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Best Selling Manga




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Redbeard 101
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Joined: 14 Aug 2006
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 24, 2006 2:38 pm Reply with quote
Alright, I am not sure if the mods would lock this or not. I think it meets the rules and all that and it's not a rec. thread. I hope they won't since they are more tolerant here in the manga section. What I'm looking for is a top ten list of best selling manga of all time. Not a weekly or monthly list. I need an as current as possible list of the top 10-20 manga of all time. I tried looking through the site here without much luck and yahoo is just useless. It's only poeple's top ten lists. I need some sort of offical NY times Best Seller's kind of list. This is to settle and argument brewing on another forum site. Any help and links by mods or encyclopedia staff here would also be much appreciated. Thanks.
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jgreen



Joined: 14 Mar 2005
Posts: 1325
Location: St. Louis, MO
PostPosted: Fri Nov 24, 2006 3:33 pm Reply with quote
I sincerely doubt you'll ever track down a list like that. It's especially hard to say since it's not clear how one would compile a list....

- Are you looking for the best-selling single volumes of all time? Because that list would be nothing but Naruto and Fruits Basket, I'd imagine.

- Are you looking for the best-selling series by total numbers? Then you'd be comparing apples and oranges, as there are many series that sell moderately well but are longer than more popular series, stuff like Dragon Ball, InuYasha, and Ranma 1/2 that stretches on for 25 volumes or more, so on total volumes they would get more numbers even though they don't have more readers.

- Are you looking for the best-selling series by average numbers, or in other words, how many people on average read each volume? There's a lot of math involved in creating that list, and the result would change every single month, so the odds of any site maintaining that detailed a list are slim to none. Even icv2, who keep super-detailed sales lists on EVERYTHING only go so far as the top selling manga of each calendar year.

So yeah, I think you're SOL, man. I will say that granted how many Booklist records it shatters that Naruto is pretty safe at number one on your list no matter how you count it.
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Malintex Terek
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 24, 2006 11:24 pm Reply with quote
Sales in America, or Japan? Granted, Japan's list is dominated by Shounen Jump and it's somewhat easy to find total volumes sold there, but in America its a tad more tricky.

I've got Diamond listings, but that's pretty limited in scope.
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HitokiriShadow



Joined: 09 May 2005
Posts: 6251
PostPosted: Fri Nov 24, 2006 11:37 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
I need some sort of offical NY times Best Seller's kind of list.


Those kinds of lists will only show how well individual volumes sell in a given week, not the series as a whole or over a longer period of time. However, Naruto, FullMetal Alchemist and Fruits Basket have been in the Top 50/100/150 lists a good number times. One volume of Naruto made it #26 (I think) on one list and I think that's the record for any manga. But I know all of the aforementioned broke the Top 100 on some list at some point. I know Rurouni Kenshin and Negima have sold very well also and made the lists, though I don't remember how well they did.

So for bestsellers in the U.S., you are probably looking at the following (though not necessarily in this order):

Naruto
Full Metal Alchemist
Fruits Basket
Rurouni Kenshin
Negima

I know Love Hina did pretty well when it was released, but I don't know if it ever got the kinds of numbers these series did. It's hard to say what the top sellers are overall as books are being sold all the time and I don't think total sales lists are available to the public, but when a series is in the Top sellers a number of times, I think that's a pretty good indication that it sells a lot more than other series.

Also, going by the total number of sales of all volumes of a series is a flawed way of measuring a series popularity, if thats what your argument is about. A longer series can get more total sales from fewer people buying the whole thing. Plus there is the fact that 4 of those 5 series still have new volumes coming out. Rurouni Kenshin will continue to sell, but its sales will not increase significantly at this point. All of the other series will see a nice jump in sales each time a new volume is released. Between its currentl popularity and its length, Naruto will probably be the best selling manga of all time soon, if not already.
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Redbeard 101
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 27, 2006 12:48 am Reply with quote
I should be more specific. I'm looking for some list of best selling mangas, as in the manga series as a whole not volumes. Something like; "Top 10 list of manga series based on sales as of 2004." Something like that but as current as possible. I know somewhere someone keeps track of this for sales records and what not. Just can't find where heh. The basic thing boils down to this one poster saying Love Hina is the best selling manga series of all time and myself, and many others, want to show him he's wrong. We're trying to find real proof so we're not just speculating and being dumb.
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FeralKat



Joined: 06 Jan 2005
Posts: 402
PostPosted: Mon Nov 27, 2006 12:58 am Reply with quote
psycho 101 wrote:
I should be more specific. I'm looking for some list of best selling mangas, as in the manga series as a whole not volumes. Something like; "Top 10 list of manga series based on sales as of 2004." Something like that but as current as possible. I know somewhere someone keeps track of this for sales records and what not. Just can't find where heh. The basic thing boils down to this one poster saying Love Hina is the best selling manga series of all time and myself, and many others, want to show him he's wrong. We're trying to find real proof so we're not just speculating and being dumb.


Try ICV2. I don't know if they've compiled any list recently, but I do know that they do some kind of "top selling manga of the year" report every once in a while. Hope that helps!
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HitokiriShadow



Joined: 09 May 2005
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 27, 2006 1:03 am Reply with quote
I don't know of anything like that, but anything like that would be based on individual volumes or sales for that year, not all of the volumes combined ever.

And again, length of the series is important. A thrity volume series will sell more than a five volume series simply because it is longer. In order to accurately compare series, you need to look at the individual volume sales, particularly the last ones (early ones will sell more than later ones since people may lose interest in the series later on).

Quote:
The basic thing boils down to this one poster saying Love Hina is the best selling manga series of all time and myself, and many others, want to show him he's wrong.


Does it really matter? This is the internet and he's free to think what he want even if he's wrong. And I'm positive he is. I don't have numbers, but I'm absolutley sure that the series I mentioned have sold more, both per volume and total. I don't think any information you show him is going to convince him otherwise.
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Redbeard 101
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 27, 2006 12:33 pm Reply with quote
The only reason we're so dead set on showing him he's wrong is that at this forum he is a problem child. He's been suspended before a few times for a week or two and he's very argumentative to the point of ignorance. Anytime someone disagrees with him he wants to drop the subject and start some new argument. He's a Love Hina addict/freak so we're trying to show him he's wrong so he'll just shut up about it and give us some peace.
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HitokiriShadow



Joined: 09 May 2005
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 27, 2006 1:04 pm Reply with quote
With his kind, it won't make a difference. You cannot make him realize he is wrong (or at least not admit it), no matter what proof you show him. Just ignore him. If he's that much of a problem, the mods should just ban him.
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jgreen



Joined: 14 Mar 2005
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Location: St. Louis, MO
PostPosted: Mon Nov 27, 2006 1:34 pm Reply with quote
From October 2006 (here: http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/9478.html)

ICv2 Top Ten Manga Properties

1. Naruto

2. Fruits Basket

3. Kingdom Hearts

4. Full Metal Alchemist

5. Loveless

6. Death Note

7. Bleach

8. Tsubasa

9. Absolute Boyfriend

10. Negima

From elsewhere on ICV2:

Top selling title 0f 2004 (# of copies) - Rurouni Kenshin
Top selling title of 2004 ($$$) - Fruits Basket
Top selling title of 2005 - Fullmetal Alchemist Vol. 1

More about how huge Naruto is:

In its first full week of release Masashi Kishimoto's Naruto Vol. 11 published by Viz sold more copies in a seven-day period than any other graphic novel has managed to do in bookstores so far in 2006. How hot is Naruto? Naruto Vol. 9, which debuted in March, remains the best-selling graphic novel of 2006 so far according to the BookScan report of bookstore sales -- and all of the first ten volumes in the series would all rank in the top 12 in year-to-date sales with only DC's V for Vendetta and Tokyopop's Fruits Basket Vol. 13 interrupting Naruto's dominance.

Conversely, Love Hina's best performance I can find is #8 (here: animenewsnetwork.com/article.php?id=2881). Let's see....one volume at #8 vs. 10 volumes in the top 12......I'd say Naruto is a bit more popular, wouldn't you?
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Kagemusha



Joined: 20 Feb 2004
Posts: 2783
Location: Boston
PostPosted: Mon Nov 27, 2006 7:28 pm Reply with quote
For a while (at least before the manga "boom" in 03-04) I remember hearing Pokemon sold very well for Viz, even by today's standards (remember, this was during the craze in the late '90s). I don't think there are any good sales figures online for it though.
Today, I'd guess it would be Rurouni Kenshin. Individual volumes (the later ones) didn't sell as well as things like Naruto or Fruits Basket do, but the fact that there were 28 of them probobly gives it the win, at least for now. Many of today's manga fans have ignored it, but Lone Wolf and Cub is definitally near the top, as its moved around a million units in total.
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Redbeard 101
Oscar the Grouch
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PostPosted: Wed Nov 29, 2006 10:29 am Reply with quote
Thank you very much jgreen. You are a prince among men heh.
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jgreen



Joined: 14 Mar 2005
Posts: 1325
Location: St. Louis, MO
PostPosted: Wed Nov 29, 2006 3:42 pm Reply with quote
psycho 101 wrote:
Thank you very much jgreen. You are a prince among men heh.


Nah, you just caught me on a slow day at work. Wink
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