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Animation Accounted for 27.8% of Japan's Video Market

On Friday, the marketing survey firm Oricon announced its survey results of the home video marketplace during the first half of 2010. The marketplace totaled 143.752 billion yen (about US$1.652 billion) this year, an 111% increase compared to the same period in 2009. The DVD market rose incrementally 101.7% to 120.992 billion yen (US$1.39 billion), but the Blu-ray market jumped 216.7% to 22.759 billion yen (US$261million). 28.405 million items were sold — 25.038 million DVDs (104.3% year-to-year increase) and 3.367 million Blu-ray Discs (241.6% year-to-year increase).

The top category in the marketplace by revenue was animation at 27.8% with 39.964 billion yen (US$459 million). In particular, while the animation DVD market was 91.3% of what it was the same period last year at 26 billion yen (US$300 million), the animation Blu-ray market rose 218.9% to 13.94 billion yen (US$160 million). Animation made up 61.3% of Blu-ray sales and led other categories in the transition from DVD. Evangelion: 2.22 You Can (Not) Advance (Evangelion Shin Gekijōban: Ha) was the top Blu-ray seller of the period with 411,000 copies sold.

The top manufacturer in the home video market was Sony Pictures Entertainment, which jumped from #12 last year to #1 this year, and sales rose 259.7% to 9.475 billion yen (US$109 million). #2 was Aniplex, who increased sales 134.0% to 7.786 billion yen (US$90 million). The remaining companies in the top 5 are King Records (195.3% increase to 7.57 billion yen or US$87 million), Fuji TV (137.7% increase to 6.919 billion yen or US$79.5 million), and Geneon Universal Entertainment (112.1% increase to 6.509 billion yen or US$74.8 million).