Rurouni Kenshin on Billboard Charts

Samurai X, the first volume of the Rurouni Kenshin OAV series, has reach reached number eleven on the best selling video list of the September 30th issue of Billboard Magazine. In general, best selling video lists are primarily filled with children’s videos, wresting videos, and soft core adult movies. Rurouni Kenshin’s bid for main-stream popularity shows that anime is finally beginning to become a significant American market force, especially considering that unlike titles such as Ghost in the Shell and the Street Fighter movie, which have previously broken into the US top 10 in sales, Rurouni Kenshin has not had the same main-stream and theatrical name recognition and awareness as previous big anime successes. The top eleven entries in the list were:

1. The Tigger Movie
2. Erin Brockovich
3. The Sixth Sense
4. American Pie
5. South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut
6. Sex And The City
7. Mary-Kate & Ashley: Schooldance Party
8. Buzz Lightyear Of Star Command: The Adventure Begins
9. Playboy’s Wet & Wild-Slippery When Wet
10. Playboy’s Sexy Girls Next Door
11. Samurai X