Becoming an immortal meme doesn’t mean success: Japanese author’s series stopped selling after its anime adaptation went viral for awkward animation 

Shuichi Nimura, author of the original light novel series Osamake: Romcom Where The Childhood Friend Won’t Lose, recently opened up about the detrimental effect the title’s official anime adaptation has had on subsequent sales of the written series. 

The Osamake series got an anime adaptation by Doga Kobo (the studio behind Oshi no Ko) back in Spring 2021. As soon as the first episode aired, viewers started pointing out issues, such as the poor animation quality. However, a dance scene (below) from the anime’s third episode gained much attention for looking hilariously awkward. Things escalated to the point of the “Osamake Dance” becoming a long-running meme on Japanese social media, with people making parodies and even dance covers. 

While becoming a viral meme certainly boosted the title’s reach, it did not help it commercially – in fact, the whole thing has made sales of the Osamake light novel series completely lose momentum, according to Nimura. In a lengthy post on their personal X account from January 16, the author says that figures for the first edition of Osamake’s final volume are “terrible,” not reaching even a tenth of the first volume’s performance. 

Nimura acknowledges that it’s common for sales to slow following the airing of an anime adaptation, but that in the case of Osamake, sales took a drastic nosedive right around when the anime started generating buzz. In a separate post, they explain that sales of the light novel had been on a continuous upward trend, with 2-3 reprints a month being the norm, but this changed to an “extreme downward trend” when the anime started airing, with reprints dwindling to zero. 

By publicly speaking out about the unfortunate fate their series has met, Nimura hopes to encourage other authors be more vigilant about who they trust with their work and not compromise when it comes to the animation company, team, director and producer and other conditions of their anime adaptations. 

The 13th and final volume of Osamake: Romcom Where The Childhood Friend Won’t Lose is set to ship on February 7.