Ask John: How Popular is Gankutsuou?

Question:
A few weeks back I noticed that the Gankutsuou boxset had made it into [AnimeNation’s] top three bestselling anime for two weeks in a row. I had no idea this show was popular enough to still sell this well. I remember when Rightstuf was trying to get rid of the older Geneon sets each week at a very low price, likely to move in the new Funimation sets. From the sales data as presented through AnimeNation’s newsletter, is Gankutsuou a popular title that actually sells that well? I never hear people talk or write about it on the internet, so it was just a surprise!

Answer:
Excuse me in advance because I’ll need to phrase part of this response very deliberately. Gonzo’s 2004 television series Gankutsuou has never been especially popular despite lofty ambitions, a commendable pedigree, and praiseworthy production. The show seemed to come and go in Japan with little regard. While it has received limited critical praise here in America, the show never really caught on possibly for a number of reasons. The show is a story of ideas and archetypes. The characters of Gankutsou exist as little more than machinations that propel the weighty narrative. The characters have personalities and histories, but only enough of each to allow them to serve their roles: agent of revenge, object of revenge, innocent ingenue that becomes ensnared into larger conflicts that challenge his morality with corruption, observant supporting characters that comment on and sometimes even participate in the unfolding events. The story uses its characters to carefully delineate the boundary at which justice transitions into malicious evil, the degree to which one can stand by and remain neutral to surrounding events, the question of when someone should simply accept an inevitability of injustice. Such grand themes are fascinating but don’t contribute to creating engaging, sympathetic characters. Gankutsuou is a fascinating example of the narrative and artistic capacity of anime, but as such it’s a show that’s more engaging intellectually than affecting emotionally. The show is distant, keeping viewers at arm’s length even when revealing all of its secrets and plot twists. So it’s not as engaging as similar and more popular suspenseful and dramatic anime like X, Death Note, the Rurouni Kenshin OVAs, Code Geass, Monster, or Fullmetal Alchemist.

I can’t say what caused the title to briefly resurge in popularity recently. It may have been mentioned in a popular periodical, or cited on a widely read blog, recommending it to consumers or reminding consumers that it exists. The title may also have surged in sales ranking if a single collector, anime club, or library suddenly purchased multiple copies. The appearance of resurgent popularity in AnimeNation sales doesn’t necessarily reflect a larger awareness or demand from the American consumer market. Especially these days, the domestic anime market is a small pond, and even though AnimeNation may be one of the larger fish in the pond, at such a relative scale, small things may look bigger than they actually are. In other words, in any particular week, a DVD title doesn’t necessarily have to move a tremendous number of copies in order to be one of AnimeNation’s best selling titles of the week. When many current domestic DVD releases don’t even sell an average of one copy a week, a title that does sell in a given week is already a higher selling, but not necessarily more popular, title than many other anime DVDs.