"This is the report on the first week's BD sales for 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica.' These are the finalized documents for the latest commercial partnerships as well. I won't disturb you any longer. I'll come back to collect them during the lunch break, so please try to finish reviewing them before then."
Morishita Aoi placed the stack of reports on Kamiyā Yuu's desk before bowing and leaving the office. Neither she nor Kamiyā Yuu had any room to relax during this period.
"Mm, I'll review these first."
Kamiyā Yuu nodded with a smile. He also considered it a chance to take a break.
Since early morning, he had been sitting in front of his computer writing the main novel for 'Fate/Zero.' Several hours of nonstop typing had left his fingers numb. By the time he stopped, they had become completely stiff.
After Morishita Aoi left, Kamiyā Yuu began reading through the reports. When he reached the first-week BD sales report for 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica,' even he couldn't help raising an eyebrow in surprise at the enormous figure—unexpected, yet somehow still within expectations.
"I must not be seeing things. The initial sales—the first week's BD sales—actually reached 210,000 copies. That's much higher than the PT forecast. The people making those predictions really underestimated Japan's anime market."
The success of 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica' was inseparable from how subversive its story was.
Its overturning of traditional anime conventions gave audiences a sense of novelty and shock. Without that element of subversion, 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica' would have been, at most, merely a very good anime.
That was why, several years after the original 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica' had aired in his previous world, newcomers to anime weren't nearly as enthusiastic about the once-acclaimed masterpiece.
It was like someone who had eaten nothing but vegetables all their life suddenly tasting meat—it felt like the greatest delicacy imaginable. But after eating meat for years, it no longer seemed so extraordinary.
When the original 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica' aired, most viewers were still "living on vegetables."
Several years later, after many similar subversive works had appeared, new audiences had already "eaten meat." Naturally, they felt that it wasn't nearly as amazing as those who had only ever eaten vegetables claimed.
Kamiyā Yuu's recreated version of 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica' built upon that subversive premise by adding much more content.
Its twenty-four-episode runtime and exceptional production quality meant that its popularity no longer relied solely on shocking plot twists.
Its beautiful visuals, character songs, background music, character development, hidden details, and numerous other aspects all became topics of enthusiastic discussion among viewers.
As a comprehensive, high-quality series, its BD sales strategy was likewise comprehensive, with products distributed across every major sales channel.
Anime BD sales themselves were also divided into different categories.
The first was retail store sales, which, as the name suggested, focused on physical stores. These BDs usually came with bonus items to attract buyers.
The second was the online category, referring to internet sales, primarily through Amazon Japan.
The third was what had originally been called the 'NICO category'. In this world, it had been renamed the 'NICE category', referring to viewers who watched the anime directly on NICENICE. Since the website also provided Amazon purchase links for the BD, these sales were generally counted together with the online category.
Customers could preorder online, purchase special-edition BDs with exclusive bonuses at physical stores, or even buy digital BD viewing rights directly through NICENICE.
The total of 210,000 copies represented the combined sales from all these channels.
Given the immense popularity of 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica,' that figure wasn't particularly exaggerated.
"Heh. These BD sales save us the trouble of holding a postmortem meeting."
Kamiyā Yuu laughed as he put down the report.
Normally, once initial sales figures were released, animation studios would hold so-called postmortem meetings to discuss why the BD sales had failed to meet expectations or fallen below PT forecasts.
Kamiyā Yuu disliked the procedure, considering it unnecessary.
Even so, it remained one of the industry's methods for encouraging improvement and strengthening teamwork within animation studios.
There were many cases in the industry where an anime received overwhelming praise yet sold pitifully on BD.
Likewise, there were series that received only mediocre reviews while their BD sales were remarkably strong.
The greatest reason 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica' had broken sales records was its own quality.
In his previous world, the Japanese subculture researcher Hiroki Azuma had written a book titled 'Otaku: Japan's Database Animals', discussing the consumption habits of Japanese otaku.
The specific arguments didn't need to be repeated here, but the book contained profound insights into the sales structure of the anime industry, including BD sales.
One particularly interesting concept was what Azuma referred to as animality.
Being moved to tears by an anime or finding a character irresistibly adorable were both expressions of animality.
Whether it was the appeal of moe in anime or the exhilarating moments found in Chinese web novels, both existed to stimulate this instinctive emotional response.
The simplest way to satisfy that impulse was to buy.
Buy.
Buy.
Buy.
'Puella Magi Madoka Magica' successfully evoked this kind of instinctive response in countless viewers.
At the same time, the series itself offered an abundance of "data" that aroused people's curiosity.
Even viewers who weren't driven by such emotional impulses were still willing to spend money if they found those details interesting enough.
As for anime whose sales completely collapsed...
Even if they received decent reviews, they lacked both compelling "data" and the ability to trigger that instinctive emotional response.
On the other hand, some anime with mediocre critical reception could still generate strong sales by appealing to those instincts.
A perfect example was the infamous 'IS
Why had such a stereotypical harem anime become the benchmark known as the Wall of Masterpieces?
The answer was simple.
It's girls from different countries, perfectly catered to otaku preferences.
Its straightforward worldbuilding was still relatively interesting by harem standards.
It practically declared outright:
"I'm made specifically for you, harem-loving otaku. So hurry up and buy, buy, buy!"
"It'll be extremely difficult to surpass these numbers in the future. Japan's anime market is already close to saturation. If we want to increase BD sales any further, we'll have to expand overseas."
Kamiyā Yuu sighed.
In reality, however, he was secretly delighted that his recreated version of 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica' had achieved initial sales of 210,000 copies.
After all, that was roughly four times the initial sales of the original anime from his previous world.
That also meant the dream he had held from the very beginning—to share the anime of his previous world with this one—had finally been partially realized.
His version of 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica' had preserved everything distinctive about the original while also incorporating many of his own ideas.
Faced with such tremendous success, it was impossible for Kamiyā Yuu not to feel happy.
Smiling, he put down the BD sales report and picked up another document detailing the recent commercial collaborations between various companies and Yosuganosora Animation Studio.
What interested him most was, naturally, the amount of revenue these partnerships had generated.
In the short period following the conclusion of 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica' alone, its various commercial ventures had already brought over 20 billion yen in net profit to Yosuganosora Animation Studio.
Looking at the long string of revenue figures, Kamiyā Yuu couldn't help feeling that it all seemed a little unreal.
Even though he had already become a billionaire.
"The branch office is settled now. This profit is enough to buy a pretty good office building... and while we're at it, I should give everyone a bigger bonus too."