The Financial Success of Chainsaw Man: Debunking Rumors and Looking Ahead

Debunking Rumors

Ever since Chainsaw Man's exciting anime debuted, there have been many rumors regarding the performance of the series in terms of financial success. This stemmed from the lackluster sales of the Chainsaw Man Blu-ray sets, but fans of the series can rest assured, as the highest authority in MAPPA already cleared swept these doubts away.

In a May 2023 interview for toyokeizai.net, shared on X by user @Chainsawpedia, the CEO of Mappa Studio, Manabu Otsuka, confirmed that Chainsaw Man was a financially successful anime, and made comparisons to another popular anime the studio made: Jujutsu Kaisen.

Airing from October 12, 2022, to December 28, 2022, Chainsaw Man was one of the most anticipated anime in recent years, and it was all fans could talk about in Fall 2022. Shortly after the end of the 12-episode anime, the sales of the Blu-rays were released, and it was disappointing, to say the least. Selling about 1200 copies in the first week, this was the catalyst for unfounded rumors of the anime being a flop, in which the CEO confirmed that it was not the case.

Chainsaw Man Broke The Internet - Literally CEO Manabu Otsuka revealed that the adaptation of Tatsuki Fujimoto's dark manga was a unique experiment, because the studio put up 100% of the cost of the production, whereas typically an outside investor such as a TV station would cover the costs, which also meant that they would receive most of the profit. This decision bore fruit, as the series recouped all MAPPA's investment and then some. However, he still wasn't quite satisfied, comparing Chainsaw Man to the more successful and popular Jujutsu Kaisen.

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The Streaming Success

Regardless of whether the Blu-ray sales were low, Chainsaw Man was a beast when it came to streaming. The series crashed the Crunchyroll servers twice, was the second most-watched anime in Japan in 2022, lagging behind Spy X Family and had the most viewed opening song of 2022, with 99 million views at the time of writing. The hype was unreal, suffocating at times, and online was where the anime dominated. According to the CEO, 'Until now, my work had never received so much attention before it was released to the world.' The popularity that the anime had is proof that the anime was not a failure, but that it surpassed everyone's expectations.

Blu-ray sales have always been used to determine whether an anime gets a sequel, but it is becoming less important as an indicator of popularity now that streaming is the most common way of watching a series. This is even more true for Chainsaw Man, which is heavily reliant on streaming. There should never have been any doubt whether Chainsaw Man would get another installation, and it was confirmed when Chainsaw Man: The Movie - The Reze Arc was announced.

Future Prospects

With Chainsaw Man set to return (hopefully) in 2024, all the negative comments following the poor Blu-ray sales should now be considered a thing of the past.

Now that the basis for determining whether or not to continue a series depends on how many people are watching, it's much easier to predict and make a decision. - CEO of Wit Studio on the use of streaming numbers to decide on a sequel.

Source: ToyoKeizai, Gem Standard, AnimeNewsNetwork.