Shonen Jump ToC Rankings

What do you guys think of Barrage? Rollo T keeps gushing about it on Weekly Manga Recap, but I'm really enjoying Assassination Classroom a lot more. <3 Koro-sensei

Is it possible for a title in Jump to not be cancelled if the editorial department thinks it can still make money overseas?

Manga sales are really small overseas in comparison to Japan, so no.

Money-wise, all that matters to anime and manga creators, in most cases, is how much money it makes in Japan.

edited 22nd Aug '12 2:28:03 PM by burnpsy

Barrage had a pretty good initial twist, but has been pretty average since then. Takawhatchamacallit is so generic I am in awe.

As long as they act as suitable cushions to prolong Momiji's serialization, however, I'm fine with them existing.

Certainly not very good stuff, no. I honestly expect Takama-ga-hara to do worse than Barrage did.

edited 22nd Aug '12 4:04:00 PM by burnpsy

Just thought that running in Jump Alpha would count as some kind of revenue from the series.

Still, there have been incidents of anime series at least getting new seasons commissioned by overseas markets where they were much more popular than in Japan. Namely The Big O. The editorial department may let the series continue if they have a good reason to believe that overseas profits will make up for domestic bombing (though probably only if the series can get an easily marketable anime).

Why am I white-knighting a series I don't read again? Blargh. Time to just wait and see if Barrage gets cancelled.

Have you seen manga sales numbers? Japanese sales easily hit the tens of thousands when it comes to Jump series, and the bottom-feeders still get above a thousand on their opening weeks. Compare the US sales numbers, where you're lucky to move 1000 in a month, unless you're Sailor Moon, Negima, Naruto, or a hit of that caliber, in which case you're lucky to break 1500.

In short, the foreign market is, in no way, shape or form, relevant to the point that they'll continue something that bombed unless the foreign markets themselves pay the production costs. In which case it would still get cut from Jump.

edited 22nd Aug '12 8:26:26 PM by burnpsy

"Have you seen manga sales numbers?"

Nope!

People always overestimate the importance of the Western market. As far as I can tell the Japanese companies just charge a decently sized licensing fee and then let the foreign distributor deal with the risk of sales numbers. It's just... not really their problem.

Minor update (fixed my post to reflect this), PSI Kusuo Saiki will also have a center colour next week, to commemorate being featured in Sakiyomi Jump Bang!.

EDIT: The rumour that Pajama na Kanojo is ending next issue has been confirmed by the chapter's RAWs.

edited 26th Aug '12 8:59:29 PM by burnpsy

Issue 40:

Bleach (Cover, Lead Colour)
1. One Piece
2. Haikyuu!! (Extra Pages)
PSI Kusuo Saiki (Center Colour)
3. Toriko
4. Sket Dance
5. Nisekoi
6. Assassination Classroom
INPWEAR CODE (Center Colour, Golden Future Cup Entry #4)
7. Naruto
8. Kuroko's Basketball
9. Gintama
10. Kochikame
Medaka Box (Center Colour)
11. Beelzebub
12. Reborn!
13. Kurogane
14. Koisome Momiji
15. Takama-ga-hara (First Ranking)
16. Barrage
Pajama na Kanojo (Final Chapter)

This is Naruto's lowest rank since 2003.
Takama-ga-hara's debut is, by far, the worst I have ever seen.

Issue 41:
Cover, Lead Colour: Retsu!!! Date-senpai (New Series)^note Gag manga about Date Masamune
Center Colour: Kuroko's Basketball, Assassination Classroom
Final Chapter: Barrage

Issue 42:
Cover, Lead Colour: Cross Manage (New Series)^note Romantic Comedy/Lacrosse
Center Colour: Restu!! Date-senpai

Issue 43:
Center Colour: Cross Manage

Unknown October Issue:
Center Colour: Renai Ginga-ku Ishikawasou (One-shot)

edited 5th Sep '12 12:39:38 PM by burnpsy

All of the sadness for Barrage. Best of luck for the next series, I suppose.

Handful of fixes made to the post. Forgot to list Reborn!, for example.

How far back do these go? And I look forward to Naruto's ranking whenever it covers this most recent chapter.

How far back do what go?

What I meant was to what time period do these rankings apply? Were they the rankings from last week? Two weeks ago? A month?

8 weeks.

This week's Naruto ranking was for 591.

edited 29th Aug '12 7:20:28 PM by burnpsy

Hmm...I suspect the folks at Shonen Jump Alpha are just going to let the monthly series cover for the hole Barrage is leaving...neither of the replacement series sounds like something they'd pick up.

1. See, all you have to do to get a series cancelled is express interest in it not failing for convoluted non-reasons and the universe compels the editorial department to- this sentence has gotten away from me.

2. Naruto's been above 7 since 2003? That's actually really impressive. I blame Ending Fatigue for the drop.

3. Burst forth, Assassination Classroom! Top 5!

The chapter with the huge drop is the one where Itachi dies (again), and nothing of note really happens in it aside from a whole bunch of talking after the end of a fight the chapter before, so I think that's why the ranking dropped suddenly.

edited 30th Aug '12 10:10:19 PM by burnpsy

Some quick demographics information. I should note that these percentages are what percentage of the people who bought them were a certain gender - the higher percentages don't mean that they sold more, just that they were more popular with that gender than the other.

Jump Comics More Popular with Females:
Haikyuu!! 2: 66.8%^note I hear it's popular with the BL crowd, so this is no surprise.
Gintama 45: 66.3%
Reborn! 39: 62.4%
Kuroko's Basketball 18: 58.9%
One Piece 67: 51.8%
Bleach 55: 50.7%

Jump Comics More Popular with Males:
Nisekoi 3: 83.3%
Kochikame 181: 81.8%
Medaka Box 16: 74.9%
Toriko 20: 62.7%
Beelzebub 17: 61.2%
Naruto 61: 51.4%

edited 4th Sep '12 12:33:37 PM by burnpsy

Hmm. I would have thought of Naruto as more popular with women and One Piece and Bleach as more popular with males.

edited 4th Sep '12 11:40:46 AM by Autumncomet

Since all of those are close to the 50% bracket, it's possible it was just this particular volume that shifted across the line. (And that closeness also shows that those manga have broadbased appeal.) I'm going to guess that frex Kochikame with its older style of art and humor is mostly popular with older male readers than with the current demographic.

True. Burnpsy, what was the margin of error?

No margin of error was listed with the data I saw.

All I know is that it was published in some newspaper named "Nikkei", and this is the only time they've done this.

The picture of it doesn't seem to show it, if one was included at all.

edited 4th Sep '12 12:32:54 PM by burnpsy

Bleach has so many bishies and torn clothes, that it easily gathers a Periphery Demographic.