DIssecting the Magazine - Mairimashita! Iruma - The Star has arrived.

Mairimashita Iruma-kun began in Issue 14 in 2017 of Champion. Its has had a bumpy ride to its current position as the one of the best selling series in Shonen Champion. Its debut in march in 2017 came as a surprise perhaps because it was a fantasy school life manga, genres that have not traditionally made significant success in Champion.

Start and Limbo

However, Mairimashita! Iruma-kun found an audience and its first few volumes sold relatively well according to data from shoseki. Its placements in the magazine somewhat contrasted this as whilst it initially received a opening colour page for its volume 1 release, it after this initial push by the editorial department it was left often in low placements. It seemed like the series had fallen to back seat and was possibly in even danger of cancellation as it often drifted towards the bottom of the table of contents. It came to end of its first year of existence in this limbo state. It did not seem like it had a significant future in the magazine even if its sales were not poor.

2018 and Reprints -

2018 was a year that led to a completely different scenario for the series, it started in the same trend as 2017 in the bottom of the magazine more often than not and with a complete lack of colour pages. However,  volume 6 release marked a different scenario when all volumes of the series were finally reprinted for the first time. Moving onwards from this it started to find it itself more often in middle of the magazine throughout most of the remainder of 2018 eventually receiving an opening colour page to celebrate the release of volume 7. This did not mean a complete change as it still often featured in the middle and sometimes in the bottom part of the magazine however whilst it did not receive significant attention or promotion yet it continued receiving reprints and growing in sales from volume to volume. 2018 was by all means the year in which Iruma turned its fortune as it started as a cancellation candidate and ended it as a established middle tier series in the magazine. However, 2019 would bring even more surprises for this series.

Becoming an Idol in 2019

The year started hot coming directly of the rise sales of the previous year and the series expanding popularity. It quickly received a opening lead colour page in the first December double issue and it was soon followed by the volume release in February with the anime announcement in another opening colour page. This trend of colour pages would continue throughout the year. In addition to this Iruma-kun placement soon started to be on the higher end spectrum, it still sometimes had middling position but it was now rarely ever in the bottom part.

After the anime announcement came its participation in the masterpiece revival project and a interview with Osamu Nishi in the magazine, both things that highlighted the series had a growing star power in the magazine. In addition to this its first popularity poll had started.

Part of this highlight in the magazine came from its growing sales showcased by the rise of circulation numbers which were at 900k at volume 11 and by volume 13 had reached 1.2m before the anime had aired. This continued by the time of the release of the anime it had reached 1.5 million copies in print, an incredible milestone for a manga that had been previously in limbo in the magazine.

The anime started airing in October and not only had did it air in NHK-E and had a prime time slot at 17:35 something a champion series had not had since Gaki Deka in 1980s. It found significant success and gave a major sales boost to the series.

Achieving the status of a major player in Champion.

The year started with increasing sales with circulation numbers increasing rapidly reaching 2.5m by the end of January. it was given a renewed boost in popularity after reruns in the holidays in the start of the year. Alongside this boost in popularity came its first cover in Champion and another popularity poll and the milestone of 3 million copies in print by the end of the anime, which announced a second season for the following year. A few months after we not only close to the release of volume 17 and the results of the 2nd popularity poll another cover its second in a few months but it also revealed the series reached the 4m copies in circulation milestone, an incredible achievement.

This success made it one of the biggest series in the magazine and it has received a spin off currently running together with the main series in Champion with another one planned for the future. Its was a somewhat arduous path that Iruma since it started off well but dropped off but eventually found it strides from 2018 onwards until this current peak in 2020 which might not be a peak at all yet.