BookScan Top 10 GNs (9/18/2005)

[Jarred]

Source: ICv2 (http://icv2.com/articles/home/7566.html) | Love Manga (http://www.manga.omoikitte.com/2005/09/324/)

1. D.N. Angel #9 (TOKYOPOP)
2. Naruto #1 (VIZ Media)
3. Rurouni #18 (VIZ Media)
4. Naruto #7 (VIZ Media)
5. Inu-Yasha #23 (VIZ Media)
6. Naruto #2 (VIZ Media)
7. Fruits Basket #11 (TOKYOPOP)
8. Naruto #3 (VIZ Media)
9. Fullmetal Alchemist #2 (VIZ Media)
10. Fullmetal Alchemist #1 (VIZ Media)

Ladies and gentleman, behold the power of Cartoon Network! All 7 volumes of Naruto placed in the Top 20, with 4 in the Top 10 here. The first volume has outsold the 7th the past couple weeks, meaning that the title is bringing in new readership. Tokyopop has another title besides FB hit #1. VIZ takes 8/10. FMA #3 should hit the BookScan listings next week. Overall manga took 48 out of the 50 spots.

[Sandrylina]

Nice to see DNAngel 9 at the top of the list for TP, even though I wonder if it'll have many more vols (Japanese release at just Vol 11 at the moment). And of those on the list, between my brother and I we have or will buy everything but Inu Yasha and Furuba (maybe eventually for the latter). DNAngel 9 and RuroKen 18 even stuck into my dorm room somehow. /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

-Sandrylina-

[Helschadenfreude]

[ QUOTE ]
Sandrylina said:
Nice to see DNAngel 9 at the top of the list for TP, even though I wonder if it'll have many more vols (Japanese release at just Vol 11 at the moment). And of those on the list, between my brother and I we have or will buy everything but Inu Yasha and Furuba (maybe eventually for the latter). DNAngel 9 and RuroKen 18 even stuck into my dorm room somehow. /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

-Sandrylina-

[/ QUOTE ]

*sniffs: Maybe I should read DN Angel now.. I sort of gave up... the anime sorta left a ehhh taste in my mouth, and the Asuka that I brought ages ago left Satoshi out /images/graemlins/cry00000.gif of the picture and focusing on the twins /images/graemlins/anger100.gif Hate the twins, the annoying one the most....

[Texhnolyze]

*shakes head at list*

nothing but shounen. I like those series, don't get me wrong, but how about a little variety peeps?

[Dagger]

DNAngel? /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

EDIT: Oh, and Fruits Basket too, of course.

[wanfu2k1]

[ QUOTE ]
Dagger IX1 said:
DNAngel? /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

EDIT: Oh, and Fruits Basket too, of course.

[/ QUOTE ]
Hey if you remove the shoujo then yeah it's all shonen /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

[Kevinroc]

[ QUOTE ]
Texhnolyze said:
*shakes head at list*

nothing but shounen. I like those series, don't get me wrong, but how about a little variety peeps?

[/ QUOTE ]

You know what's interesting. Subtract Fruits Basket and DN Angel from that list (two shoujo titles) and everything on there has had American tv exposure (Kenshin being the only one on that list currently not airing on US TV).

Although this means people are still buying Viz's horrible release of the Inuyasha manga. /images/graemlins/cry00000.gif

[michaelwb]

[ QUOTE ]
Kevinroc said:
You know what's interesting. Subtract Fruits Basket and DN Angel from that list (two shoujo titles) and everything on there has had American tv exposure (Kenshin being the only one on that list currently not airing on US TV).


[/ QUOTE ]

Which is just a reminder of how important TV airings are for sales. Some folks forget because they spend too much time in the echo chamber here that AoD and regular manga buyers are are smaller than TV audiences.

And of course the list is also a reminder of how Viz has roared out of the gate after a slow start when Toykopop shifted the market with unflipped, cheaper titles.

[quenelf]

[ QUOTE ]
michaelwb said:
Which is just a reminder of how important TV airings are for sales. Some folks forget because they spend too much time in the echo chamber here that AoD and regular manga buyers are are smaller than TV audiences.


[/ QUOTE ]

'Smaller'? In terms of numbers of people just watching TV, sure, but not all of those buy the manga.

DN Angel is #1, so by definition it's bigger than anything on TV. In previous weeks, various Fruits Basket titles have dominated the #1 spot (and held other chart positions too). Furuba isn't on TV either.

Now OK, sure if you added up all those Naruto volumes then presumably they'd be well ahead of DN Angel, but it remains to be seen whether that initial boost will keep going after a month or so.

So I'd say that on the contrary, these charts demonstrate that regular manga fans have similar buying power to those who buy manga only because they saw a show on TV.

(Also, of course, many fans who begin with Naruto will try other manga too - just as many who are anime fans now began by watching Sailor Moon.)

--quen

[Jarred]

[ QUOTE ]
quen said:
DN Angel is #1, so by definition it's bigger than anything on TV. In previous weeks, various Fruits Basket titles have dominated the #1 spot (and held other chart positions too). Furuba isn't on TV either.


[/ QUOTE ]
Of course, one could argue that those two titles are only in the Top 10 because of the anime releases which have been successful. Fruits Basket took a while to catch on with DVD, but by the time the first volume of the manga came out, the DVDs had been on the market for a year and a half and there was a strong following. DN Angel started out in manga before the DVDs came out, but now that the DVD run has finished (and quite successfully as it was a big seller), there's no doubt that it has helped boost its sales as well. It also helps that both of these titles have more story to tell outside of the anime, so it brings in readers that way.


[ QUOTE ]
So I'd say that on the contrary, these charts demonstrate that regular manga fans have similar buying power to those who buy manga only because they saw a show on TV.

[/ QUOTE ]
These charts demonstrate that having a top selling anime counterpart boosts your manga sales; TV helps and so does having a successful selling DVD.

[quenelf]

[ QUOTE ]
Jarred said:
Of course, one could argue that those two titles are only in the Top 10 because of the anime releases which have been successful.

[/ QUOTE ]

Do you have sources for that? I thought Furuba had been rather unsuccessful as anime, at least by Funimation standards - initially failing (at the high price-per-disc model) and only becoming somewhat respectable after the reprice.

No idea about D.N.Angel, it's not something I'd really heard of particularly - well I'd heard of the manga but didn't know there was an anime! Heh.

I'm willing to bet that neither were anywhere near #1 anime titles though.

For RuroKen, that might make more difference as there was a huge fan following from the anime (certainly much bigger than Furuba), although that was a number of years ago.

--quen

[JBourque]

As another poster comments, it may be more important that an anime has had a noticeable release rather than a "successful" one. That's the breaks for you. Though, publishers make profits on more than the top 10, too. There's just no substitute for visibility, though.

[Noodle]

[ QUOTE ]
quen said:
[ QUOTE ]
Jarred said:
Of course, one could argue that those two titles are only in the Top 10 because of the anime releases which have been successful.

[/ QUOTE ]

Do you have sources for that? I thought Furuba had been rather unsuccessful as anime, at least by Funimation standards - initially failing (at the high price-per-disc model) and only becoming somewhat respectable after the reprice.

No idea about D.N.Angel, it's not something I'd really heard of particularly - well I'd heard of the manga but didn't know there was an anime! Heh.

I'm willing to bet that neither were anywhere near #1 anime titles though.

For RuroKen, that might make more difference as there was a huge fan following from the anime (certainly much bigger than Furuba), although that was a number of years ago.

--quen

[/ QUOTE ]

By the posts dropped around these parts, the DNAngel anime has indeed been a very good seller for ADV. Recently started releasing in the UK too I believe, but not positive. With regards to Fruits Basket, I think that has become immensely popular, actually, since the drop in price/cheap boxset release .. at least from my own experience, I've spoken to people buying the FB manga who are NOT anime fans in general, but love the FB anime ... so since it's not on TV, they're seeing it on dvd. (I bought it new as it came out the first time.. so I don't really know, though.) EITHER WAY however, the manga sales are still going to be hepled by the presence of an anime -- tv, dvd, whatever. It's a known fact, people will always buy more of what they like. If you can't accept it for the domestic market, take a peek at how manga sales are boosted in Japan when an anime series gains popularity.

[Jake_Forbes]

[ QUOTE ]
quen said:
Now OK, sure if you added up all those Naruto volumes then presumably they'd be well ahead of DN Angel, but it remains to be seen whether that initial boost will keep going after a month or so.
--quen

[/ QUOTE ]

"All those Naruto volumes" have been out for months, or even years. Volumes of Naruto have consistently been in the top 20 since the first volume's release, but for some reason it's rarely hit the #1 spot. That they're all still in the top 20 shows that the series is picking up new readers all the time. DN Angel is a great selling title to be sure, but in a week or two it will likely drop off the top 20 and never come back.

Fullmetal Alchemist 1 is the best-selling single volume of manga this year so far, but Naruto 1 is on a trajectory to pass Chobits 1 & Ruroken 1 to become the best selling volume of manga ever. It was a hit without the TV help (I wrote about it at the Pulse two weeks ago), but the extra exposure it taking it to the next level.

-J

[Jarred]

[ QUOTE ]
quen said:
[ QUOTE ]
Jarred said:
Of course, one could argue that those two titles are only in the Top 10 because of the anime releases which have been successful.

[/ QUOTE ]

Do you have sources for that? I thought Furuba had been rather unsuccessful as anime, at least by Funimation standards - initially failing (at the high price-per-disc model) and only becoming somewhat respectable after the reprice.

No idea about D.N.Angel, it's not something I'd really heard of particularly - well I'd heard of the manga but didn't know there was an anime! Heh.

I'm willing to bet that neither were anywhere near #1 anime titles though.


[/ QUOTE ]
No sources, but it's just the general feel I get from reading comments on both titles from studio reps and others. Furuba started off slow yes, but it has quite caught on, especially with the box set release. FUNI has put out a good amount of merch and started a campaign to get more made, something I don't think they would have done if it wasn't a success.

DNAngel I know I saw around the top of the best seller's list over at AnimeOneStop when each volume came out. Yes, I know, it's just one site, but it seems to follow what else is selling well like GITS, FMA, etc. Other sources: ICv2 (http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/6641.html) (ADV ... has had several titles do well in Q1 (Chrono Crusade, Gantz, and DNAngel). Even in press releases (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/pressrelease.php?id=1043) from ADV they talked it up as their "best-selling anime series" and "One of the top anime series of 2005".

They aren't #1 anime titles, but they have gotten a lot of exposure.

[quenelf]

[ QUOTE ]
Noodle said:
If you can't accept it for the domestic market, take a peek at how manga sales are boosted in Japan when an anime series gains popularity.

[/ QUOTE ]

Oh, I certainly accept it. I just think that for something like Furuba, the manga is really immensely popular - I mean it's been all over the #1 slot for ages. I think the DVDs would have to sell like Ghost in the Shell or FMA or something to match that.

Consequently, I think it's actually more likely that the *manga* is encouraging *DVD* sales than the other way around. But of course there will certainly be some of both and it's definitely a synergistic thing.

So, no argument here that DVD sales help manga sales - but it's vice-versa too and I don't think it is the only factor, particularly with Furuba where the manga is clearly more successful than the DVDs.

Thanks for the information (other post too) re sales of these series - OK, there is some source, it wasn't just assumptions.

--quen

PS I wonder if one factor in which Furuba anime sales help the manga sales is that the anime so obviously didn't really finish? So you have lots of anime fans wanting more story... hell, I'm one of them, I'm considering getting the Furuba manga some time.