This year has been a really strong year for anime with plenty of high-profile sequels and so many much anticipated new anime airing season after season. We saw the likes of Attack on Titan: The Final Season, Dr. Stone Season 2, That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Season 2, and the second season of Yuru Camp to name just a few of them airing their new episodes within the same week.
There have also been some truly spectacular noteworthy new titles throughout the year such as WIT Studio’s Vivy: Fluorite Eye’s Song, 86–Eighty-Six, Tokyo Revengers, and Mushoku Tensei.
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We went through the Oricon charts of this fiscal year so far to find out the Top 20 Best-Selling Anime of 2021 based on the performances of their home release. While there have been a decent amount of upsets for some big titles, this year has been relatively great for the anime market and we have some massive numbers at our disposal as further proof of that.
Uma Musume is blessed by the gacha gods and has broken all records establishing itself as the biggest selling TV anime of all time based on average sales per volume leaving behind the likes of the classic and well-established franchises such as Evangelion, Love Live, and Monogatari.
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The first volume of the second season of Uma Musume: Pretty Derby has sold 199,406 copies so far and is by far the biggest selling volume of any TV anime ever. The record was previously held by the 10th disc of Evangelion which sold over 131,000 copies.
Meanwhile, Jujutsu Kaisen has maintained its dominance in every medium it has transcended into with its first volume which came out back in January selling 35,040 copies.
Amongst the top half of the list, 5 out of the 10 anime are Idol anime proving just how insanely popular this genre is still to this day. The latest entry in the Love Live franchise, Love Live! Superstar!! released its first volume last month and has already sold over 15,000 copies and is currently 4th on the list.
Zombieland Saga: Revenge was the return of the beloved anime from 2018 and the series still proves to be a huge hit with the first volume of this sequel selling close to 10,000 copies. The first volume for the first season of Zombieland Saga sold over 24,000 copies.
IDOLiSH7: Third Beat is another sequel to a popular idol anime series and it sold 8,010 copies with its Volume 1. The first volumes for the previous two seasons sold 37,575 and 13,624 copies respectively.
Aside from Uma Musume, the list has two more sports anime. Studio Bones’ anime original series, SK8 the Infinity, has scored really impressive numbers with the first volume of the anime’s home release selling almost 9,000 copies and ranking 7th on the list.
The first volume for Haikyuu!! To the Top: Second Season ranked 10th selling over 7,200 copies.
Several big sequels and new titles from the stacked Winter 2021 anime season also managed to rank in the Top 20. The first volume of Yuru Camp Season 2 took the 12th spot selling 6,250 copies. While That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime ranked 17th as it sold 4,594 copies with its first volume and Mushoku Tensei took 18th place with 4,385 copies sold.
The continued love for Tokyo Revengers could also be seen in the growing success of its home media release. The anime’s first volume debuted with less than 3,000 copies but has managed to sell over 5,300 copies since then.
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The only other title from Spring anime season to chart on the Top 20 is Vivy: Fluorite Eye’s Song, the anime ranked 16th and sold over 4,700 copies.
It should be noted that we are only including the sales for the first DVD/BD volume of the anime shows. Furthermore, Oricon’s fiscal year starts in December, thus, the list has also included titles that had their first volume released in December 2020. The majority of these Blurays cost over $100 and usually consist of 3-4 episodes.
Here’s the full list for the Top 20 Best-Selling Anime of 2021 in Japan so far:
- Uma Musume: Pretty Derby Season 2; 199,406
- Jujutsu Kaisen; 35,040
- Love Live! Nijigasaki Gakuen School Idol Doukoukai; 27,076
- Love Live! Superstar!!; 15,762
- Hypnosis Mic: Division Rap Battle – Rhyme Anima; 10,598
- Zombieland Saga: Revenge; 9,876
- SK8 the Infinity; 8,928
- IDOLiSH7: Third Beat!; 8,010
- Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei: Raihousha-hen; 7,674
- Haikyuu!! To The Top 2nd Season; 7,252
- Assault Lily: Bouquet; 6,276
- Yuru Camp Season 2; 6,250
- Tokyo Revengers; 5,363
- Strike Witches: Road to Berlin; 5,233
- Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu 2nd Season Part 2; 5081
- Vivy: Fluorite Eye’s Song; 4,729
- Tensei shitara Slime Datta Ken 2nd Season; 4,594
- Mushoku Tensei: Isekai Ittara Honki Dasu; 4,385
- Majo no Tabitabi; 4,373
- Azur Lane: Bisoku Zenshin!; 4,334.
Additionally, Horimiya‘s first volume sold 3,740 copies while the first volume of Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid S sold 3,625 copies. Other popular releases which failed to make the Top 20 include The Quintessential Quintuplets Season 2, which sold 3,493 copies with its first volume, and Attack on Titan: The Final Season Disc 1 selling 3,108 copies.
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Redo of Healer also had a stellar first run selling 3,015 copies while the first volume of Higehiro sold 1,977 copies.
The first volume of My Hero Academia Season 5 sold 1,912 copies and Fruits Basket: The Final Volume 1 sold 1,812 copies. 86–Eighty-Six sold 1,754 copies with its first volume while Bungo Stray Dogs: Wan sold 1,289 copies.
What do you think of this list of Top 20 Best-Selling Anime in Japan for 2021 so far? Are there any anime in the list which you didn’t expect to see on the list? Comment below and let us know.