Active members of a comment forum have sparked
online debate about the reception of the “ Solo Leveling ”
anime in Japan , especially after Blu-ray/DVD sales of the series were
revealed. Despite the great anticipation and expectations surrounding the anime
adaptation of the popular South Korean webtoon, it seems that the
series failed to capture the attention of the Japanese public, as reflected in
Blu-ray/DVD sales .
Although Volume 2 of the “Solo Leveling” Blu-ray/DVD has
already been released in Japan, the series does not appear in the sales
rankings anywhere. This means it sold less than the bottom of the list,
which includes 629 copies of “MASHLE: Magic And Muscles 2nd Season Vol. 2” on
Blu-ray and 164 copies of “Ao no Exorcist 3rd Season” on DVD.
While it is true that Blu-ray/DVD sales are no longer the
only determining factor in deciding whether a series will have a second season
or not, they are still an important indicator to measure the popularity
of an anime in Japan and the number of fans who are willing to pay for
merchandise related to that franchise.
In this sense, it is difficult to deny that
“Solo Leveling” has not achieved the expected success in Japan. Despite
its enormous international popularity and its confirmed sequel, it seems that
the series failed to connect with the Japanese public in the same way.
Comments on the forum reflect a variety of
opinions , with some users expressing disappointment in the performance
of “Solo Leveling” in Japan, while others point out that Blu-ray/DVD sales are
not the only indicator of success and that the series may still have a large
number of fans in the country.
- « How
did it fare in terms of audience, social media trends and other business
aspects? Because it had decent traction in the United States .
- « Solo
Leveling worked very well outside of Japan, but in Japan its presence has
already disappeared. I'm currently in Japan and there is absolutely NO
Solo Leveling going on in Akihabara and other anime related places.
Meanwhile, Frieren and other popular anime/games are all over the place as
you'd expect. And Korean things can be popular in Japan (before anyone
thinks this is: “because it's not Japanese”). The popular Korean gacha are
everywhere, the same with some popular Manhwa for girls (my knowledge
about the genre is very limited, for example). I'm not saying that they
didn't watch it streaming, just that the presence and reception in general
is quite poor. He passed by as if he barely existed. And as some other
people pointed out in other comments in the thread: this was already the
producers' expectation, that Solo Leveling would not be popular in Japan,
but very popular around the world .
- « They
never expected Solo Leveling to do well in Japan. That is why 2 out of
3 Solo Leveling producers are foreign companies. Crunchyroll
(America) and DnC webtoon (Korea) are both foreign companies, Aniplex is
the Japanese one and yet it is in the last position among these 3. And both
foreign companies benefited greatly from this franchise. Solo Leveling is
currently the 6th most popular anime on Crunchyroll and Manhwa sales have
increased a lot .
- " Come
on guys. Didn't they learn anything from Chainsaw Man? Everyone was
freaking out about the failure of the CSM Blu-rays, but recently, MAPPA
has come out to say that the series was a huge success. Blu-ray sales are
no longer the measure of success .
- « Are
Blu-ray sales still the benchmark for success or not? Are the biggest
revenues still coming from Blu-ray sales? ».
- " While
BDs don't mean much when it comes to success, it's a lot of fun to live in
a world where Gushing Over Magical Girls outsells Solo Leveling ."
- « Aside
from decent animation and, to be fair, an excellent final fight... the
series wasn't that good .»
- « “Solo
Leveling” was greatly exaggerated by readers for what it really is .»
- " I
wonder how much of Japan's lack of interest is due to the manhwa/novel's
anti-Japanese bias ."
