Manga Xanadu

Every week, the New York Times and Amazon posts the top ten bestselling books. The New York Times gets their numbers from print sales from retailers, while Amazon calculates their own numbers. Once a month the Nielsen Bookscan posts their top twenty graphic novels of which manga is included. Offered here is a listing of these books with their status this week compared with the previous week, along with some commentary on the activity.

In conjunction with the return of the Legend of Zelda comics in Japan, Viz Media is re-releasing the first ten volumes of the series as omnibus editions in time for the holidays this year. This seems like a good idea as it drops the series down to 5 volumes and gives it a bigger trim size, but with an MSRP of $17.99, this makes the series more expensive than the box set now available, even at full price. Most omnibus editions re-releases are priced lower than the original release. This is the going in the opposite direction. While I hope Viz picks up the returning Legend of Zelda manga, this isn’t the way to get fans back.

Every week, the New York Times and Amazon posts the top ten bestselling books. The New York Times gets their numbers from print sales from retailers, while Amazon calculates their own numbers. Once a month the Nielsen Bookscan posts their top twenty graphic novels of which manga is included. Offered here is a listing of these books with their status this week compared with the previous week, along with some commentary on the activity.

Yen Press has the big release list this week. It’s going to be a real money suck with so many titles coming out that I read. Vertical debuts another series, and the ghost from the past publisher rears it head with their first print release in 7 years. Only time will tell if it will be ugly or not.

Viz Media’s digital strategy and I have not gotten along very well. For the longest time after Viz released their Vizmanga app, I couldn’t install it because Google Play kept saying it wasn’t compatible with my Android tablet. I finally had to go through Amazon’s App Store and install it through there. I had something to say about that.

Here, let me date myself right now. I remember when Viz first started releasing manga as Viz Communications. I picked up their releases of Urusei Yatsura and Fire Tripper at my local comic book shop when they first came out. Their releases were nice too, with card stock covers that made them stand out from the floppies. Who would have thought then, that they would be one of the biggest manga publishers in the US today? Even though it is Viz’s anniversary, wouldn’t a great present be a 3-in-1 release of Urusei Yatsura unflipped?

Every week, the New York Times and Amazon posts the top ten bestselling books. The New York Times gets their numbers from print sales from retailers, while Amazon calculates their own numbers. Once a month the Nielsen Bookscan posts their top twenty graphic novels of which manga is included. Offered here is a listing of these books with their status this week compared with the previous week, along with some commentary on the activity.

When Aoi Narinomiya, the last daughter of a prestigious family, discovers that her grandfather has gone missing, leaving her to carry an astronomical debt, both she and her dog, Sakura, are inches away from finding themselves on the street. When her enigmatic classmate Kei Katsuragi shows up on her doorstep to repossess everything her family owned, Aoi makes a desperate plea for Kei to take in her beloved Sakura–maybe she could at least be spared…? It seems through, that Kei is far less interested in owning a dog than he is in calling a pedigreed kitty his own, and Aoi soon finds herself playing the part of the young man’s prized pet! Disturbingly, it turns out to be a comfortable and reassuring life that Aoi feels she has too quickly settled into, but could Kei have ulterior motives that go beyond just “owning” her?

Kodansha has the most releases this week, but several other publishers make an appearance, including three debut titles. We also see a new title from Digital Manga Publishing, a rare sight on the regular releases list, as it seems they are doing more publishing through kickstarter than traditionally. But they get funded more often than not, so something must be working for them. Digital only releases, which have also been really sparse lately make a bit of a come back as well.

The updates are sparse this month. Most have been covered in separate press releases, except for the debut of Boruto, the Naruto spin-off series that features Naruto’s son Boruto and the kids of his generation. I haven’t checked out the previous one shot featuring those characters, so I don’t know if it’s something to get excited about yet. Not sure what’s up with the Anniversary Sale, since the PR doesn’t really say anything, and there hasn’t been anything on the site yet. I’m intrigued to see what it will be.

Every week, the New York Times and Amazon posts the top ten bestselling books. The New York Times gets their numbers from print sales from retailers, while Amazon calculates their own numbers. Once a month the Nielsen Bookscan posts their top twenty graphic novels of which manga is included. Offered here is a listing of these books with their status this week compared with the previous week, along with some commentary on the activity.

With Diamond shipping Viz Media titles early, last week was just a bust for new releases. Even digital titles were next to non-existent. This week is a slight improvement with Seven Seas Entertainment and Vertical Comics having the most releases. Kodansha and Viz make an appearance, along with occasional manga publisher NBM.