Sales and speculation on success of anime.

Anime or any other media project are gradually becoming more important nowadays for manga publisher in Japan. Not only can they provide increased exposure within the domestic market, but also to the international market. So as a result the media department is becoming more important in any publisher. To relate to how this means anything to Shonen Magazines and specifically Champion, I will look at previous series in WSC that received anime in recent times and how these fared. Following, this I will take the chance to compare them to the Champion series that had anime announced recently. I make reference here to anime only because it is the most popular media project for manga, there are live dramas, movies, games and the likes too of course.

Yowamushi Pedal was placed in 10th in the Kono Manga ga Sugoi list in 2010. However, this alone did not boost its growth. Its sales had been gradually growing from volume to volume until it reached an apparent peak prior to the anime. It sales increased significantly throughout the first season of the anime which was very popular.

**│*23,586(7)│ -----│ -----│------┃*23,586(7)┃2010/06｜Yowamushi Pedal 10
**│*19,755(4)│------│ -----│------┃*19,755 (4)┃2010/09｜Yowamushi Pedal 11
**│*25,674(6)│------│ -----│------┃*25,674 (6)┃2011/02｜Yowamushi Pedal 12
**│*17,913(3)│*31,135│ -----│------┃*31,135 (10)┃2010/06｜Yowamushi Pedal 13
**│*21,789(3)│------│ -----│------┃*21,789 (3)┃2010/09｜Yowamushi Pedal 14
**│*32,691(5)│------│ -----│------┃*32,691 (5)┃2011/02｜Yowamushi Pedal 15

Pre TV anime

**│*35,504(3)│------│ -----│------┃*35,504 (3)┃2013/03｜Yowamushi Pedal 27

**│*41,272(5)│------│ -----│------┃*41,272 (5)┃2013/05｜Yowamushi Pedal 28

Anime Airing

**│*43,731(3)│*76,804│ -----│------┃*76,804 (10)┃2013/12｜Yowamushi Pedal 31

**│*70,706(5)│*96,824│ -----│------┃*96,824 (12)┃2014/01｜Yowamushi Pedal 32
**│*111,432(6)│*135,902│ -----│------┃*135,902 (13)┃2014/04｜Yowamushi Pedal 33
**│*89,559(3)│*146,799│ -----│------┃*146,799 (10)┃2014/06｜Yowamushi Pedal 34

Source - Oricon

Yowamushi Pedal V19 - 3M
Yowamushi Pedal V29 - 4M - Mid 2013
Yowamushi Pedal V30 - 5M - October 2013 - Start of the anime.
Yowamushi Pedal V35 - 10M - September 2014

Mitsudomoe was a strong seller prior to its anime announcement in late 2009. The TV anime aired in July 2010 during the summer season, a bit after the release of the 9th volume at which point it had 1M copies in print. The boost it received was decent but not astounding possibly due to the anime poor performance. It was received a second season which aired in Winter 2011. Mitsudomoe soon after went into a long hiatus that ended when it was moved to Bessatsu Shonen Champion.

**│*22,101(7)│ -----│ -----│------┃*22,101(7)┃2010/06｜Mitsudomoe 6
**│*24,883(5)│------│ -----│------┃*24883 (*7)┃2010/09｜Mitsudomoe 7
**│*11,851(3)│*29,536│ -----│------┃*29536 (*10)┃2011/02｜Mitsudomoe 8
**│*23,771(6)│ -----│ -----│------┃*23771 (6)┃2010/06｜Mitsudomoe 9
**│*34,985(5)│------│ -----│------┃*34,985 (*5)┃2010/09｜Mitsudomoe 10
**│*45,896(6)│------│ -----│------┃*45,896 (*6)┃2011/02｜Mitsudomoe 11

Source - Oricon

Shinryaku! Ika Musume at the time of its anime announcement had 7 volumes released, with 450k copies in print in total. The sales had been steadily growing and the anime enhanced this growth and gave it a notable boost. It also received a second season as the anime itself was reasonably popular unlike Mitsudomoe anime which gave a boost but was a failure.  

**│*9,669(4)│ -----│ -----│------┃*9,669 (4)┃201/｜Shinryaku! Ika Musume 5
**│*11,484(4)│ -----│ -----│------┃*11,484 (4)┃201/｜Shinryaku! Ika Musume 6
**│*24,097(5)│------│ -----│------┃*24,097 (*5)┃201｜Shinryaku! Ika Musume 8
**│*13,813(3)│------│ -----│------┃*35,419 (*10)┃201｜Shinryaku! Ika Musume 10

Source - Oricon

These are the three WSC series that received anime a while ago and I had access to sales and print data thanks to 5ch for the most part. I excluded Jitsu wa Watashi wa because the anime failed to give any notable growth to series, largely due to the big failure of the anime. The series's sales were stagnated, prior to the airing of the anime it had 1.5M copies in print. Its last update in numbers of copies in print showed 2.5M copies in print with 21 volumes. Another series, I excluded, is Magical Girl Site the series was in decline and the anime might have simply slowed that down but it was still a failure. As for Kujira no Kora wa Sajou ni Utau anime, I excluded because I do not hold enough data to display.

Beastars had a decent sales even prior to winning the awards and gaining significant exposure. its print numbers tripled during 2018. It became a massive success and is still growing albeit at a slower pace.

Beastars V6 - 600K - Prior to winning awards
Beastars V7 - 1.1M
Beastars V8 - 1.3M
Beastars V10 - 1.8M

Source - Heiji


**│*12823(5)│------│ -----│------┃*12823 (*5)┃2017/11｜BEASTARS 7 
**│*29494(6)│------│ -----│------┃*29494 (*6)┃2018/05｜BEASTARS 8 
**│*20522(3)│*43185│ -----│------┃*43185 (10)┃2018/07｜BEASTARS 9 
**│*23223(3)│*46482│ -----│------┃*46482 (10)┃2018/09｜BEASTARS 10 
**│*30531(4)│*50822│ -----│------┃*50822 (11)┃2018/11｜BEASTARS 11 
**│*29228(3)│*56657│ -----│------┃*56657 (10)┃2017/11｜BEASTARS 12 


Source - Oricon.


The Oricon sales did highlight to some degree the increase in sales when compared to the increase in print numbers. This increase was made possible largely due to the publicity coming from awards mainly the Cartoon Prize Award and but less the 2nd place in Kono Manga ga Sugoi rankings. Beastars, however, did not just bag these awards it received others, some of lower publicity value but of higher critical value.

Darwin's Game sales seem to have reached a peak at the moment. It grew significantly from the first few volumes and it gradually reached a peak within the last few volumes at least in regards to its sales shown in Oricon. There is still nothing new on the anime. The worries about this anime is the tire of death game series with recent anime series in this genre performing quite badly, though this was not because of the genre alone, obviously there were others factors involved. 

Darwin's Game V16 - 2M
Darwin's Game V16 - 2.2M

Source - Heiji

**│*24716(3)│*51635│ -----│------┃*51635 (10)┃2018/07｜Darwins's Game 13 
**│*30160(4)│*50684│ -----│------┃*50684 (11)┃2018/09｜Darwin's Game 14
**│*28708(5)│*47576│ -----│------┃*47576 (12)┃2018/11｜Darwin's Game 15 
**│*24700(4)│*42489│ -----│------┃*42489 (11)┃2017/11｜Darwin's Game 16 

Source - Oricon

If there is anything to take from this is the obvious that the boost the manga receives is usually directly correlated with the popularity/reception of the adaption. However, there is something else. Manga that are already popular are likely to get bigger boosts. Yowamushi Pedal was very popular within the magazine and sold very well for a Champion series, in others words it sold well within a restricted environment since Champion is a minor magazine, before going into an anime. The anime was successful and exposed the series to a wider readerbase that previously might not have seen or heard of the manga because it was within this restricted environment with in the Champion readerbase. Obviously, social media and words of mouth online can spread like fire and a manga can become really popular even if its in a minor magazine, a restricted environment. There are other variables that have to been taken into account such as the publisher and their economic status, a bigger publisher will have more money to promote their products.

2018 Trends of New Series in Weekly Champ

2018 has passed and the magazine changed and new head editor completed one in his new post. Beastars breaking out and Iruma-kun graduallly gaining more popularity came at a good timing to balanced out the loss of key series notably Shuujin Riku, Dokaben Dream Tournament and Samejima, Saigo no Juugonichi due to Takahiro Satou's tragic passing which unfortunately means the manga will be left unfinished. 

2018 might have been a great year for some ongoing series, however, it was not the best of years for new series. There are currently 4 series from 2018 still running in the magazine and they seem to have mild popularity but have not stuck out as hits so far. They could eventually become hits in the future and I put my hopes into 'Ippon' Again to become a hit eventually. As for the other two, it is still up in the air but they are not disliked but have not sold too well judging by Shoseki estimates. I know shoseki does not cover net store sales or specialty comic shops like Ana no Tora; so in a sense there is a need to be conscious that it does not give a full picture of the sales of a series.

One thing all 4 series Junior, Oni no Youna Love Comedy and 'Ippon' Again share is the presence on twitter be it from an official account or the author himself. Editor and authors should not underestimate how useful having online exposure in social media is.  For instance, the editor for 'Ippon' Again is quite active and recently he shared the first chapter of the series in tweets and it gained traction with it having now close to 1.8k retweets and 4k+ likes in a few days. In advertising the series this way they can attract non-champion readers who might buy the volumes and maybe even the magazine.

Trends of new series

Since the new head editor took charge, he pushed quite rightly for sports series as they are historically a popular genre in Shonen Champion. 'Ippon' Again and Junior, judo and soccer series respectively,  are still ongoing but Mound no Taiyou, a baseball series, has ended. It is quite unusual for Champion not to have a baseball series after Dokaben has featured in the magazine for many years.

When it comes to other series, this was a year with Baki Dou, Super Radical Family and Harigane ending but returning soon after with a different name, in Baki Dou case, the same name with just 'Baki' in katakana differing from the past name. So there is not much to comment in these 'new' series. 

There was also an attempt to push action based fantasy series like Great Old, Gyakushu Inferno, Akatora used a historical setting it was a fantasy series. All three did not succeeded and none are left in the magazine at the moment. I can not pin point why these manga failed but fantasy series have always struggled in WSC. These series firstly, Great Old, I believe the name of the series is peculiar and unattractive plus the start of the series was a bit muddled and confused the reader. Gyakushu Inferno suffered from similar issues with awkward pacing and battle scenes being a hard to follow plus the art was lacking in some places. I did not follow Akatora closely but it seemed too simple and cliche and the story took too long to get moving.

Battle orientated shonen series with a fantasy aspect have a big commercial appeal. In other weekly shounen magazines namely Magazine and Jump, Sunday much less so, it is something that usually has space in the magazine. Champion has lacked successful series in this regard, there only a couple that managed to become hits in the magazine notably Full Ahead! Coco, Goku Road, Kakugo no Susume. In the interview for the 50th anniversary of WSC, in the recent issue with Hideyuki Yonehare, he mentioned the difficulty to get editorial support to serialise Full Ahead! Coco. This, he adds was because they were a bit reluctant due to the relatively lack of success of fantasy series had in the magazine. It ended up being a big success but successes in the same genre have been sparse after it. Hakuaki Kyouryuu Kitan Ryuu no Kuni no Yut, a fantasy adventure series featuring dinosaurs, was one of those and together with a sequel it ran for a total of 14 volumes, not a long series but a success, it has featured in the 50th anniversary introduction project. Finding a fantasy, that is serious and battle oriented unlike Iruma-kun will be a struggle but a feature the previous all shared is their unusualness.

I did not count Saint Seiya Next Dimension or Lost Canvas series since they obviously held prior popularity that was to their benefit.

Whatever happens, the magazine will be gradually changing into what the new head editor envisions obviously this will be done with support and ideas from the others members of the editorial department. So it is just a wait an see, series like Ashigei and Panzer show his intent to add more ecchi material together with Atsumare and Rororro becoming ecchi themselves as well. Now it just wait and see what rests in stock for the rest of 2019 when it comes to new series.

Two TV Anime for the 50th Celebration

In the recent issue 10 of Weekly Shonen Champion, there were announcements for TV anime adaptations for Mairimashita Iruma-kun and Beastars. These are announced as projects of the 50th anniversary, so is that a reason to believe they are both airing this year?  Regardless of this, a Beastars did not come as a surprise but Iruma was one. I firmly believed that The Vampire Dies in No Time would be the next series to get an anime but it seems i was mistaken, though i still believe it will get one eventually.

Beastars's animation will be handled by Studio Orange. Beastars will be just the second TV series it will be in charge of, 'Houseki no Kuni' was the first in 2017. Prior to Beastars, it also was in charge of animating the film 'Monster Strike the Movie : Sora no Kanata' in 2018. However, the studio has done subcontracted work in various other series in CGI.

A visual and teaser have been released, but it is too little to pass any judgement on quality. Nevertheless,  Orange seems like a reputable studio even though it is relatively unexperienced in heading projects.

I believe the content being adapted is of quality and the studio will know that and expectations will be high due to the renown Beastars got with the awards. The beginning of the manga is very strong in leaving a lasting impression especially by showcasing Legosi inner conflict and reflecting the unspoken tension between the carnivores and herbivores as a result of the murder. The first three volumes in particular for me are the best part of the series as of yet : and It is also the reason it got the acclaim it currently has.

Animation is held to be of great importance by the viewing public and 3D CGI animation still hold a lack of appeal for the core western anime fanbase, excluding fans of animation in general which probably enjoy CGI or other forms of animation made by many film animation studios. However, successes by CGI anime in Japan shows that this stigma is not present or at least not as strong in the Japanese audience.

In contrast to these people, I sincerely do not think the animation will be the biggest hurdle in the making of the Beastars TV anime, after all Beastars is not an action series but a human (animals in this case) drama series. The animation will have to be designed and worked to fit certain scenes that together with other equally, or more, important aspects such as sound and directing will play a uge part in the response of the audience to a scene. A lot of work will be needed to paint the right ambience and this is where the mixture of music, visual effects come into play as an anime can appeal to senses that manga simply cannot. How these will be used not only to replicate the feel of the manga but also add an extra layer to it, specially in the scenes of Legosi's inner conflict, the play arc or the visit to the back market arc, is a question will only answered when the series inevitably debuts in the near future.

Mairimashita! Iruma-kun

Iruma-kun has being seeing an increase in popularity recently and this stabilised its position in the magazine which had been shaky for a long time. The increase in popularity could be partially due to its increased exposure online. The series has become available to read online on Line, Piccoma and others online manga sharing platforms that allow manga to be read for free with some restrictions. This is not unheard of, Harigane Service also gained a lot of popularity in the same way.

The school fantasy setting of the manga allows the manga to flirt with a lot of genre. One is comedy which is the main one, however, there are drops of romance, action and slice of life. So, this broadness in appeal gives it leaway to play on different themes like friendship, coming of age and family which are a corner stone of shonen manga.

Iruma, I believe will need good animation for the TV anime adaption to be successful. Iruma is more action driven so the animation holds more value. Specially since Iruma is comedy series based in characters actions and the wacky developments.  Scenes are composed significantly differently as a result, the pacing has to be controlled to balance out the series with comedy and its other aspects. The voice acting plays a much bigger part with punchlines having to be done in a certain way to enhance the comedic effect.

The pacing will be important in making sure things are progressing smoothly and giving time for the scenes to have their effect. In a 13/12 episode seasonal anime format which is the main format for anime series at the moment. Using a simple division, 3 chapters per episode would be needed for the anime to cover till chapter 38, which is the epilogue of the first arc in the series and seems to be the most appropriate ending place for the the anime. Dividing the chapters by the number of episodes is obviously a simplistic way of looking at it, since action oriented episodes can cover many chapters.

Example -
Episode 1 - 1+2
Episode 2 - 3+4
Episode 3 - 5-8
Episode 4 -  9-13
Episode 5 - 14-16
Episode 6 - 17-19
Episode 7 - 20-21
Episode 8 - 22-25
Episode 9 - 26-28
Episode 10 - 29-33
Episode 11 - 34-35
Episode 12 - 36-38

Whatever happens, I believe Iruma will probably be linked with Narou series. The trend these series have set might benefit Iruma when it airs. However, without any news of the studio or any visual teaser, there is really nothing to pass judgment on at the moment.