Solo Leveling Blu-Ray Sales Fall Even Futher As Volume 3 Didn’t Even Touch Double-Digits!
Vol. 2 sold less than 629 units and Vol. 1 sold less than 634 units, both of which did not even appear in Oricon’s top list of Blu-ray & DVD sales.
Although there was much excitement and high hopes for the anime adaptation of the well-known South Korean webtoon, Solo Leveling, it appears that the series did not manage to attract the interest of the Japanese audience, as seen by the low sales of its Blu-ray/DVD.
Despite the release of Volume 3 of Solo Leveling Blu-ray/DVD in Japan on May29, 2024, the series is not included in any sales rankings. This indicates that it had a lower sales figure than the lowest-ranked items on the list, namely The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, REALLY Love You Blu-ray vol. 3, which sold 591 copies in its first week.
On the other hand, Solo Leveling Blu-Ray Vol.3 sold merely 91 copies in its first week, not even hitting double-digits!
Solo Leveling DVD vol.3 sold 91 copies in its first week.
Blu-ray not ranked.
Lowest one: 100 Girlfriend with 591 copies#俺レベ #SoloLeveling pic.twitter.com/ETEvAzENbx
— Lizリズ (@Nakayasee) June 4, 2024
This isn’t the first time the series’ Blu-Ray sales have taken a slump. Vol. 2 sold less than 629 units and Vol. 1 sold less than 634 units, both of which did not even appear in Oricon’s top list of Blu-ray & DVD sales.
The full list of the top selling Blu-ray & DVDs for May 29–June 3, 2024 is as follows:
- Mahou Shoujo ni Akogarete Blu-ray/DVD vol.3 – 9,675 copies
- SANDLAND Blu-ray/DVD – 6,783 copies
- The Dangers in My Heart Blu-ray Vol.6 (S2 Vol.3) – 3,002 copies
- Dungeon Meshi Blu-ray Box / DVD vol.2 – 2,725 copies
- Mahou Shoujo ni Akogarete Blu-ray vol.1 Special Edition with Scale Figure – 1,620 copies
- Classroom of the Elite S3 Blu-ray/DVD vol.1 – 1,024 copies
- 16bit Sensation: ANOTHER LAYER Blu-ray vol.6 – 788 copies
- Yubisaki to Renren Blu-ray Vol.2 – 765 copies
- The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, REALLY Love You Blu-ray vol.3 – 591 copies
- MASHLE: MAGIC AND MUSCLES Season 2 DVD vol.3 – 333 copies
It seems like Solo Leveling did really well outside Japan, but in Japan, it’s presence has already disappeared, with hardly any promotion on city billboards. On the other hand, Solo Leveling currently holds the sixth position among the all-time most popular anime on Crunchyroll. Recently, it surpassed Attack on Titan in popularity and is rapidly ascending towards the top 5.
One of the reasons it might have flopped in Japan is that the anime staff changed the story a bit by bringing in Japanese Hunters to help the Korean ones, a tit-bit that never happened in the original manhwa.
Another possibility is the seemingly anti-Japanese sentiments of the author. In the later chapters of Solo Leveling, Korea goes from the weakest to the strongest nation because of Sung Jin Woo. Japan used to be the strongest but most of their strongest hunters died due to an overwhelming threat. Japan is then left weak and defenseless and it wasn’t long until Japan begs and scrapes for Jin Woo to come and save them, which he does pretty easily.
Nevertheless, Solo Leveling is getting a season 2 with no confirmation date so far.
The main production staff and cast members for the anime include:
<Staff Members>
- Director: Shunsuke Nakashige
- Head Writer: Noboru Kimura
- Character Designer: Tomoko Sudo
- Monster Design: Hirotaka Tokuda
- Prop Design: Sotaro Shiraishi
- Background Art Director: Taizo Okumura
- Color Design: Naomi Nakano
- VFX Director: Daichii Iseki
- CG Director: Toshitaka Morioka
- Motion Graphics: Hiromu Oshiro
- Editing: Yuji Kondo
- Sound Director: Ryo Tanaka
- Music: Hiroyuki Sawano
- Animation Production: A-1 Pictures
<Cast Members>
- Sung Jinqoo voiced by Taito Ban
- Yoo Jinho voiced by Genta Nakamura
- Sung Jinah voiced by Haruna Mikawa
- Cha Hae-In voiced by Reina Ueda
- Choi Jong-In voiced by Daisuke Hirakawa
- Baek Yoonho voiced by Hiroki Touchi
- Go Gunhee voiced by Banjo Ginga
- Woo Jinchul voiced by Makoto Furukawa
Crunchyroll describes the overall plot of Solo Leveling as follows:
It’s been over a decade since the sudden appearance of the “gates”—the paths that connect our world with a different dimension. Since then, certain humans have awakened to supernatural powers.
We call these individuals “hunters.”
Hunters make their living by using their powers to conquer dungeons inside the gates. In this world of tough customers, the low-ranked hunter Jinwoo Sung is known as “the weakest hunter of all mankind.”
One day, Jinwoo gets fatally injured when he runs into high-rank double dungeons hidden within a low-rank dungeon.
Just then, a mysterious quest window appears in front of him. On the verge of death, Jinwoo decides to accept the quest and starts leveling up… while the others aren’t.
Source: Twitter
