While Chainsaw Man has been one of the best-selling manga in recent years, and has been adapted into a seemingly successful anime, some worrying sales statistics have made the future of the adaptation a little less clear-cut than we may have thought.
More or less coinciding with Chapter 119 of the manga being released into the wild, a screengrab of Japanese domestic Blu-ray and DVD sales statistics shared on Twitter and Reddit shows that the anime’s first volume, containing episodes 1-3, sold a total of 1735 units across both formats:
We can take some solace in the fact that it is 2023 and streaming more or less blows physical TV and film releases out of the water, but such a meager sales figure on the anime’s home turf isn’t a particularly easy statistic to ignore when it comes to discussing whether or not Chainsaw Man will be renewed for a second season.
Perhaps another justification we can use to dismiss these worrying sales is that people just aren’t that bothered to go out and buy a Blu-ray or DVD of what is only a quarter of anime’s first season. With the remainder of Chainsaw Man’s physical release volumes to be trickled out through to the end of April, perhaps people will be more inclined to pick all four up at once, and stream it in the meantime.
In any case, the top comment on the Reddit thread discussing these statistics does offer up some eye-opening, and perhaps concerning comparisons to other popular anime, and their performances in their first week on store shelves. By comparison, in 2022, Bocchi the Rock! sold just shy of 17,000 copies in its first week, while Lycoris Recoil sold over 23,000 – well above and beyond Chainsaw Man’s comparative sales.
Again – hopefully said sales aren’t the be-all and end-all of whether we’re going to get a second season of Chainsaw Man, but if physical sales of Japanese media carry a significant amount of weight, the seemingly popular shonen adaptation could be in trouble. Perhaps the folks petitioning to have the anime remade have had it right all along.
Chainsaw Man finished its original 12 episode run in late December last year, and is yet to be renewed for a second season.
