the best ecchi/romance-shows recently ;-)

Nichijou wasn't that awesome, but didn't expect it to sell that bad.
Everybody says it wasn't moe, but imho the art was quite moeish, well, maybe not as worse as K-On! xD

And wasn't the news just about the sales? Who knows how many people watched it while airing?

Oct 10, 2011 1:18 PM by mrmuk

minirop said:
Hope this won't stop Bandai for releasing it...

It won't, they don't care about Japanese sales for releasing it in foreign markets. There are many examples of stuff doing bad in Japan and doing well in the West since we have different standards of whats enjoyable.

Oct 10, 2011 10:52 AM by RyanSaotome

Hope this won't stop Bandai for releasing it...

Oct 10, 2011 10:48 AM by minirop

RyanSaotome said:

Smochi said:

harmann said:
And whoever thought Nichijou wasn't moe, lolwut

THIS. Seriously.
Just look at the professor and tell me what is not moe about that. :| not to mention that 90% of the cast was female and the art style was pretty cute.

"Japanese slang term (ironically, first employed by otaku) used to refer to the fetish for or sexual attraction to anime characters, usually a fictional perfect young girl."

Nobody feels any kind of attraction to the girls in Nichijou, because every single character has the exact same body, and just different clothes and facial features. There are no figurines being sold, no body pillows, and no doujins being made. Nobody cares about these girls because its not a moeblob show, unlike every other recent KyoAni show.

Theres no Mio, Haruhi, Konata, Kyou etc that the otaku love in this show. Thus, it doesn't sell.

Quoted

Moe=/=Moeblobs

An even Kaiji can be Moe but he is not a a moeblob.

Oct 3, 2011 12:17 AM by otacu

KrazyKobun said:
I'm sorry, but Nichijou really isn't funny in my opinion. It's just random, with no wit, punchline, zing, or a point that made made comedies like Tentai Opera Milky Holmes and Lucky Star work.

As someone else stated, once the 2nd cour began, I noticed an improvement, but it was honestly too late. Yuno overreacting in some beautifully animated sequence gets tiresome after a while. The Helvetica Standard skits are NEVER funny, just unnecessarily weird. The side characters were actually much more interesting, but barely had any notable screen time... Oh wait, even the main girls themselves fell under the mighty spotlight thief Yuno! She chews up so much scenery, its ridiculous. Nichijou really should have been called "Yuno's Nichijou" because that's how it honestly felt.

You mean Yuuko and Nano right? And judging from your choice of comedy anime, I guess I could see why you wouldn't enjoy it.

Come to think of it, Nichijou isn't as LOLSORANDUMB XD as people make it out to be. I'm still not exactly sure how it got that label unless judged only from a few clips. Sure, there are elements of surprise and exaggerations, but that holds true for most comedies.

Oct 2, 2011 10:00 PM by Work

I'm sorry, but Nichijou really isn't funny in my opinion. It's just random, with no wit, punchline, zing, or a point that made made comedies like Tentai Opera Milky Holmes and Lucky Star work.

As someone else stated, once the 2nd cour began, I noticed an improvement, but it was honestly too late. Yuno overreacting in some beautifully animated sequence gets tiresome after a while. The Helvetica Standard skits are NEVER funny, just unnecessarily weird. The side characters were actually much more interesting, but barely had any notable screen time... Oh wait, even the main girls themselves fell under the mighty spotlight thief Yuno! She chews up so much scenery, its ridiculous. Nichijou really should have been called "Yuno's Nichijou" because that's how it honestly felt.

It was to a point where I was watching it for the high quality sakuga, I could care care less about mostly anything else. (Nono was cute, and Mio's sister was funny.) I'd buy it just for that.

While its not the worst thing ever as it had its moments, but those moments are way to sparse for me and seemingly for the Japanese as well.

Now the other two... Yeah, shit will sell like shit. R-15 and Dark Rabbit are bad, even as a fanservice anime.

Oct 2, 2011 8:22 PM by KrazyKobun

As someone who currently has Nichijou as AotY, I'm not really surprised. There were a lot of factors: the early negative reception by otakus, the time-slot given for a show of its kind, the competition, and taste in general.

And really, a huge but often overlooked factor are characters. Nichijou, unfortunately, doesn't have the most "appealing" selection of characters. Shows like Infinite Stratos, K-On, Lucky Star, and even Madoka, and S;G sold well because they do.

If it makes other Nichijou fans feel any better, there are other excellent shows that didn't sell too well either. I've read somewhere that they plan to re-air Nichijou on prime time. This'll hopefully boost popularity. And if you look at it at another perspective, Nichijou may be the "sacrificial lamb" needed to end KyoAni's streak of SoL.

Oct 2, 2011 7:56 PM by Work

I'm not surprised about any of these. I watch all three, and the only one I found remotely worthwhile was Nichijou. The other two sort of failed. R-15 only just started to be remotely amusing/interesting in episode 10, and ItsuTen is absolutely gorgeous but I . . . don't like the characters or story? I mainly finished simply because I am a completionist by nature.

Oct 2, 2011 4:40 PM by Numi

^Last few posters - thanks. Not sure what the hell I was reading there.

Oct 2, 2011 3:17 PM by -Vid

Old news?
Nichijou looked great, but lacked in so so many other aspects. It did get better... around the half way mark, but the first half? No, just.. no.

There were episodes which were mostly just WEIRD, not funny, cute or anything else... pointless weirdness. And it's good it didn't sell well. I don't want to get "pointless weirdness" in anime, just because it sells. Leave that for mindfucks.
Anyway, it's still better than some other shows, which do sell, but can't have everything.

I would only buy it because it looks damn awesome. And I'm assuming most bought it because of that. But if you don't have unlimited money, or are a huge kyo-ani supporter, it's probably better to buy other shows.
Though of course the great looks do cost a lot. So yeah, no surprise. 4k might be barely enough for a show without too much budget, but most likely not for a kyo-ani show.

Oct 2, 2011 1:59 PM by Kiru_im_Ufo

-Vid said:
Crap like Itsuka Tenma was sold more?

Sucks. Poor Nichijou, I really loved it. People have no tastes. :(

Itsuka Tenma probably doesn't even hit 2k, while Nichijou sold 4k. He just was saying that none of those shows broke even.

Oct 2, 2011 12:07 PM by RyanSaotome

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