Sunday, December 4, 2011

K-On! a flop in America?

Hey, so how about some bad news for a change? No one likes being happy all the time, right? Well, here goes… Ever since Bandai Entertainment first announced in the summer of 2010 the license to the K-On! TV anime, American (and other English speaking) K-On! fans everywhere have been hoping that this would lead to an eventual release of not only the first season, but eventually also the second season as well.
Of course, Bandai did not license the second season at the time when they licensed the first – which makes sense, it would have been foolish to invest in it that much without knowing how well even the first season would perform in the American market. It is safe to assume, then, that a potential license of season 2 would depend entirely on the sales numbers of the first season.
Now – I have no idea how well the first season has done, be it in the US or any other market where the English language version of K-On! has been released. But in the last couple of days, there has been some internet chatter about this very topic, originating from a couple of tweets from Manga UK which more than suggested that K-On!‘s sales numbers have been pretty bad. If this is the case, then the prospects of a season 2 license are looking pretty grim.
I don’t want to play Chicken Little here, as there has been no official comment from Bandai or anything. But if sales are really as bad as they’re being made out to be, then K-On! fans in the US and other English speaking markets may very well need to be prepared for the possibility that the second season (not to mention the movie) may never see the light of day in our part of the world.

4 comments:

  1. D: No! I so want to see the movie(dub)! i guess sub will work :\
    but i thought this anime would be a huge sale, apparently not.

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  2. I know, it sucks... But we'll see what happens, I guess.

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  3. Second season has been picked up by Sentai Filmworks for North American release.
    I've already bought Bandai's first season blu-rays, and I plan to buy the second season ones as well.

    All you guys should follow my example!

    Watched the movie in theatres when I went in December. It's really great.

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    Replies
    1. Yep. I finally saw the movie two weeks ago. Now I am happy.

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