Database Additions this week
Bloody Monday 7 – Kodansha Comics, Aug 2012
Hunter x Hunter 28 – Viz Shonen Jump Advanced, Sep 2012
Clockwork Sky 1 – Seven Seas, Sep 2012
The Hentai Prince and the Stony Cat – DMP, Nov 2012
Is This a Zombie? 3 – Yen Press, Nov 2012
Hot & Steamy 1 – DMP Project H, Jan 2013
Bleach 55 – Viz Shonen Jump, Feb 2013
Awkward Silence 3 – SuBLime, Feb 2013
One Piece 66 – Viz Shonen Jump, Mar 2013
Negima! 38 – Kodansha Comics, Apr 2013
Black Butler 13 – Yen Press, Apr 2013
Bunny Drop 8 – Yen Press, Apr 2013
Naruto 61 – Viz Shonen Jump, May 2013
Dengeki Daisy 12 – Viz Shojo Beat, May 2013
Awkward Silence 4 – SuBLime, May 2013
The Clockwork Sky is a prequel of sorts by Madeleine Rosca, to her 3-volume (internationally Award winning) Hollow Fields – it’s “not manga” for those who are purists about these things, but Hollow Fields was a lovely steampunk-schoolkids romp and the book trailer Tor put out to promote the book promises more of the same. I say ‘prequel of sorts’ as I don’t know how, or how directly, Clockwork Sky is related to the characters & story of Hollow Fields, but obviously I’m looking forward to this one.
There is a whole of of “volume n+1” up there, with all the usual suspects from Kodansha, Viz, and Yen. The only real head-scratcher was The Hentai Prince and the Stony Cat. A quick search pulls up DMP’s web listing for the book – and despite the title, this isn’t a Project H or 801 book – it’s under DMP’s main imprint. As a single volume one shot (and given the premise) I’m not so sure about this one, but I’ll read the reviews to see if I’m wrong.
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It was just last week that Yu-Gi-Oh finally overcame Sailor Moon, and we all know Yugi is popular, and there’s the cartoon, trading card game, and all of that so it’s not a huge surprise.
Unlike Sailor Moon, though — which is showing strong sales and strong preorders for the unreleased books, only the five most recent Yu-Gi-Oh titles make the Top 500 this week. There is a bit of a drop-off as well, much further down the charts, as nothing that isn’t 5Ds, Zexal, or GX manages to crack the top 1000. To me this suggests a ‘subscriber’ model where new books get picked up by current fans, but fewer readers are picking up the series from the beginning. We could compare Yu-Gi-Oh to Naruto, which has vols 1-5 all still in the Top 500 [Naruto Vol. 1 was released in 2003] or even One Piece, volume one of which current outranks Naruto 1 and Bleach 1. Not every ‘bestseller’ works in quite they same way, and there are many different ways to consider sales.
Of course, it might not be fair of me to lump all the Yu-Gi-Oh series and spinoffs into a single block, as kids currently watching the cartoon likely only think of their version as the one worth following – even so, I’d expect stronger sales from 5Ds or Zexal — or maybe fans need to tie-up the plot & storylines because 4Kids never aired the 4th season of the Anime?
The Top 10 Yu-Gi-Oh books are:
1. ↔0 (1) : Yu-Gi-Oh! GX 9 – Viz Shonen Jump, Aug 2012 [425.0] ::
148. ↑29 (177) : Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal 1 – Viz Shonen Jump, Jun 2012 [77.8] ::
329. ↑83 (412) : Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds 3 – Viz Shonen Jump, Jun 2012 [37.1] ::
438. ↑2 (440) : Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds 2 – Viz Shonen Jump, Feb 2012 [25.7] ::
499. ↑12 (511) : Yu-Gi-Oh! GX 8 – Viz Shonen Jump, Jan 2012 [21.6] ::
524. ↑175 (699) : Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal 2 – Viz Shonen Jump, Dec 2012 [20.6] ::
738. ↑26 (764) : Yu-Gi-Oh! GX 1 – Viz Shonen Jump, Nov 2007 [10.5] ::
762. ↓-31 (731) : Yu-Gi-Oh! GX 2 – Viz Shonen Jump, Nov 2008 [9.8] ::
773. ↑67 (840) : Yu-Gi-Oh! GX 6 – Viz Shonen Jump, Mar 2011 [9.4] ::
1001. ↑27 (1028) : Yu-Gi-Oh! GX 7 – Viz Shonen Jump, Aug 2011 [4.4] ::
and the top 12 Sailor Moon:
2. ↑2 (4) : Sailor Moon 3 – Kodansha Comics, Jan 2012 [422.3] ::
3. ↔0 (3) : Sailor Moon 4 – Kodansha Comics, Mar 2012 [396.5] ::
4. ↓-2 (2) : Sailor Moon 1 – Kodansha Comics, Sep 2011 [392.6] ::
5. ↔0 (5) : Sailor Moon 2 – Kodansha Comics, Nov 2011 [378.3] ::
9. ↔0 (9) : Sailor Moon 6 – Kodansha Comics, Jun 2012 [325.5] ::
12. ↑2 (14) : Sailor Moon 7 – Kodansha Comics, Sep 2012 [288.8] ::
13. ↓-1 (12) : Sailor Moon 5 – Kodansha Comics, Apr 2012 [285.8] ::
18. ↓-5 (13) : Sailor Moon 9 – Kodansha Comics, Jan 2013 [262.1] ::
19. ↑2 (21) : Sailor Moon 8 – Kodansha Comics, Nov 2012 [246.9] ::
21. ↓-1 (20) : Sailor Moon Codename: Sailor V 2 – Kodansha Comics, Nov 2011 [244.1] ::
27. ↓-2 (25) : Sailor Moon Codename: Sailor V 1 – Kodansha Comics, Sep 2011 [212.4] ::
29. ↓-3 (26) : Sailor Moon 10 – Kodansha Comics, Mar 2013 [204.3] ::
…a casual observer might note, every last Sailor Moon book is in the top 30, at least based on online sales — and that 3 of these books aren’t even out yet — and that the #2 ranked Yu-Gi-Oh book comes in ranked at 148th for the week.
