Anime Decline Hitting Bottom? (Mania.com)

The new ICv2 Insiders Guide is out that details what's going on in the world of anime and manga and it has some positive news. According to the issue, anime sales only fell 2% in comparison to the same time last year, which is impressive considering the overall drop in sales over the last several quarters, especially with the drawing down of retail product available at locations such as Best Buy. At this time last year in comparison to 2007, sales had fallen around 11% which was significant to say the least and came at a time when the entire industry had buzz about disappearing, ADV Films shuttering their downs and a general slowdown or delay of releases across the board.

When it comes to what's selling by how ICv2 calculates it, there are some interesting revelations to be found. The top titles of Afro Samurai, Naruto and Dragon Ball Z are all to be expected by FUNimation must be pleased by the showing of Ouran High School as well as the strength of the repackaging of Yu Yu Hakusho into slim season sets. Bandai often doesn't make the list but they scored well with the Cowboy Bebop Remix set - presumably based on news circulating of the live action movie - and Code Geass. Viz Media continues to have strong evergreen titles with Bleach and Pokemon while continuing to earn their green with Naruto.

ICv2 also breaks down the top manga properties in general and by gender genres which are useful to look at as you can get a hint as to what may be coming for anime releases that are adapted from these manga. For the overall property list, the usual titles continue to do well though it will be interesting to see how Fruits Basket continues as it draws down to its ending.

When it comes to the gender genres, there's a lot of familiarity. On the Shojo side, there's a bit more variety as Viz Media doesn't dominate the top five,

On the Shonen side,the familiarity is there as well with a few surprises and this list overall is a bit more diverse when you look at the top ten.

ICv2 does publish more extensive lists that are worth checking out if you want to see if your favorites made it into the top twenty five overall or the top ten for the shonen or shojo categories.