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.