Tsukuru magazine May issue reported the present situation of anime. In one of the articles, they focused on Fuji TV’s programming block “Noitamina”, which targets at the young female audiences. Matsuzaki Yoko, the chief program organizer, feels that the Noitamina business scheme has already reached its limit of capacity. She pointed out the discrepancy between the rating and the DVD sales, especially for titles like “Hataraki Man”, “Honey and Clover II” appealing to the general audiences.
Ref. The relationship between the average ratings and the DVD sales of Noitamina anime
Rank/ Rating/ DVD Sales/ Title (**,***: unmeasurably small sales, –,—: not yet released)
*1, 4.800% *6,531 Hakaba Kitarou
*2, 4,627% *3,873 Nodame Cantabile Paris Chapter
*3, 4,564% *8,496 Moyashimon
*4, 4,439% *8,788 Nodame Cantabile
*5, 4,009% **,*** Hataraki Man
*6, 3,509% **,*** Ayakashi – Japanese Classic Horror
*7, 3,500% *6,378 Jyu Oh Sei
*8, 3,483% 12,515 Mononoke
*9, 3,475% *9,338 Toshokan Sensou
10, 3,450% **,*** Antique Bakery
11, 3,327% –,— Genji Monogatari Sennenki
12, 3,250% *6,110 Honey and Clover II
13, 3,192% **,*** Paradise Kiss
14, 3,046% 11,039 Honey and Clover
**, 4.000% –,— Higashi no Eden (average of episode1 and 2)
The income from the TV ads is insufficient to pay the high production cost of anime. Moreover, the economic recession demands a short-term recovery of the investments. “The ratings of Noitamina anime are pretty high, but the drop in the DVD sales was worse than we expected.”
Fuji TV producer Yamamoto Kouji anticipates “Higashi no Eden” will resolve the dilemma between the rating and the DVD sales. “The main target of Eden is the core anime fans, but we also carefully arranged the anime not to repel the young female viewers. That’s why we chose Umino Chika as the character designer.”
Yamamoto said “Genji Monogatari Sennenki” was one of the greatest masterpieces of Noitamina, but it failed to become a big hit. He admitted they are still repeating trial and error for the establishment of the business model.
Source: Summary of Tsukuru
Source: Nikkei Trendy
