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In truth, the tidal wave of excitement that The Rebellion Story triggered within the anime community far exceeded the wildest expectations of even the most seasoned industry veterans in Japan.
For several days following the release, massive queues snaked around every major hobby shop and electronics retailer, as fans desperately vied for a copy of the Blu-ray. Haruto and his team were in constant communication with the manufacturers, but trying to ramp up production capacity to meet the explosive demand for Madoka Magica in just a few days was an impossible task.
Twenty thousand, thirty thousand, fifty thousand...
The sales for the second volume of the movie were climbing at a terrifying velocity. In fact, Haruto didn't even need to wait for retail reports to know how well the series was doing. Since every disc was selling out the moment it left the factory, he simply had to track the shipping manifests.
Furthermore, the demand wasn't limited to Japan. Dozens of overseas territories fall within the cultural radiation zone of Japanese subculture. While the otaku culture in those nations might not be as concentrated as it is in Japan, the combined population of those markets is huge
Over the past two months, international distributors had begun introducing Madoka Magica to their local audiences, leading to a massive global surge in the fanbase.
Finally, the major domestic merchandise conglomerates, who had been slow to react, finally woke up to the reality of the situation. Within a forty-eight-hour window, the titans of the industry were all hammering at the doors of Haru-Yuki Animation, hoping to secure the international distribution rights for the Blu-rays and assorted merchandise.
Logistically, the cost of manufacturing a Blu-ray disc is relatively low. The surplus profit is typically split three ways between the distributor, the production studio, and the retail shop owners, with each taking roughly a third of the pie.
However, for a phenomenon of this caliber, Haruto held immense leverage at the negotiating table.
He was effectively demanding, and receiving, between 35% and 40% of the gross sales for Haru-Yuki Animation.
These large corporations had previously rejected Haruto's partnership proposals six months before the show aired, missing out on the domestic licensing rights.
Now, they were forced to sit on the sidelines and watch Madoka ravage the market and rake in billions. They were privately kicking themselves, their hearts bleeding with regret as they watched the gold mine they had passed up.
But they weren't about to let the international rights slip away.
Haruto spent those few days locked in high-speed negotiations with various corporate heads.
He wanted to see who could offer the best profit margins and who had the most robust logistical muscle to handle a global rollout?
Since these deals involved billions of yen, Haruto was meticulous. Even a 1% shift in the revenue split could mean a difference of tens of millions of yen in final profit. He deliberately paced the negotiations, letting the tension work in his favor.
A few days later, the first-week sales figures for the second volume of The Rebellion Story were officially released.
First-week sales: 1,900,000 copies.
The animation industry erupted into a heated debate over the data. Since the first volume had moved over a million copies in its opening week, it was only logical that the second volume, fueled by a week of breathless word-of-mouth, would perform better. But 1.9 million?
"He's broken the records again!"
"It was expected, but seeing the actual number is still a shock. Madoka is just too big. At this point, it's not a matter of if it breaks records, but by how much. This anime is a legend, and the Warrior of Love is a god among men!"
"If it hit nearly two million in the first week, breaking the three-million mark for the total run should be a walk in the park."
"That's a given. The five volumes of the TV series are already averaging a million copies each. If the two movie volumes both hit three million, the total franchise sales for this one series will surpass ten million copies!"
"If Madoka Magica actually breaks ten million in total home video sales, it will be only the eighth work in history to achieve that feat."
"And it will be the most efficient one. Think about it. Compared to the other members of the ten million club, Madoka has the fewest episodes and the highest average sales per volume."
"Take a look at Dragon's Secret Treasure, the series that served as the gateway for most fans. It's been around for thirty-two years and has moved over nineteen million units. But that series has over thirty Blu-ray volumes, more than fifty TV episodes, and four movies. It's the same with Black Legend or The Knight King. They hit the ten or twenty million mark, but they've been around for over a decade and have massive episode counts. They reached those numbers through longevity and volume of content."
"Madoka is different. It's only been out for six months."
"The TV series will hit its million-per-volume average next month, and the movies are on track to hit three million in a few weeks. If it breaks ten million, it will have the highest average volume sales of any series in history, and by a massive margin."
"It's divine. There's no other word for it."
"I heard the production budget for the TV show was only around 340 million yen. To cause this much of a storm with that little capital... it's a miracle."
"If the international sales hold up, the total revenue for this project will be in the billions."
"Haru-Yuki Animation has made its name with a single work. And the Warrior of Love has ascended to the throne in one shot."
"The Warrior of Love is incredible, but he can't stay this lucky forever. Achieving this much success with a debut project puts a target on your back. The expectations for his next work will be suffocating. If he doesn't handle the follow-up perfectly, the industry will tear him apart."
"Who cares? That's a problem for next year. If I were him, I'd just retire and live off the royalties. He could release a movie every two years just to keep the fans paying and never work another day in his life."
For the professionals in the animation circle, the reaction to Madoka's success was the pure financial scale of it. Creating a work that fans were willing to support with cold, hard cash on this level was the ultimate validation.
Fame is abstract; billions of yen in the bank is reality. Naturally, the staff at Haru-Yuki Animation were busy crunching the numbers with glee.
The actual revenue from the Blu-ray sales would take a month or two to hit the company accounts, but in the meantime, the international licensing fees had begun to roll in. Twenty-six countries had officially signed on to broadcast the series, and the fees from the first fourteen had already been processed.
The total: 1.1 billion yen.
Typically, the cost for an overseas broadcaster to license an anime is around 10 to 15 million yen per series for a non-exclusive run. If a station wants exclusive rights, that price doubles. For a high-profile hit, it doubles again.
And for a phenomenon like Puella Magi Madoka Magica? After a series of fierce bidding wars between international networks, the final tally reflected the show's unprecedented prestige.
While the 1.1 billion yen represented only a fraction of the total projected earnings, it provided a massive cushion for Haru-Yuki Animation, which had been operating on a razor-thin margin.
That very evening, Haruto rented out a prestigious restaurant near the office to hold a massive victory banquet for the Madoka Magica team. Haruto, who usually avoided alcohol, found himself slightly light-headed after being toasted repeatedly by his staff.
During the celebration, he officially announced the bonus structure for the project.
Every employee, regardless of their rank or salary level, would receive a flat bonus equivalent to eighteen months of their current salary.
In terms of raw numbers, it wasn't a world-shaking amount, the company only had a few dozen employees who had been hired at relatively modest rates, so the total payout was just over 100 million yen. Compared to the projected revenue of the series, it was a drop in the bucket.
However, in the context of the animation industry, this bonus was legendary. Most studios struggle to turn a profit at all; for a studio to hand out a payout of this size was unheard of.
The Madoka production team were beaming with pride, while the newly recruited staff for the Cyberpunk: Edgerunners project felt like they had just been injected with adrenaline.
Haruto had proven through action that he wasn't a stingy boss. He showed them that if the work succeeded, everyone would share in the rewards.
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Late that night...
Yukino and Reina supported Haruto as they walked out of the restaurant.
The alcohol had left his head spinning, but his thoughts remained relatively clear.
"Is it... is it really over?" Yukino asked, her voice tinged with a strange sense of melancholy. "The story of those magical girls?"
"Why? Are you starting to miss them already?"
Haruto leaned his head against the taxi window, watching the driver's hands on the wheel. In his vision, everything was beginning to double. He knew he had overindulged, but he couldn't help but smile.