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Tokyo Revengers Manga Has Over 25 Million Copies in Circulation
posted on by Alex Mateo
The official Twitter account for Ken Wakui's Tokyo Revengers manga announced on Wednesday that the manga has more than 25 million copies in circulation, thanks to new printings of all of its volumes. The account had announced earlier in June that the manga has more than 20 million copies in circulation. Wakui drew an illustration to commemorate that earlier milestone.
The manga had about 10 million copies at the end of March prior to the anime's April premiere. The Kodansha sales department's Takuya Watanabe stated that what supported the doubled circulation numbers was increased female readership, which he stated was due to the popularity of the handsome characters.
The marketing firm AMF reported on Wednesday that Tokyo Revengers was the #2 trending buzzword in the item category among Japanese female middle and high school students in the first half of 2021.
The 25 million is for copies in circulation that are not necessarily all sold, and are not copies printed and sold. The number is not a sales statistic.
When Kodansha announced that it would release a set of the manga's first four compiled book volumes with covers featuring the live-action film's cast, preorders quickly sold out. Reprints have already been decided prior to Wednesday's release.
The manga had over 14.5 million copies in circulation in May. The manga had added about six million copies since the television anime adaptation premiered on April 10, which was a 670% sales jump since the end of March. Kodansha reported that response to the manga since the anime started has been positive and bigger than it expected, with about 2.4 books sold per second.
The manga had 5 million copies in circulation in September 2020, and about 8 million copies in February 2020.
Wakui launched the manga in Kodansha's Weekly Shōnen Magazine in March 2017, and Kodansha published the manga's 22nd compiled book volume on April 16.
Kodansha Comics is publishing the manga digitally in English, and it describes the story:
Watching the news, Takemichi Hanagaki learns that his girlfriend from way back in middle school, Hinata Tachibana, has died. The only girlfriend he ever had was just killed by a villainous group known as the Tokyo Manji Gang. He lives in a crappy apartment with thin walls, and his six-years-younger boss treats him like an idiot. Plus, he's a complete and total virgin … At the height of his rock-bottom life, he suddenly time-leaps twelve years back to his middle school days!! To save Hinata, and change the life he spent running away, hopeless part-timer Takemichi must aim for the top of Kanto's most sinister delinquent gang!!
The anime debuted on the MBS channel on April 10. Crunchyroll is streaming the anime as it airs in Japan.
Koichi Hatsumi (Berserk: The Golden Age Arc I - The Egg of the King, Blue Exorcist: Kyoto Saga, Deadman Wonderland, Gangsta.) is directing the anime at LIDEN FILMS, and Yasuyuki Mutō (Basilisk, Deadman Wonderland, Sengoku Basara - Samurai Kings) is in charge of the series scripts. Kenichi Ohnuki (Golden Kamuy, Gundam Build Fighters) and Keiko Ōta (Ace Attorney, Hyakko) are designing the characters. Satoki Iida is directing the sound, and Hiroaki Tsutsumi (Children of the Whales, Dr. Stone, Jujutsu Kaisen) is composing the music.
Warner Bros. Japan is making a live-action film of the manga, which was slated to open in Japan in October 2020 but will now open on July 9. Tsutomu Hanabusa (live-action Kakegurui, Miseinen dakedo Kodomo ja Nai) is directing the film.
Sources: Tokyo Revengers manga's Twitter account (link 2), Mainichi Shimbun's Mantan Web, PR Times via Otakomu
