Online, many places are discussing:
"First-week sales of 160,000, isn't that just too insane? It's practically invincible."
"What shocks me is that they prepared 160,000 copies for the first week and it still wasn't enough to meet demand."
"Old Thief Lin was just too conservative after all. If the goal was to exceed the sales of EVA, he should have just prepared 200,000 copies right from the start. Where is 160,000 enough?"
"Exactly, exactly. Only 160,000 copies—they really underestimated the purchasing power of us fans."
"What was the previous first-week sales record? Was it seventy-something thousand or eighty-something thousand? It literally doubled it. That's just too amazing."
"Other anime have first-week sales in the hundreds because they only sell a few hundred. Uma Musume 2 having first-week sales of 160,000 is like the difference between someone who always gets a dozen points on a test and someone who gets a perfect score every time."
"I knew Uma Musume 2 was super popular thanks to the game, but I didn't expect first-week sales to hit 160,000. It's really fierce."
"Actually, it's not just the game's popularity; it's also Lin Zhiyan's pulling power. There must be a large portion of people who aren't interested in the items that come with the game and only bought the BD purely to help Lin Zhiyan achieve that final goal."
"It does look fierce, but it's actually not that surprising. You have to remember, Uma Musume 2 is aiming to break the record for average volume sales per disc. If it didn't even reach 160,000 in its first week, it would have been hard to say if it could really break the record."
As for the relevant information being released, we'll have to wait until the moment the average volume sales record of EVA is officially broken by Uma Musume 2.
Given the current trend, it probably won't even need to wait until the end of the year for that announcement.
Offline, at major animation companies.
Many animation production staff members are also discussing it over tea and after meals:
"160,000 copies weren't enough to meet demand. If they had prepared more stock, would Uma Musume 2's first-week sales have reached 170,000 or even 180,000?"
Offline, at major animation companies.
Many animation staff members were discussing it during their breaks:
"160,000 copies weren't even enough to meet demand. If they had stocked more, wouldn't the first-week sales of Uma Musume 2 have reached 170,000 or even 180,000?"
"It's possible."
"I estimate the final average sales per volume for the initial release will be at least 210,000."
"Last year's Demon Slayer: Mugen Train was already a massive hit, so popular it still hasn't left theaters. I didn't expect Uma Musume 2 this year to be just as fierce."
"The animation itself is so well-made, and it has all sorts of external popularity boosters. We just can't emulate that."
"Back when Lin Zhiyan was directing, every time he released a new anime, the big stage of the animation market would almost become his own solo show. Now that he's transitioned to being a producer, the big stage of the animation market has almost become an exclusive performance by LS. Produ. Comparisons really are frustrating."
I Have a Scroll of Ghosts and Gods
"Indeed, with Lin Zhiyan and his Produ around, it's not as if other people and animation companies of the same era haven't achieved anything, but they certainly seem lackluster in comparison."
It can only be said that for anyone living in 2021, a first-week sales volume of 160,000 units is strong enough to be described as "insane." Not to mention, the reason Uma Musume 2's first-week sales were 160,000 units is not that it only sold 160,000 copies, but because only 160,000 copies were prepared for the first week.
With such results, major animation-related media outlets couldn't help but scramble to report on it, and even some economic or cultural newspapers mentioned the event.
However, after all, the Uma Musume game and animation itself is an explosive IP in Japan—it's hugely popular—so for the Japanese, while this result was very shocking, it wasn't completely unacceptable.
It's a different story for people in other countries.
Cultural differences, combined with other factors, meant that although Uma Musume was explosively popular in Japan, it wasn't as popular in other countries, and could even be called "niche."
When they learned that the first-week sales of the first Blu-ray volume of such a "niche" animation reached as high as 160,000 copies, many people were stunned and couldn't believe it at all.
In the end, they could only tell themselves that such high sales figures were mainly due to the "King's Power" of the game and Lin Zhiyan's personal appeal. If not for the game's "King's Power" and Lin Zhiyan's appeal, this anime would be nothing. Forget about 160,000 copies in first-week sales; even achieving a cumulative average of 6,000 would likely be difficult.
Although Lin Zhiyan would pay attention to some online discussions, he knew clearly that "Uma Musume" would at best have a good reputation outside of Japan and that it would be impossible for it to become a hit.
Therefore, he wouldn't make a fool of himself by paying attention to comments from countries and regions outside of Japan.
It was beyond his expectations that the 160,000 BDs prepared for the first week were not enough to meet demand. This was indeed his miscalculation, but fortunately, he had already planned to stock another 30,000 BDs in the second week. Since these were mass-produced, it didn't take much time to prepare the stock, so it wasn't a major issue.
Apart from those who couldn't buy it, the majority of people who would buy the BDs had already done so in the first week, so by the second week, the BD sales were no longer as strong.
However, even so, nearly 30,000 BDs were still sold in the second week.
In just two weeks, the animation's sales had already reached nearly 190,000, close to the average volume sales of the initial release version of "Uma Musume 2" in another timeline.
In the third week, the momentum weakened a bit more, but it still sold over 10,000 copies.
With this, the animation's sales successfully surpassed the cumulative average sales of "EVA". However, this was only the sales for the first three weeks of the first BD volume, which doesn't necessarily mean the final cumulative average sales for the entire animation will definitely exceed "EVA", though it can be said that it is basically secure.
In the fourth week, weekly sales dropped to a few thousand, and the cumulative sales of the first BD volume reached 214,987. Although it will certainly continue to sell some more sporadically, it can basically be confirmed that the initial release sales for this BD will be around 220,000.
By the fifth week, weekly sales were indeed lower, but the second volume of the BD also began to go on sale.
This time, there was no problem of selling out due to insufficient stock, but the first-week sales did not reach 170,000, only about 167,000.
Based on these first-week sales, reaching 220,000 copies might be a bit difficult, though it probably won't be far off.
The record for average sales per volume set by "EVA" hasn't been officially broken yet, but looking at the current sales data for "Uma Musume 2," breaking it shouldn't be a problem at all.
It won't even need to wait for a later release version; the initial release will be enough to break the record.
Realizing this, Lin Zhiyan couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.
With this, the final goal should also be smoothly achieved. Now, he really needs to start considering cultivating a successor and thinking about retirement.
Of course, Lin Zhiyan hadn't forgotten his previous promise: the new animation he was directing would be released in May 2023, and it would indeed be released then. The layouts for the entire film are already finished, and the animation production team has been assembled, entering the formal production stage. With two years, it will certainly be completed smoothly.
As for the relevant announcements, they will have to wait for the moment when the "EVA" average sales per volume record is officially broken by "Uma Musume 2."
Going by the current trend, that shouldn't take until the end of the year to announce.