This is just an infodump post for the May series I’ll be tracking, compiled via amazon’s upcoming anime releases list. Not much beyond the initial numbers here. The April summary post will be up in a week or so (though it won’t have updated charts – I want to just keep collecting data for the next few months before I try identifying trends again).
In the interest of not posting all the tank data in a horrible confuse-a-gram like the one for the February data, I’ll be posting the 1 week before-and-after amazon rank results for the March data after I’m done collecting it. Additionally, I’ll be posting updates on an interesting finding I’ve had with the data for a particular series that will likely help me nail down the worth of the lower (100,000th or worse in movies and TV) ranking numbers.
How will I do that? Aria the Natural’s part 2 release was low-stocked and has not been purchased frequently. That means that, each day, the amazon page displays the total number of disks in stock at that time. This means I can use the daily decline (or lack thereof) in daily stock to determine how much its approximate ranking is worth in terms of daily sales. Emphasis on “lack thereof”:
Chart is date, rank, # in stock
This is a strong indication that places worse than 120,000th correspond to 1 or fewer purchases per day, which is an extremely useful bit of information. Whatever the eventual shape of any amazon-rank-to-sales fit ends up being, it should probably approach zero for rank values of that size. Also, it makes a handy cutoff point for measuring sales longevity; # of days above 120,000th place can be used to compare with series release-period sales peak as an important alternative measure of success. Selling 3 copies over 100 days is better than selling 10 copies in 1 day and 0-1 in every other.
Graphs of each of the eleven March 4th releases tracked over the past 2 weeks are shown after the break. I’ll save commentary for the end of the month, when I have at least the complete sample to work with, and at best a reasonable fit for the ballpark each series’ ranking is in in terms of total sales.
Way back in December, I started a rough, bare-bones look at a bit of publicly available data; US Amazon TV/Movie bestseller list rankings for anime releases. That data collection is mostly done, pending K’s release this Tuesday, and it yielded some potentially interesting nuggets (expect that summary post to happen before this next weekend). Enough so that I plan to do the same at least for the month of March. This is a list of the releases I’ll be tracking over the next 30 days, with their release dates, prices, and initial rankings. All series were accessed via amazon’s upcoming anime releases page.
Two points before the list itself:
-I compiled my February list too early (several titles were only announced for release after I built my list), and missed the opportunity to track some releases that way. Since most titles tracked in the February sample were relatively steady and very low on the list until a week before release (save for Robotics;Notes’ ridiculously discounted edition), I’m going to start tracking monthly rankings approximately one week prior to the first set of releases from now on.
-The price I note is the series’ MSRP price. If the series becomes listed at more than 50% off that price at any time during the amazon solicitation, I will note that both now and during the final analysis. The February part 1 release of Robotics;Notes had such a discount.
I believe that 20 minutes of time is valuable because I could use that time trying out any number of known amazing anime or manga I have yet to get to. Why persevere when Space Adventure Cobra is waiting right there with an arm cannon, fine wine, and sexy bodies that save the universe? Consequentially, I’m not too attached to the idea that I need to finish any particular anime. If I’m 99% sure I’m not getting anything desirable out of the remaining episodes of the show, that’s grounds for a drop. This is a post about the Spring 2013 anime which showed potential at one point, but didn’t make it past the finish line. This is not a post about first-episode drops, which I covered earlier this season, or didn’t-watch shows.
Animetics 