But first, some pie charts:

from a Kadokawa booth at some convention or event or another.
Red = (light) novels
Green = manga
Purple = original
Blue = game
Yellow = other

I need a drink. As posters note, at least we’ll be able to count on Angel Beats! Hm, maybe two drinks.

1. **,*** means all volumes failed to chart.
2. chart does not include remakes and kids shows
3. ﾌﾋﾋ、サーセン

You know, there is one thing I really hate about anime fans. You know
what it is? I hate anime fans who hate on things.

I’m guilty of it. We’re all guilty of it. Most of us have read so much
randomly directed hate on the Internet that we have been fooled into
thinking that people will swayed by the presence and loudness of our
opinions, or believing that we need to whip them out of our pants to
show everyone how angry we can be. Nothing can be farther from the
truth. Reasoned criticism is great–I’m not questioning that. But when
you put down subtitles, or certain genres, or proclaim the inferiority
of some production studio, you are adding to the noise and drowning
out the signal.

It doesn’t matter if you run a blog, or write a column, or even if you
work for a licensor. You are, in fact, a nerd with an agenda. And
you’re pissing people off.

Take this example: Imagine you’re hitting it off with someone at a
con. This is an absurdly improbable situation, but stick with me for a
minute. You’ve met someone at a con, a friend or a possible
significant other, and you’re getting along pretty well. Feel free to
fantasize about this. You both discover that you like seinen anime, so
you recommend your new friend watch Honey & Clover. And then, all of a
sudden out of nowhere, your friend says “God, I hate Honey & Clover. I
can’t believe you watch that, it’s boring and plotless and horridly
ugly.”

How would you feel if a relative stranger dissed something you like so
dismissively? Maybe they’re trying to show you how sophisticated they
are, or demonstrate that they aren’t afraid to have different tastes.
They might feel like they’ve accomplished something in the
conversation. But you just feel kind of upset, or even annoyed. Such a
comment never gets you on someone’s good side–remember that the next
time you get the urge to put down someone’s musical tastes!

In real life you don’t have to think too hard to demonstrate to your
friend that he’s made a mistake. A comment like that is followed up
with a flurry of body language, probably some defensiveness on your
part, and then your friend would back down and move on. But on the
Internet, we don’t have that. All we have is some person who posts
“Honey & Clover is such a poorly produced schlockfest!” or “Nymphet is
the greatest manga ever made!” on a forum. No body language– no
modesty. Only a big, nasty opinion. You are powerless against their
ability to rant on the Internet, and if you leave it alone they will
have all the attention to themselves. All you can think is, “I can’t
let that one go!”

The temptation is to respond to the flamebait in kind, or use logic
and rhetoric to put them in their place. But you can’t win. Anime
arguments are based solely on our prejudices, not on the facts we
ground them in. You can argue back and forth, but the opinion will
merely manifest itself somewhere else. The Internet is too big to
declare victory, and the only way such debates end is when both sides
get tired. The proper response is to acknowledge your differences and
move on.

It doesn’t even matter if someone is trying to put down all anime.
“Anime is a cartoon, and cartoons are for children!” The correct
response is not “But Miyazaki, etc.” Your opponent will become
technical and escape the jaws of reason. The correct response is “So?”
This is just some random person. They don’t control your life. They
cannot force you to change your opinion.

The Internet has a lack of measured discussions analyzing anime and
games, and a severe overload of volunteered, useless opinions. If
you’re not observing particular issues, but simply making personal
judgments, detach yourself from the need to make the world over in
your image. Feel free to shut up and watch the anime.

This was originally going to be named “how 2ch reads sales charts” but then I remembered that trying to classify any part of 2ch as a singular is a rather foolish thing to do unless you want hits. Wait, oops.

Anyway, this is obviously not gospel truth, but a neat, simplified guide by someone who is clearly somewhat of an industry watcher and a brave warrior on the battlegrounds of the 2ch sales threads. Disc sales numbers referred to here are Oricon numbers.

~500
Mostly anime where disc sales are not a main concern from the beginning; either truly insignificant shows¹ or close to it.
Ex: NHK anime, Children’s anime, Pay channel shows (WOWOW, etc), Nippon TV late night shows, Gonzo shows, IG Original shows, etc

501~800
Mostly insignificant shows. Shows in this area generally failed to attract any interest and are looked upon as endangered, shadowy species.
Ex: Gin’iro no Olynssis, Hyakko, Hero Tales, Shikabane Hime, Akikan!, etc

801~1200
The line between significance and insignificance. Depending on the week, the title may chart if it gets lucky. However, these titles are normally frightened away from the charts, as they’re afraid that Totoro might squash them.
Ex: Yozakura Quartet, Blassreiter, Simoun, Kaze no Stigma, Nabari no Ou, etc

1201~1800
Significant enough to not count as insignificant. However, their poor sales are generally enough to chart, often causing people to only feel pity or sympathy for them.
Ex: Ghost Slayers Ayashi, Galaxy Angel Rune, Kimikiss, Our Home’s Fox Deity, Kyoran Kazoku Nikki, etc

1801~2300
Light novel anime often falls in this category. Might be enough to turn a profit with Kadokawa DVD pricing. The title considered the hurdle is now quantified as a single unit of sales, as in “one Zega.” Anime in this category is considered to be in dangerous territory, as Manabi, the problem child, often makes faces at these titles.
Ex: Rental Magica, Goshusho-sama Ninomiya-kun, Kurenai, Shinkyoku Sokai Polyphonica, Zegapain, etc.

2301~3000
Many titles fall in this category. Marginally performing shows, many of which didn’t sell as much as their popularity would make you think they would.
Ex: Manabi Straight!, true tears #1, Sketchbook, Gun X Sword, Yami to Boshi to Hon no Tabibito

3001~4000
The line of profitability. Also the line at which one could say a title is doing okay, but some may call some titles that sell this many a failure, so it’s quite hard to judge.
Ex: Denno Coil, Soul Eater, School Days, Linebarrels of Iron, Super Robot Swars OG, etc

4001~5000
Titles that gathered a reasonable amount of attention and sold reasonably well. Posters may still make fun of these titles’ sales, but they’re rarely considered “failures.” Growth stocks.
Ex: Seto no Hanayome, Bamboo Blade Garei -Zero-, Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni, Planetes, etc

5001~7000
The point where a second season looks likely, and a reasonable number of discs one can hope to sell. Producers seem to begin to be praised at this point.
Ex: Strawberry Marshmallow, Rozen Maiden, Hidamari Sketch, The Familiar of Zero, Darker than Black, etc

7001~9000
Impressive sales, favorites that can easily be called “hits.”
Ex: Spice and Wolf, Full Metal Panic Fumoffu, Nodame Cantabile, My-Otome, Sgt. Frog, etc

9001~11,000
The entry point into the world of five-figure sales. There is no problem with calling regular late night anime that sell this much a “major hit.”
Ex: Toradora, Shakugan no Shana, Natsume’s Book of Friends, Pani Poni Dash!, Fafner in the Azure, etc

11,001~15,000
The top class of sales for titles that target the narrow otaku community. Praiseworthy honors students.
Ex: Minami-ke, s-CRY-ed, Da Capo, Strike Witches, Eureka Seven, etc

15,001~20,000
The point at which people who normally don’t buy DVDs begin to buy a title. Outstanding works brimming with frontier spirit.
Ex: Gintama, Death Note, Big Windup, Aria the Animation, Negima, etc

20,001~25,000
Properties with many strong, ardent, and powerful supporters. Major stars with deep fanbases.
Ex: Air, Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann, Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS, Clannad, Hetalia, etc

25,001~35,000
Titles in between the above and below categories that stand as influential and steadfast titles.
Ex: Lucky Star, Azumanga Daioh, G.I.T.S. SAC 2nd GIG, Initial D 4th Stage, Fate/Stay Night, etc

35,001~50,000
New leaders that become the talk of the industry. Incredible flamewars break out between supporters of titles of this group and titles in the next tier.
Ex: Full Metal Alchemist, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Code Geass, Macross F, Gundam 00, etc

50,001~100,000
In a completely different class from the rest. Godly sales.
Ex: Gundam SEED, theatrical anime (Kara no Kyokai, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time), Bakemonogatari, etc

100,001~
Theatrical anime or anime made for the public at large. The stars of the industry.
Ex: Ghibli anime, Eva films, Zeta Gundam: A New Translation, Final Fantasy VII Advent Children, The World of Golden Eggs, etc

1. keep in mind that the kind of poster who would make this chart judges a show’s worth by its economic performance. original term 雑魚, or “small fry”

There were a whole lot of incidents I had no idea about, but first, the standard host of “incidents” that you’d expect in a thread like this:

• The first post is, of course, “Nagi-sama virginity incident” (quickly followed by “the ‘incident’ part was the people who posted in response to the manga, right?”)
• Electric Soldier Porygon incident
• episode 4 of Gurren-Lagann (lol)
• a pretty exhaustive list of Yashiganis (1, 2, 3, 4, Valanoir
• Asuna’s cremation in Negima!
• The existence of Tsuyokiss (or maybe it was all a dream…)
• The existence of the Idolm@ster anime
• The existence of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
• The existence of Buddha Saitan
• The ending of Kashimashi TV
• Endless Eight
• etc etc

Stuff like that makes up a good half of the thread or so. However, the other half is full of hilarious stuff that may have otherwise been lost to my poor memory and the straits of time!

• Red tinting on the Japanese Spirited Away DVD release (English article, image)
• TV Tokyo pushes back Inukami episode due to world table tennis championships running long, man who set his recorder to automatically tape Inukami during the normal time slot sends cremated remains to TV Tokyo in protest (article)
• Episode 26 of Animentary Ketsudan, a right-leaning 1971 historical anime series where the first 25 episodes are about important decisions made during World War II, becomes an episode about Kawakami Tetsuharu’s decisions as the manager of the Yomiuri Giants. Apparently the episode was originally going to be on the final days of the war, but mounting pressure by parent groups over the program’s politics lead to the change.
• Nippon TV, Tatsunoko Pro, and Kuri Ippei are sued by Katsukawa Katsushi over claims that they plagarized his character design in their show Doteraman, temporary pulling the show from the airwaves. (Katsukawa would later lose the suit)
• Incredible scheduling botch when TBS tries to push Ichigo Mashimaro ep 5 back by 5 minutes in order to air a special live news report on a hurricane. (youtube)
• Broadcasting error on 8/15/2007 leads to a 65-minute long frozen frame of Sanji’s eyebrow (One Piece) on one channel. Japanese
• The Musashimaru Tragedy
• Episode 17 of Samurai Troopers is accidentally broadcast in lieu of episode 18, forcing the production company to shorten the show from 40 episodes to 39.(image)
• The staff of the Prince of Tennis anime decided to make a staff doujinshi of the series and sell it at summer Comiket 2004, but are forced to give it away for free when the original author takes notice. (scans on nico)
• Spanish terrestrial broadcast TV channel “La Sexta” airs ero-anime Daiakuji without actually knowing what it is, causes general moral outrage
• The ending of Might Gaine, where the characters find out that the ultimate enemy is actually Takara and other toy companies. (No really, I’m not kidding)
• The opening credits of episode 11 of City Hunter 3, broadcast on Christmas Eve 1989, featured a one-frame flash of Aum Shinrikyo leader Asahara Shoko. This was apparently done as an production in-joke, as one-frame insertions like this are present in shows like Urusei Yatsura and Patlabor TV, and there was no backlash at the time. In 1993, Yomiuri TV asked them to remove this for later rebroadcasts as they were afraid that uncredited insertion of living people’s photographs might lead to a image rights issue. However, TBS would later attack Nippon TV over the original sequence during the heated weeks after the Aum sarin gas attacks, saying it was a subliminal message. (Image here, video footage of an indescribably bizarre cult-recruitment tool/Aum video game which features a clip from the video here.)
• Not in the thread, but related to the above 2 entries: The 6th show in the Yusha/Brave series, The Brave of Gold Goldran (Might Gaine was show #4), had a one-frame flash in the opening credits of the first 13 episodes where, in the background of a scene where the titular robot could be seen, the phrase “An anime that’s easy to make toys out of / by Sunrise” can be seen handwritten in the background. Oh, those crazy disgruntled Sunrise animators! You can catch it at around 1:12 of this video.

Now we will tell you the short detail about the reason why blocking you to this website, because of we, all Japanese EROGE makers were facing at the problem, the crisis of “Freedom of speech”.
Currently, The bill that allows to limiting the content (It is censorship. Isn’t it?) to all EROGEs is being discussed in the Diet because intellectuals and politicians said “Japanese EROGE were being problem and troubled with the foreign country.

Without a shred of evidence for this claim, they blocked all foreign access.
Meanwhile, VisualArt’s, who could use a foreign intern to fix the grammar of their name, posted the following message on their website (or it was hacked by an angry wotaku with the same intention):

PLEASE PLAY THE GAME OF YOUR COUNTRY IF YOU PRAY FOR THE WORLD PEACE!:-)?

Apparently dooming us to Leisure Suit Larry for the covert actions of the secret conspiracy of foreign politicians.
But over on Canned Dogs a link was posted to New Komeito’s English news website.
The news story is dated May 30 and reads: “New Komeito is actively pushing forward a ban on video games featuring sexual violence, consulting with police and inspecting Akihabara, the so-called mecca of electronic gaming in Tokyo.”
New Komeito (rhymes with “tomato”) is the political arm of Soka Gakkai, known as SGI in the United States.
Soka Gakkai is a “new religion” (新宗教) in Japan.
They believe in many bizarre things. They think they are the only true branch of Nichirenism, which is itself a diseased form of Buddhism.
They must believe that if they ban some kinds of ero games, then Japan will have a pure Western/Godly/Buddha culture.
Yes, the Diet in general is ineffective, but Japanese people cannot deny that new religions are quite effective in what they do.
So, do not turn your sights on foreign fans of your games, who eagerly translate your games into their own languages.
Instead, I demand that eroge makers target Soka Gakkai with the same ferocity they have targeted foreign audiences.
Oh, what’s that?
You only want to criticize people who are far away?
You’re too scared to talk about people who live close to you?
Well, how about that!

(editors note: if i ever catch one of you buying a circle ticket i will punch you in the dick)

Munto will be 9 episodes long ○
Basquash getting aired on 10 channels across Japan, is 2 seasons long ○
Strike Witches S2 in 2010, based on the light novel ○
April Haruhi airing will be a mix of season 1 and season 2, aired in chronological order
Shangri-La will be 2 seasons long
Asura Cryin’ will be 2 seasons, one in Spring, one in Fall
Seitokai no Ichizon airing in July ○
Omamori Himari getting an anime adaptation ○　(this, Seitokai, and SW s2 were posted in late January)
Railgun getting an anime in 2010
The Final Negima OAD won’t be produced by SHAFT (? i might be reading this wrong)
Mangrove doing Seiken no Katanakaji
Many changed voice actors for the new season of Hagaren ○
Wolf and Spice s2 in July, 12 eps in all ○

I guess we have to sit back and see how this pans out! Maybe it’s all part of Kadokawa’s master plan. even this very blog post.

—————————————–

The final episode of [Goku] Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei has been released.
That’s it for the OADs. Hmph, so sad :(. I’m hoping for a third TV season.

The Tale Created in Zetsubou Sensei’s OPs: The Story Until Now

Well, I’d like to start with a little review of OPs until now.
First, season 1.

Shoujo Objectification and Dismantling as Seen in the Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei OP.
The OP song is “Hito Toshite Jiku ga Bureteiru”.
It’s an intense OP where the show’s girls are erotically both dismantled and bound.
While eros is a theme here, so is this:

Yes, it’s “Depression” (鬱). (tl note: Haruhi fans should be familiar with this kanji!)
As one goes deeper and deeper into a world overflowing with eros, they turn to more and more extreme paths in that world. Despite the incredible sense of lust, Sensei’s heart is being eaten away by depression.

Kafuka’s pregnancy scene.
This is a mysterious scene, profound yet unexplained.

Next we have the second season, [Zoku].

This OP is a grotesque one, with persistent images of organs. The OP song is “Kuusou Rumba.”
Unlike the first OP, this one started out in monochrome. This OP had the special trait of changing throughout the different episodes, cutting off midway in some versions and finally appearing in full color, surprising quite a few people.
The Manic Heart and Ero-Guro Nonsense seen in the [Zoku] Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei OP
The Mystery Hidden in [Zoku] Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei’s OP
The theme of this OP is “Mania” (躁), acting as a pair to the first season’s theme. It’s all extremely high-tension, wouldn’t you say?

Despite the OP’s colors being in plain monochrome, its actual content is so excited that you feel like you’re about to go mad.
Once color is added to all of this, a new, vibrant world is born.
Though, there is one girl who stays the same here. This girl:

That girl is the girl who we saw in season 1 pregnant with Zetsubou-sensei’s children, Fuura Kafuka (Pen Name).

Next, the [Goku] OVA series.

Now things are at the point where you can’t even figure out what’s going on. While it was called “A Professional MAD”, we can see a complete lack of living characters here, the girls instead fully turned to objects.

[Goku] Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei and Jan Svankmajer: The Eroticism of Objects
Via “Depression”　(鬱), we fall into the confusion of “Mania”(躁), and also into “Chaos” (混沌).
Feeling a sense of raw “Eros” and gazing at “Grotesque” death, we come to an underlying “Objectification” (物体化).
While wriggling between the boundary of “Truth” (真実) and “Pretense” (虚像), their form changes shape and color.
While each of these views are incredibly symbolic and interesting possibilities, we discover from whose perspective these openings are all from in the final part of [Goku].

You’ve probably guessed by now. It’s Fuura Kafuka.
The reason this world is constantly changing is because of this girl’s inner fragility and instability.

Ambivalence Seen by the Girls’ Eye(s).
(tl note: Japanese has the luxury of being able to be vague on pluralization, relying on context to clue the reader in. In this case, I’m fairly certain that it is pointing to the girls’ eye (singular), but that sounds kind of awkward in English. Almost as awkward as a long translation note.)
The music this time is an arrangement by “Rapbito”. While that may be surprising, there doesn’t remain a trace of the previous OPs’ sense of parody. Instead, they’ve created an entirely new work.

It’s almost as if it’s a MAD created by Gekidan Inukaree (note: Gekidan Inukaree, literally “Dog Curry Troupe,” is the individual/group responsible for the OP).
This OP is quite obsessed with certain details, one of which being that if you look closely in the corners of the frame, you can see characters representing the two sides of each girl.
Chiri is “Chaos” (乱)and “Order” (整).
Abiru is “Kick”　(蹴) and “Punch” (殴).
There’s also “Good” (善) and “Evil” (悪), “Victim” （加) and “Aggressor” （被), “Seme” （攻) and “Uke” （受), “Poverty” （貧) and “Wealth” (富), and so on.
Each character is represented by a pair of characters in this manner. (Well, kick and punch aren’t really opposites, but…)
Each girl’s “Existence-as-Presented” (イメージの存在) is made up of two contradictory ideas. This dangerous tightrope act is at once fascinating and terrifying.
So, what about Fuura Kafuka, the girl in question?

“Mania” (躁) and “Depression” （鬱).
In other words, the OPs until now (Season 1: Depression, Season 2: Mania) have been expressions of the core of her inner world.
As you probably noticed by comparing this picture to the previous two, this image of the audience being nothing but Kafukas is once again symbolic, while also eerie.

Fuura Kafuka isn’t her real name. It’s a pen name. While we don’t officially know her name as of now, we see glimpse of it as “something like *this*”. However, it’s never confirmed.
We even see a glimpse of this in today’s episode.

It’d be hard to say that this isn’t a young Kafuka. Her nametag reads “An.” (tl note: other possible romanizations are Ann and Anne. However, my overactive gaijin mind associates “アン” with a homonym “暗”, “darkness”, so I’ve kept it as is.)
Of course, this doesn’t really go beyond another guess. While our main character, the Sensei, has relatively few mysteries surrounding him, Fuura Kafuka is nothing but mysteries.
Let’s take a look into such a girl’s state of mind.

The sorrowful psychedelic as seen by the girl’s eye(s).
Halfway through the song, the scenes introducing the girls one-by-one end, and the OP shifts to Kafuka and Sensei’s duet performance.
Well, since we might be seeing a story created by Kafuka’s psyche, we might technically call it a solo performance.

For example, the image of Kafuka dancing madly on a flower bed.
If we take a close look at this scene, we see a fairly awesome scene. (tl note: “awesome” in the biblical sense, not in the contemporary slang sense)

She’s actually dancing on top of the rubble of her classmates’ bodies.
Though, these aren’t really “corpses”. The reason I say this is because the girls in the [Goku] series up to this point have already been objectified and dismantled.
If we were to see blood or organs spilled, this could be said to represent death, but since this MAD uses the technique of “Destroying the image”, the “Girls’ Image” is replaced with lifeless objects.
Hence the girls’ world is an extremely inorganic one, one where the senses are fuzzy.

The scene with Sensei and Kafuka looks like this.
While Sensei has been turned to an image, barely resembling any sort of living being, Kafuka herself is also turned to a strange creature.
Nonetheless, if we look closely, the flowers here are, interestingly, “raw” ones.

In the background we see “Falsehood” (嘘) and “Truth” (真).
Once again, there’s a sense of ambivalence.
When one holds ambivalence like this, one is forced to choose to either struggle against it, or become an empty shell of a human being.
It seems as though Kafuka’s displayed positive attitude may be a result of her attempts to escape her own extreme thoughts of despair and uncertainty, replacing them with the ideas “all is inorganic” and “all is meaningless”.

Of course, this interpretation is reliant on these OPs which are in some sense “professionally made derivative works”, so its relevance to the work as a whole might be questionable, but the world we’ve seen up until now is full of contradictions. In order to stay alive in this world, one can’t choose A or B, but must simply float in between the two.
That the normally-hanged Sensei’s neck is nooseless this time, and that Kafuka is the one hanging seems especially symbolic. Also, the fact that the previously inorganic images in the OP are replaced with more and more live flowers also interests me.

Perhaps the inorganic paper-mache world is trying to break through the wave of “Depression” and “Mania” in order to then revive itself?

I just can’t figure out what color Kafuka’s world, the world illustrated by these OPs, is.

————————————

Revisiting the Zoku OP with “Fuura Kafuka’s Point of View” in mind, he gradual fading followed by sudden jump into color in the final episodes seems to also make sense.
On the other hand, we could also see this as “Fuura Kafuka as seen by Sensei.” In that case, we’d have to understand the OP in a totally different way, but there is that shot in the part 3 OP where we see Kafuka with her eyes downcast, possibly crying.
I think the key to figuring this all out is Kafuka’s attempt to objectify the world while Sensei tries to protect the flowers, which symbolize life.
Is it symbiosis, or is it codependence…
Finally, though this is about the main feature, the final episode of a three-part series having so much development shocked me. Check the manga story for more detail…