出典 : Amazon.co.jp

We thoroughly examine whether there is a possibility of a second season for the TV anime “Love is difficult for Otaku”, which aired in the spring of 2018 and was well received!
I’ve tried to predict a second season from various perspectives, including disc sales, distribution popularity, growth of the original work, live-action movie performance, and stock availability!

One of the biggest hits of web manga! A romantic comedy between otaku working people!

出典 : Amazon.co.jp

Otaku ni Koi wa Daitai” is one of the most successful webcomics in history.

In 2014, when this work was first posted on pixiv, web manga was already well established, and manga artists from the web such as Hero and Takatsu Carino were becoming popular, but it was not as widespread as it is today, when the trend of manga posted on SNS becoming popular and making their debut has become the norm.
Wota Koi, created by Mr. Fujita, appeared like a comet at that time and quickly became a huge hit.

This work is a romantic comedy that depicts the love lives of the following couples: Hirotaka Nifuji, a game otaku, and Narumi Momose, a fujoshi and otaku; Taro Kabakura, a secret otaku, and Hanako Koyanagi, a fujoshi and cosplayer; and Naoya, Hirotaka’s younger brother, a novice gamer, and Kou Sakuragi, a boyish game otaku with communicable diseases.

Nowadays, otaku romance is widely depicted in novels, but at the time it was still a rarity, and the fact that it was a working couple depicting an otaku romance drew a lot of attention.
As soon as the comics went on sale, they were sold out one after another, and the series was highly praised and made into an anime, winning first place in the “Next Manga Awards (Web Manga Section)” and first place in the “This Manga is Amazing!

Disc sales and distribution are available at ……

出典 : Amazon.co.jp

Wotakoi’s Blu-ray and DVD sales have averaged just under 3000 copies for all four volumes.
It is hard to say that these sales alone are enough for the second season to be confirmed ……, but in recent years there have been quite a few anime that have sold around 3000 copies and have been approved for a second season.
However, in order to do so, a strong source of funding other than disc sales is needed.

The first candidate for this is distribution.
There have been many cases where works that did well in distribution were able to produce a second season by obtaining a large amount of funds through the sale of exclusive distribution rights.
In recent years, it seems that works with strong distribution outside of Japan tend to be made into sequels.

The number of views of Wotakoi on the Chinese video sharing site “Biri Biri Douga” has reached 58 million.
This is more than the 36 million views of “Rikei ga Koi ni Ochita So I Prove It,” which is a romantic comedy with a second season already announced. which has already been announced for a second season.
Even on platforms such as Amazon Prime Video and Netflix, there seems to be no mention of a special hit.

Also, Wota Koi has a live-action movie coming out on February 7, 2020, which is a hit.
Due to the new Corona, it recorded 1.31 billion yen in box office revenue despite the fact that the number of people visiting theaters was extremely low after late February, and it ranked 8th in the first half of 2020.

As you can see, Wota Koi is not doing poorly in terms of disc sales, distribution results, and box office revenue from live-action movies, but it has not reached the point where it can be a decisive factor in the ……2 period.

Sales of the original work are going great! It has sold over 10 million copies, but the effect of the anime adaptation is ……?

出典 : Amazon.co.jp

The original manga of Wota Koi has been selling very well, and as of August 2020, the series has sold over 10 million copies.
This is the figure as of the release of volume 9, and even if we take into account the number of copies of the novel version, the average number of copies sold per volume is certain to be over 1 million.
Even popular romantic comedies such as “The Quintessential Bride” and “Kaguya wants to tell” do not have such a high volume average.

Let’s take a look at how much the anime has contributed to the growth of the original work by looking at the circulation figures.

The total number of copies of “It’s Hard to Love an Otaku

Jun 2015 **300,000 copies (Volume 1)
Oct 2015 **500,000 copies (Volume 1)
Mar 2016 *1,000,000 copies (Volume 1)
Mar 2016 *1.5 million copies (2 volumes)
Aug 2016 *1.8 million copies (2 volumes)
Oct 2016 *2.1 million copies (2 volumes)
Dec. 2016 *3 million copies (3 volumes)
Aug 2017 *4.2 million copies (Volume 4) *Animation decision announcement
Feb 2018 *5.5 million copies (Volume 5)

Anime broadcast (April to June 2018)

Jul 2018 *7 million copies sold (Volume 6) *Live-action film adaptation decision announcement
Mar 2019 *8 million copies (Volume 7)
Dec. 2019 *9 million copies (Volume 8)
Aug. 2020 10 million copies (Volume 9)

Wota Koi is a rare work that was originally ignited on pixiv and spread by word of mouth on the internet, reaching one million copies in its first volume.
Since then, there have been no major changes, and the average number of copies per volume has been just over one million.
As far as I can see, there is no evidence of a significant increase due to the anime adaptation.

Before the anime, the average sales volume was 1.1 million copies, but right after the anime aired, the average sales volume was about 1.17 million copies, so it’s not that there was no effect of the anime itself.
However, if a work that sold 100,000 copies sold 170,000 copies, but a work that sold over 1 million copies sold 70,000 copies, it is hard to say that there was a noticeable effect.
It seems that the majority of the readership had already been reached before the anime adaptation.

It’s hard to say whether Ichijinsha, the publisher, will be proactive about the second season of the anime, since there was no noticeable effect.
It would not be surprising if Ichijinsha, the publisher, decides to release a special edition with OADs, since it is selling more than enough even without a second season, and even if they do a second season, it is unlikely to see such a dramatic increase.

However, the purpose of anime adaptation is not only to increase the number of copies.
It also has the effect of preventing fans from leaving, and it also leads to the revitalization of the comic POOL submission site.
In particular, comic POOL has been gaining momentum in recent years with “Uramichi Oniisan” and “It’s too weird to call it love” being made into anime one after another.

With a work that has sold 10 million copies, it is possible for a publisher to invest a large amount of money, so depending on Ichijinsha’s intentions, a second season is quite possible.