Introducing: Manga Radar

I do a lot of data entry for the Manga Bestseller charts.

No, really: you have no idea. Archived web pages for one week of data takes up 200MB — I distill those web sites into 3,500 or so individual line-items, and then I combine those listings (with weighted scores) with last week’s (scores discounted), drop all that into the prexisting framework (publishing data, historical rankings) and run the numbers. Right now, “running the numbers” means compliling a Top 500 Manga and what is now seven ancilliary charts. Takes an hour or so.

All that, and yet: there are still gems to be found buried deep in Mount MangaData.

About a month ago, I emailed MJwith the idea for a new weekly post; a sort of “advanced doppler radar” for manga where I take all the newest additions to my database & make them visible.

This new report is not the same as a weekly “new manga” post, as I am not checking Diamond or publishers’ websites for new releases; my process typically unearths manga that won’t be out for another 3 or 4 months. Also, occasionally I turn up an old “new” title: manga from 2000-2006 that I wasn’t previously tracking (mostly because I’d never heard of it before).

As this is the first of these posts, tentatively named “Manga Radar”, I thought it might be worthwhile to pull not one but three weeks worth of titles:

20 November 2011

A Certain Scientific Railgun 5 – Seven Seas, Aug 2012
Bad Teacher’s Equation 3 – DMP Juné, Jan 2012
Bamboo Blade 13 – Yen Press, May 2012
Bamboo Blade 14 – Yen Press, Aug 2012
Border 3 – DMP Juné, Jan 2012
D. Gray-Man Illustrations – Viz Shonen Jump Advanced, Dec 2011
Fairy Tail 20 – Kodansha Comics, Jul 2012
Haruhi Suzumiya Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya 11 – Yen Press, Feb 2012
Haruhi Suzumiya Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya 12 – Yen Press, May 2012
Haruhi Suzumiya Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya 13 – Yen Press, Aug 2012
Kizuna Deluxe Edition 5 – DMP Juné, Jan 2012
Naruto 57 – Viz Shonen Jump, Jul 2012
Naruto 58 – Viz Shonen Jump, Sep 2012
One Piece 63 – Viz Shonen Jump, Jul 2012
One Piece 64 – Viz Shonen Jump, Sep 2012
Tesoro – Viz Sig Ikki, Nov 2011
The Art of The Secret World of Arrietty – Viz Ghibli Library, Feb 2012
Warriors SkyClan & The Stranger 3 – HarperCollins, Apr 2012

Boys over Flowers Jewelry Box – Viz, Oct 2009
Short Cuts 1 – Viz, Jul 2002
Short Cuts 2 – Viz, Sep 2003
Tori Koro 1 – DrMaster, Aug 2005
Tori Koro 2 – DrMaster, Jan 2006

27 November 2011

Durarara!! 1 – Yen Press, Jan 2012
Durarara!! 2 – Yen Press, Apr 2012
Durarara!! 3 – Yen Press, Jun 2012
Gossip Girl 3 – Yen Press, Nov 2011
Neon Genesis Evnagelion The Shinji Ikari Raising Project 10 – Dark Horse, Jan 2012
Pandora Hearts 9 – Yen Press, Mar 2012
Tokyo Mew Mew Omnibus 2 – Kodansha Comics, Dec 2011

Baby Birth 1 – Tokyopop, Sep 2003
Baby Birth 2 – Tokyopop, Nov 2003

4 December 2011

Amazing Agent Luna Prequel: Amazing Agent Jennifer 2 – Seven Seas, Jan 2012 ::
Blue Exorcist 7 – Viz Shonen Jump Advanced, Apr 2012 ::
Dance in the Vampire Bund 12 – Seven Seas, Jun 2012 ::
Devil’s Infirmary – 801 Media, Feb 2012 ::
Haruhi Suzumiya The Wavering of Haruhi Suzumiya (novel) – Little, Brown & Co., Nov 2011 ::
Haruhi Suzumiya The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-Chan 1 – Yen Press, Jul 2012 ::
Kannagi 4 – Bandai, Cancelled ::
My Sempai (ebook) – DMP Digital Manga Guild, Nov 2011 ::
Only the Flower Knows (ebook) 1 – DMP Digital Manga Guild, Nov 2011 ::
Rainy Day Love (ebook) – DMP Digital Manga Guild, Nov 2011 ::
Shugo Chara! Shugo Chara-Chan! 1 – Kodansha Comics, Nov 2011 ::
Shugo Chara! Shugo Chara-Chan! 2 – Kodansha Comics, Jan 2012 ::
Shugo Chara! Shugo Chara-Chan! 3 – Kodansha Comics, Mar 2012 ::
Shugo Chara! Shugo Chara-Chan! 4 – Kodansha Comics, Jun 2012 ::
The Betrayal Knows My Name 3 – Yen Press, Apr 2012 ::
The Song of Rainfall (ebook) – DMP Digital Manga Guild, Nov 2011 ::

Sand Land – Viz Shonen Jump, Jan 2004

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Kannagi, volume 4 deserves a special note: I added it to my database just in time for Bandai to cancel it. It’s a detail worth noting: Just because a manga volume is listed on an online sales site as being available for pre-order, that’s no guarantee the book will come out on the advertised date, or at all.

The top pre-orders are already a part of my weekly reporting, but in this context I think the top 10 is worth reposting:

Top 10 Preorders, 4 December 2011

15. ↓-7 (8) : Sailor Moon 3 – Kodansha Comics, Jan 2012 [306.0] ::
29. ↓-9 (20) : Sailor Moon 4 – Kodansha Comics, Mar 2012 [246.6] ::
31. ↓-13 (18) : Sailor Moon 5 – Kodansha Comics, Apr 2012 [242.6] ::
56. ↑27 (83) : Sailor Moon 6 – Kodansha Comics, Jun 2012 [158.3] ::
84. ↑11 (95) : Negima! 33 – Kodansha Comics, Jan 2012 [120.6] ::
114. ↓-14 (100) : Black Butler 8 – Yen Press, Jan 2012 [101.3] ::
117. ↓-16 (101) : Dance in the Vampire Bund 11 – Seven Seas, Jan 2012 [99.3] ::
118. ↓-9 (109) : Negima! 34 – Kodansha Comics, Apr 2012 [98.1] ::
135. ↓-7 (128) : Private Teacher 2 – DMP Juné, Jan 2012 [86.0] ::
162. ↑2 (164) : Toradora! 4 – Seven Seas, Apr 2012 [68.3] ::