The first BD volume of 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica' contained the first four episodes of the anime. Along with the standard anime BD, it also included a bonus CD featuring a drama CD supervised by the anime's director—Kamiyā Yuu himself—as well as a character song for Mami Tomoe.
In addition, it came with a special poster personally illustrated by Kamiyā Yuu depicting Madokami.
The poster featured Madokami against the backdrop of the universe, releasing the arrow that would bring all things to their end.
Kamiyā Yuu had spent over half a day completing the basic composition of the illustration before handing the detailed work over to Uehara Etsuki. Finally, Gogyo Ruri and the members of her animation department completed the coloring.
The finished poster had reached the very limits of anime illustration quality. When it was unveiled on the official website of Yosuganosora Animation Studio, it immediately caused a sensation among fans. Many of them rushed to buy the anime BD specifically because of the exclusive poster.
The first volume of the 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica' BD sold 80,000 copies on its first day, a genuine miracle in the history of anime BD sales.
Even the nationally acclaimed anime 'Violet Blooming Garden' had sold only a little over 30,000 copies on the first day of its first BD volume.
'Puella Magi Madoka Magica' had exceeded that figure by well over twofold.
By the end of its first week, the first BD volume had sold 210,000 copies, more than doubling the 90,000 copies sold by the first volume of 'Violet Blooming Garden.'
A mere doubling of sales might not sound impressive at first glance, but in reality, it was already approaching the limits of the anime market's capacity.
Just as an exam has a maximum score of one hundred, improving from sixty to ninety isn't especially difficult, but improving from ninety to a perfect score becomes exponentially harder.
The popularity of 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica' had already reached the ceiling of Japan's anime market.
Unless the market itself expanded by attracting more viewers, the BD sales of 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica' would find it difficult to increase further.
In Kamiyā Yuu's previous world, the original version of 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica' had sold only 22,000 copies on its first day and 53,000 copies during its first week.
Even though those numbers were only a quarter of the sales achieved by Kamiyā Yuu's recreated version, the original 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica' had still held the record for the highest first-volume BD sales at the time, surpassing the previous record of 52,000 copies set by 'Bakemonogatari.'
Generally speaking, the first week's sales of an anime's first BD volume tended to remain relatively proportional to the average sales of the entire series.
Assuming an average of around 200,000 copies with a deviation of no more than twenty thousand, what would an anime averaging 200,000 BD sales per volume actually mean?
Even if an animation studio only possessed the BD sales rights, it could earn enough money to purchase a large office building in Tokyo.
In the anime industry, the rough benchmarks were as follows:
An average of 2,400 BD sales was considered the break-even line. At that point, the animation studio generally avoided losses, while the production committee still made a profit. An average of 5,000 BD sales was the threshold for a second season. The animation studio earned a modest profit, the production committee's licensing revenue increased significantly, and it often determined whether another season would be greenlit.
An average of 10,000 BD sales marked a major hit. The animation studio earned substantial profits, the production committee practically made money hand over fist from licensing, and barring special circumstances, a sequel was guaranteed.
An average of 34,000 BD sales was known as the "Wall of Masterpieces." This figure came from the average BD sales of the TV anime 'IS
Now, the 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica' produced by Kamiyā Yuu had achieved BD sales nearly ten times higher than the so-called Wall of Masterpieces.
It could no longer be described as a miracle.
Before an actual example existed, anyone claiming that an anime's first-week BD sales could exceed 100,000 copies would have been laughed at for daydreaming.
Some industry professionals had even doubted whether Japan's entire anime market was large enough to support such numbers.
Yosuganosora Animation Studio had struck it rich.
The revenue generated from BD sales alone was enough for Kamiyā Yuu to purchase a luxurious office building in one of Tokyo's bustling commercial districts.
As for the countless licensing revenues—which constituted the largest source of income for 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica'—Morishita Aoi would need a long time to finish calculating them.
The only thing anyone knew for certain was that licensing revenue could very well amount to dozens or even hundreds of times the profits from BD sales.
The period immediately after an anime finished airing was usually when its social influence reached its peak.
The BD sales after the conclusion provided the clearest indication of its commercial potential.
As long as an anime had even a little popularity, numerous companies would come seeking partnerships, and collaborations related to the series would immediately begin one after another.
Japan was an anime powerhouse.
Even government agencies using anime for public advertising was nothing unusual.
There was simply no shortage of opportunities to monetize the 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica' license.
Just a few days earlier, one of Japan's major beverage companies had approached Yosuganosora Animation Studio seeking a partnership.
They planned to launch a Magical Girl Fruit Drink Series:
Mami Tomoe — Lemon flavor
Miki Sayaka — Blueberry flavor
Sakura Kyōko — Apple flavor
Kaname Madoka — Peach flavor
Akemi Homura — Blackcurrant flavor
They had offered an endorsement fee of 500 million yen.
If Yosuganosora Animation Studio was willing to produce a short promotional animation for the campaign, that amount could even be doubled.
Creating an animated commercial only a few minutes long would take the studio no more than a day or two.
...
Recently, the two hottest topics surrounding 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica' were as follows.
The first was the annual 'NICENICE Moe Queen Tournament, which had officially begun.
On the very first day, all five heroines from 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica' swept into the top five positions with overwhelming vote counts.
The female anime characters behind them trailed by several times fewer votes.
Even sixth, seventh, and eighth place were occupied by Fate and Nanoha from Yosuganosora Animation Studio's earlier work, 'Magical Girl Nanoha.'
As a result, Japan's internet jokingly dubbed this year's 'Moe Queen Tournament' the "Magical Girl Tournament."
Among the top ten most popular female anime characters, seven were magical girls.
The second major topic was the upcoming life-sized Magical Girl figure exhibition in Akihabara, Japan's most famous electronics district.
Sponsored by Yosuganosora Animation Studio in collaboration with the renowned figure manufacturer 'Doll House', the exhibition would feature life-sized figures of all five magical girls in their transformed forms.
Ever since Episode Seventeen of 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica' aired, Kamiyā Yuu had instructed Morishita Aoi to contact Doll House and begin production.
As an anime enthusiast himself, Kamiyā Yuu naturally had a hobby of collecting character figures.
Once the five life-sized figures were completed, they would first be displayed in a public exhibition to generate discussion before eventually being placed inside glass display cases at the company for permanent exhibition.
Unfortunately, producing a figure of Madokami proved extremely difficult.
Kamiyā Yuu had contacted several major figure manufacturers, but none of them were willing to take on the project.
Even so, the ordinary 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica' figure line had already become the best-selling anime character figures on the internet.
According to statistics from Amazon Japan, their sales had even surpassed those of the country's most popular children's model toys.