Information often travels with a slight delay.
A few days later, the news officially broke across the Minamijo region: KyoAni Studios announced that Anohana would receive an anime adaptation, scheduled to premiere in the spring market at the beginning of next January. Crimson Maple Literature coordinated with the announcement to launch a promotional campaign. Within a short period, the vast majority of Anohana fans had learned the news through various channels.
"Is this for real? How long has it even been since Anohana finished its run? It's getting an anime already?"
"If the pre-production work is fast enough, a show can be on the air in just three to five months."
"I checked the details. It has a budget of 450 million yen and will be broadcast on Tokyo TV-7. Man, this came out of nowhere."
"Actually, the ratio of novels getting adapted into anime in the Minamijo region is quite low. Usually, only the top two most popular series from the major publishing houses meet the requirements for an adaptation. Companies only invest when the popularity is guaranteed. Anohana must have had such explosive popularity that the animation studio saw its massive potential and moved quickly to secure it."
"I really hope Anohana becomes a hit all over Japan once the anime starts. I was talking to some friends from other prefectures and told them how great it was, but they said they couldn't even buy the magazine there. It was only after the volume release went nationwide a few days ago that they finally read it. They sent me private messages saying it made them feel like they were dying of sadness."
"How are the sales for the Anohana volumes doing in other regions?"
"I'm not sure. We have to wait until the day after tomorrow. Crimson Maple Literature only releases that data once the volumes have been out for a full week."
"We still have to wait more than two months, almost three, for the anime to air. The wait is killing me!"
"I used to be a fan of the Blue Sky Publishing and never really paid attention to Crimson Maple. This time, my younger sister practically forced me to read the Anohana volume. All I can say is that I cried my eyes out. I've been feeling depressed for days now. I'm looking forward to the anime making viewers all across Japan feel exactly like I do."
"Me too. I can only say that the series truly lives up to its reputation. A few months ago, so many people in Minamijo were praising it, but I didn't think much of it until I bought the volume the other day and read it all in one go. I won't say more, I'm still feeling gloomy."
"Haha, so I'm not the only one. I really did finish that book in tears, and I've felt unsettled for days. Now I just hope Sensei Shiori Takahashi's next work is a bit more cheerful. I hope it isn't a tearjerker like Anohana."
"Don't worry, Sensei's first novel, Blue Spring Ride, was actually quite sweet. These sad stories are probably just exceptions. Her specialty should be youth and daily life. Besides, Anohana left the fans so heartbroken that she probably realizes her mistake by now. Her next novel will likely be very sweet."
"Why do I feel like you're jinxing it? Usually, when people say things like that at a critical moment, the final result ends up being the exact opposite of what everyone imagined."
Under the influence of various factors, such as the Ascent of New Gods seed nomination, the release of the Anohana volumes, and the news of the anime adaptation, the popularity of Shiori Takahashi reached an incredibly high level in the Minamijo light novel scene.
In daily life, whether at schools or in workplaces, whenever novel enthusiasts gathered, the conversation would inevitably shift toward Shiori Takahashi within just a few sentences.
On the internet, because a massive wave of new fans who hadn't read the serial version were now diving into the books, the level of discussion surrounding the novel and the author was even higher than when the series had initially concluded.
Among the five major publishing houses in Minamijo, the other four were all using various channels to try and dig up information about Shiori Takahashi. However, even within Crimson Maple Literature, very few people knew Haruto's true identity. Those who did were under strict confidentiality obligations, let alone the rival publishers. Many publishers wanted to scout Shiori Takahashi during her hiatus, but they couldn't even find a place to start.
It was another Sunday.
Inside Crimson Maple Literature, a large group of editors gathered together, waiting for the first-week sales data of the Anohana volumes to be finalized.
In Japan, the first week of sales is generally a very strong indicator of a book's total lifespan performance.
Unless a novel gets a game, anime, or manga adaptation later on, or if it suddenly becomes a viral hit years later for some specific reason, the sales from the first week of a volume's release usually account for about one-third of the total lifetime sales.
"How many copies do you think it will be? For the Minamijo region, there should be at least two hundred thousand, right?"
"Based on the popularity during the serialization, I think it might be over two hundred and twenty thousand, but under two hundred and fifty thousand."
"The average sales per volume for Winter Lake is five hundred and twenty thousand copies. The first-week sales for its latest volume were one hundred and seventy-three thousand, five hundred copies. Although Anohana received far more votes than Winter Lake during its final chapter, that was only the data for a single chapter. I believe Anohana's first-week sales will surpass the latest Winter Lake data, but it shouldn't be too outrageous. After all, this novel is quite short, and it hasn't had enough time to build up a massive legacy."
"That's true. Everything about Shiori Takahashi's writing is great, but the short length is a fatal weakness. Often, the story finishes before the popularity has a chance to fully spread. That's a real killer."
"But actually, even if it hits two hundred and fifty thousand in the Minamijo region alone in the first week, that would be terrifying! It would mean the total average sales per volume in Minamijo alone would reach over seven or eight hundred thousand copies."
"It's more than that. Don't forget that Shiori Takahashi's novels perform remarkably well in other prefectures. For example, Blue Spring Ride managed to contribute nearly two hundred thousand copies per volume from outside the region. This is something Winter Lake can't even dream of. In the other prefectures, Winter Lake only contributed a total of less than twenty thousand copies per volume. If Anohana can match the outside sales performance of Blue Spring Ride, then it's actually quite scary. If you add it all up, could the total sales per volume of this novel break one million?"
"One million?"
"That..."
"Hey, you're getting a bit too exaggerated now."
"But why is it that when I think about it carefully, it doesn't seem impossible?"
"I've been so busy lately that I haven't kept an eye on the data from the printing plants the publisher works with, but I've heard that regardless of whether it's local or out-of-region sales, the Anohana volumes have sold out everywhere. The printing plants are working overtime to print more copies."
At this point, everyone in the editorial department fell into a collective silence.
Why could Blue Spring Ride achieve high sales in other prefectures with zero promotion, while Winter Lake could not?
The simple truth was the high quality of Blue Spring Ride.
At least in the eyes of readers from other prefectures, Blue Spring Ride was of higher quality than Winter Lake, and perhaps even higher than many of their own local novels.
Only then would fans from other prefectures spontaneously promote the novel and act as organic advertising.
A person who is six feet tall standing in a crowd of people who are five-foot-seven will be very conspicuous and easily noticed even if they are dressed plainly. As for a group of people who are all five-foot-seven, who looks more prominent depends entirely on how they are dressed.
In this analogy, a person's height is the quality of the novel. The clothing represents the promotional resources and capital invested in the novel's packaging.
These differences eventually resulted in Winter Lake only receiving twenty thousand copies in sales from other prefectures, while Blue Spring Ride reached two hundred thousand.
From this perspective, Anohana, which was clearly of even higher quality than Blue Spring Ride, should definitely sell well outside the region. Its total sales figures would likely depend not just on the Minamijo region, but heavily on the data from the other prefectures.
It was eleven o'clock in the morning.
The statistics reported by the major partners and distributors under the publishing house were finalized, and a report was sent to the editorial department.
Yukino Aoyama, along with everyone else in the office, saw the first-week sales figures for the Anohana volumes.
Anohana consisted of two volumes, and the first-week sales in the Minamijo region were six hundred and four thousand, six hundred and fifty-one copies.
When this line of text appeared before their eyes, the dozens of people in the entire editorial department were stunned.
While they were still guessing that the upper limit of the sales would be two hundred and fifty thousand copies per volume, the actual total sales in the Minamijo region alone exceeded six hundred thousand. That averaged out to three hundred thousand copies per volume.
And this was only the first week!
Based on the general rule that the final sales of a volume are more than three times the first-week sales, could it be possible? Could Anohana reach sales of nine hundred thousand copies per volume in the Minamijo region alone?
This was unbelievable.
Was a tearjerker story really this explosive? Did the novel fans in Minamijo love this kind of story that much? Should they start accepting more sad stories for serialization in the future?
Even though it was a novel produced by their own company, the editors were left feeling dazed by these results. Was this where the current trend of the Minamijo light novel world was heading?
Furthermore, an editor quickly noticed something else. This data was only the sales data for the Minamijo region.
What about the other prefectures?
Many people immediately scanned further down the page.
Total sales data outside the Minamijo region: Five hundred and thirteen thousand, six hundred and fifty-nine copies.
There were many other prefecture. This meant the sales contribution per volume for each prefecture was low. This kind of sales data wouldn't be particularly eye-catching if looked at for any single prefecture.
Therefore, the level of discussion about this novel in other parts of Japan wasn't that high. It was mostly small circles of fans talking passionately and voluntarily promoting the work.
However, when the data was consolidated, those small amounts added up to an incredibly staggering figure.
In the end, after one week of release, the total sales for the Anohana volumes were one million, one hundred and eighteen thousand, three hundred and ten copies.
The average first-week sales per volume were five hundred and fifty-nine thousand, one hundred and fifty-five copies.
Again, this was only the first-week sales, not the final total.
According to conventional experience, the final sales performance of this work would be more than triple the figures listed above. By the time the total sales for Anohana were tallied three months later, there was a high probability that the combined data from all prefectures across Japan would see the total sales break three million copies, with an average of over one and a half million copies per volume.
This was simply incredible.
Everyone in the editorial department, including Yukino, remained speechless for a long time.
Considering the promotional support Crimson Maple Literature had provided, these results could only be described as miraculous.
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