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Summer Wars Tops Eva as #1 Anime BD in 1st-Week Sales

Mamoru Hosoda and MADHOUSE's Summer Wars film has sold 54,000 Blu-ray Discs since March 3 to top Evangelion: 1.11 You Are (Not) Alone (Evangelion Shin Gekijōban: Jo) as the #1 anime Blu-ray in first-week sales. Evangelion: 1.11 sold 49,000 copies in its first week of sales last year. Summer Wars is now the #2 Blu-ray overall in first-week sales; Michael Jackson's This Is It music documentary film is the only Blu-ray Disc to sell more copies than Summer Wars.

The light-hearted "action entertainment" story of Summer Wars revolves around a modern-day family on a midsummer adventure in the real and virtual worlds. The project reunites many of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time's staffers, including scriptwriter Satoko Okudera (Angel, Miyori no Mori) and character designer Yoshiyuki Sadamoto (Evangelion, FLCL).

Over 1 million people watched the film in theaters since it opened in Japan last August. It won the Animation of the Year award at the 33rd Japan Academy Prizes this month, an Award of Excellence in the 15th Annual AMD Awards, the Animation of the Year and 6 more awards in the 9th annual Tokyo Anime Awards last month, the Animation Film Award at the 64th annual Mainichi Film Awards in January, the Grand Prize in the Animation Division of the 13th Japan Media Arts Festival Awards in December, and an award at the 24th Digital Content Grand Prix in October.

Source: Oricon

Update: The amazon.co.jp retail website alone received 88,000 pre-orders for the Evangelion: 2.22 You Can (Not) Advance (Evangelion Shin Gekijōban: Ha) film on Blu-ray and DVD in February. The film will ship on May 26. Thanks, Hentai_JP.