Solo Leveling Blu-Ray Sales Continue To Slump In Japan Despite International Streaming Success

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 2 of Solo Leveling Blu-ray/DVD in Japan, 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, specifically 629 units of “MASHLE: Magic And Muscles 2nd Season Vol. 2” on Blu-ray and 164 units of “Ao no Exorcist 3rd Season” on DVD.

I forgot that Solo Leveling Blu-ray vol. 2 was released one week ago but it's not on the ranking.

for comparison the lowest one this week were

Blu-ray : Mashle S2 Vol.2 with 629 copies

DVD : Ao no Exorcist S3 Vol.1 with 164 copies#俺レベ #SoloLeveling pic.twitter.com/DExhDPbzUO

— Lizリズ (@Nakayasee) May 1, 2024

The same held true for Solo Leveling Vol. 1, which came out in March, unable to beat Mashle: Divine Visionary Selection Exam Arc Vol. 1, at #20, which sold only 634 units.

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.

Because of this, Japan might not be receiving the manhwa and the anime not too well.

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: Reddit