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Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba's Koyoharu Gotouge Wins Noma Publishing Culture Award

Kodansha awarded Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba's manga creator Koyoharu Gotouge in its second Noma Publishing Culture Awards on Monday. The award honors those who have made excellent contributions to publishing, particularly to "reinventing publishing." Gotouge won the award due to the circulation of the Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba manga topping 100 million copies, and strong sales of the franchise's anime, games, novels, spinoff manga, and merchandise which have boosted the entire publishing industry from 2019 well into 2020.

Kodansha also gave the award to Nintendo's Animal Crossing: New Horizons game this year because the game has set records by selling over 22.4 million units worldwide. In addition, it offers potential as a new medium of expression that goes beyond the previous limitations of games.

The company awarded novelist Jun Ikeido due to his bestselling Hanzawa Naoki, Downtown Rocket, and No Side Game books.

Kodansha's inaugural Noma Publishing Culture Award ceremony honored in 2019 anime film director Makoto Shinkai (your name., Weathering With You), manga publishers Ribon and Nakayoshi, acclaimed novelist Keigo Higashino, and magazine models Mai Shiraishi and Erika Ikuta, both of whom are members of the idol group Nogizaka46.

According to Oricon, the Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba manga franchise has sold a total of 90.518 million print copies in Japan — the second highest manga series total that Oricon has recorded since it began publishing its book sales charts. The manga has 100 million copies in circulation (including digital copies, which Oricon does not count) as of the 22nd volume's release on October 2. It is the eighth manga title from Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine to reach 100 million copies in circulation (not sales).

All 22 volumes of Koyoharu Gotouge's Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba manga occupied the top 22 spots in Oricon's comic sales chart for the October 19-25 week — the first time any series has accomplished this feat since Oricon began publishing its book sales charts in April 2008. The 22nd volume has now ranked at #1 for four consecutive weeks, with 326,000 print copies sold so far. The series overall has now occupied the entire weekly top 10 chart a record six times since the manga began.

Shueisha revealed in November 2019 that the Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba manga was the company's second highest-selling manga in 2019, second only to Eiichiro Oda's One Piece manga.

The manga debuted in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine in February 2016, and ended on May 18. The book franchise also includes several novels.

The manga inspired a television anime that premiered in April 2019, and aired its 26th and final episode in September 2019.

Aniplex of America describes the television anime's story:

It is the Taisho Period in Japan. Tanjiro, a kindhearted boy who sells charcoal for a living, finds his family slaughtered by a demon. To make matters worse, his younger sister Nezuko, the sole survivor, has been transformed into a demon herself.

Though devastated by this grim reality, Tanjiro resolves to become a “demon slayer” so that he can turn his sister back into a human, and kill the demon that massacred his family.

The Demon Slayer – Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train anime film opened on October 16. Funimation and Aniplex of America will screen the film in theaters in North America in early 2021.

Sources: Kodansha, Comic Natalie