That it got rereleased a million times didn't make it sell more. It got rereleased a million times *because* it sold more. I think there's a bit of confusing cause/effect in your comment. If they randomly made a new edition of some series like Ichigo 100%, it would sell a few copies to the hardcore fans, but ultimately whoever was gonna buy it already bought it. DB got new editions because every generation has more people that want to buy it.
Anyway, I of course agree and understand the fact that DB has universal lasting appeal, what I didn't realize is that the initial appeal of DB was weaker than the initial appeal of Slam Dunk, and it's starting to seem to me that no JUMP series was as popular as Slam Dunk while it was running, at least not for the amount of volumes that it has? Maybe FotNS
As for why Dragon ball ended up selling more than Slam Dunk, it's appeal is probably more universal, I love Slam Dunk but my guess is that most of its sales are either from 1990 to 1996 (Its ending) and probably 2003 to 2004 (kanzenban release), Dragon Ball in comparison is 6 years older (so you should add an extra 6 years worth of sales), its run was from 1984 to 1995 so it had a bigger span of years of popularity, IIRC in 2003 it also got a rerelease (A kanzenban, like Slam Dunk), then in 2009 Dragon Ball kai was broadcasted, I can only assume that got Shueisha into reprinting Dragon Ball (IIRC they hadn't reprint the normal tankobon, but it got a reprint in 2009 -IIRC- with a new spine art
Old Tankobon spine (1984 release)
Kanzenban version (2003 release)
New Tankobon spine (2009 release)
Dragon Ball also got a full color release in 2013, Shueisha first started with 3 volumes covering the Saiyan saga, and they haven't finished the entire Dragon Ball manga, they just released the Childhood arc (Dragon Ball's first volumes) in full color in 2016.
Right now Dragon Ball it's also being released in a Soushuhen edition called "Legend edition" (The edition is very similar to Weekly Shonen Jump, basically a 700 or so pages magazine but full of Dragon Ball, and it includes the original color pages and some random freebies, so it's a cheap way to collect the series)
Slam Dunk, to my knowledge was only every rereleased in the Kanzenban format, and Takehiko Inoue (not Shueisha) is the owner of its property.
So basically Dragon Ball got 'released' 5 times, the 84 version, the 2003 Kanzenban, the 2009 re-edition of the tankobon, the full color release that started in 2013, and the recent 2016 Dragon Ball Legend edition... vs Slam Dunk's 2 releases, the original 1990 and the 2003 kanzenban..
Also Dragon Ball never really lost its mainstream appeal in Japan, right now you can go to a Jump shop and it's there, or to different Parks like Universal or J-World and it's there, it has lost of games, movies, anime, etc etc.. While Slam Dunk kinda faded into oscurity.. Sort of because it's definetly popular, but it just didn't had the lasting popularity Dragon Ball still maintains, and that's why I think Dragon Ball eventually outsold Slam Dunk.
Putting it other way, most people think it was Titanic or Avatar that are the highest grossing movies of all time, but Gone with the Wind is the highest grossing movie of all time. Adjusted for inflation it has made 3.3 billion dollars.
But it made most of its money from rereleases, "Gone with the Wind made 506 million in its first 4 years and had 8 other re-releases over the span of 60 years to bring its total to 3.3 billion."
I took this last 'Gone with the wind' part from a reddit post because it seemed to be a nice comparison to how Dragon Ball probably outsold Slam Dunk
In terms of volume sales average Slam Dunk still is bigger than Dragon Ball. The series really loses in Total number of sales because of the 11 volume difference, Dragon Ball had already surpassed it in total sales while it was running.
Popularity of the franchise overall Dragon Ball was and is bigger and more everlasting than Slam Dunk like you said, and that is also the reason that in average sales per volume Dragon Ball got so close to Slam Dunk.
Series Sales(Japan)
159,500,000 - Dragon Ball(Lastest Number: 2014)
121,360,000 - Slam Dunk(Latest Number)
Volume Average
3,914,839 - Slam Dunk
3,797,619 - Dragon Ball
The Series sales during their end and after it
159,500,000 - Dragon Ball(Last Number: 2014)(+9.5 Million, 9 years later)
150,000,000 - Dragon Ball(Sometime later: 2005)(+24 Million, 3 years later)
126,000,000 - Dragon Ball(Sometime later: 2002)(+16 Million, 7 years later)
121,360,000 - Slam Dunk(Latest Number: 2014) (+1.07 Million, 1 year later)
120,290,000 - Slam Dunk(Sometime later: 2013) (+10.29 Million, 8 years later)
110,000,000 - Slam Dunk(Sometime Later: 2005) (+10 Million, 1 year later)
110,000,000 - Dragon Ball(Series End) (2.6 Million copies in average)
100,000,000 - Slam Dunk(Sometime Later: 2004) (+7 Million, 9 years later)
*93,000,000 - Slam Dunk(Series End) (3 Million copies in average)
Increase after series end
28,38 Million copies Total; *,915,484 copies per volume - Slam Dunk(19 years after end)
49.50 Million copies Total; 1,178,571 copies per volume - Dragon Ball(20 years after end) diff
21.12 Million copies Total; *,*263,087 copies per volume - Dragon Ball make more than Slam Dunk
So while Dragon Ball indeed make more after the end of the series, it didn't make so much more in comparison.
It will be interesting to see One Piece increase after the series end.
That it got rereleased a million times didn't make it sell more. It got rereleased a million times *because* it sold more. I think there's a bit of confusing cause/effect in your comment. If they randomly made a new edition of some series like Ichigo 100%, it would sell a few copies to the hardcore fans, but ultimately whoever was gonna buy it already bought it. DB got new editions because every generation has more people that want to buy it.
Anyway, I of course agree and understand the fact that DB has universal lasting appeal, what I didn't realize is that the initial appeal of DB was weaker than the initial appeal of Slam Dunk, and it's starting to seem to me that no JUMP series was as popular as Slam Dunk while it was running, at least not for the amount of volumes that it has? Maybe FotNS
I would think perhaps One Piece is the only possible manga that could have outsold Slam Dunk's 31 tankobon run, (What I mean is One Piece's 31 volumes vs Slam Dunk's 31 volumes on the time they were originally released)
Slam Dunk held the record for the first print run in volume 21 with a 2.5million first print run, until 2002 when One Piece broke that record and has broke it again and continues to hold it.. But it only broke by a very slim margin, 'insignificant' in the grand scheme of things, 20,000 extra volumes.
It's too bad we can't know, because I don't think there are figure sales for Slam Dunk's 31 volume run (in 1996 when it originally ended) to compare to One Piece's 31 volume run (That would have gotten released around 2003).
The data we have, One Piece volume 21 vs Slam Dunk volume 22 has One Piece losing for around 10 million copies, if we were to include around 2'000,000 copies of volume 22 of One Piece, it's still around 8'000,000 copies behind Slam Dunk, and I doubt it could have surpassed it in the 9 volumes remaining, even if Slam Dunk's popularity could have dimished a little bit after volume 24 (When its print run was lowered a little bit) and One Piece had an increase in popularity in Volume 24 (Which was when it broke the record), it's just highly improbable that One Piece would have outsold Slam Dunk.
As you said perhaps Hokuto No Ken or Kinnikuman which are other of Jump's biggest sellers.
Edit: Also thanks @Bigivelfhq very informative post
I can only assume One Piece will get a kanzenban rerelease when it finishes, wonder how much it will sell.
I would think perhaps One Piece is the only possible manga that could have outsold Slam Dunk's 31 tankobon run, (What I mean is One Piece's 31 volumes vs Slam Dunk's 31 volumes on the time they were originally released)
Slam Dunk held the record for the first print run in volume 21 with a 2.5million first print run, until 2002 when One Piece broke that record and has broke it again and continues to hold it.. But it only broke by a very slim margin, 'insignificant' in the grand scheme of things, 20,000 extra volumes.
It's too bad we can't know, because I don't think there are figure sales for Slam Dunk's 31 volume run (in 1996 when it originally ended) to compare to One Piece's 31 volume run (That would have gotten released around 2003).
The data we have, One Piece volume 21 vs Slam Dunk volume 22 has One Piece losing for around 10 million copies, if we were to include around 2'000,000 copies of volume 22 of One Piece, it's still around 8'000,000 copies behind Slam Dunk, and I doubt it could have surpassed it in the 9 volumes remaining, even if Slam Dunk's popularity could have dimished a little bit after volume 24 (When its print run was lowered a little bit) and One Piece had an increase in popularity in Volume 24 (Which was when it broke the record), it's just highly improbable that One Piece would have outsold Slam Dunk.
As you said perhaps Hokuto No Ken or Kinnikuman which are other of Jump's biggest sellers.
Edit: Also thanks @Bigivelfhq very informative post
I can only assume One Piece will get a kanzenban rerelease when it finishes, wonder how much it will sell.
While One Piece volume 24 surpassed Slam Dunk volume 21 and 22(this volume got the same print number than the previous one) by 20k, the next volume got 40k, the following more:
Basically
2.50 Million Slam Dunk 21
2.50 Million Slam Dunk 22
2.52 Million One Piece 24
2.54 Million One Piece 25
2.60 Million One piece 26
2.63 Million One Piece 27
Volume 31
93,000,000 - Slam Dunk
90,000,000 - One Piece
Slam Dunk was and is the best selling manga at volume 31.
Shueisha didn't turned him away, in the interview the author said that they asked him to improve is drawing and make some changes and than return again. Obviously he could have returned without making changes in theme and go for another Shueisha Magazine, but the author decided to go for a new Kodansha magazine being just established at that time that was looking for new "niche" series, Bessatsu Shonen Magazine.
Note that Bessatsu Shonen Magazine isn't the "rival" of Shonen Jump, it isn't even that for Jump Square. It is more like what Jump SQ. 19 was.
Wow. It's hard to imagine a Jump without Akimoto. The manga has certainly declined in quality over 40 years but it was something to look forward to much like Archie comics in the US because you knew Akimoto was dedicated to it. I doubt the three separate volumes of reprints that are published every month (to this day, and more than any other manga) will go away any time soon. People love this shit.
Shueisha didn't turned him away, in the interview the author said that they asked him to improve is drawing and make some changes and than return again. Obviously he could have returned without making changes in theme and go for another Shueisha Magazine, but the author decided to go for a new Kodansha magazine being just established at that time that was looking for new "niche" series, Bessatsu Shonen Magazine.
Note that Bessatsu Shonen Magazine isn't the "rival" of Shonen Jump, it isn't even that for Jump Square. It is more like what Jump SQ. 19 was.
And honestly I don't think Shingeki no Kyojin would have done well in Jump, it would have died early in the rankings before showing its true potential because those first couple of chapters are a real slog and wouldn't click to the core audience as well as it did with Bessatsu which are geared to more older demographic than Jump. Not really a huge lost since it was pretty unprecedented and the fact that its the only thing people read from Bessatsu outside maybe Arslan Senki the publishers probably didn't think it would have hit as big as it did and are probably thankful he extended its run.
The ending of Kochikame is a shock, but a 40 years run is brilliant. I'm only familiar with the anime that is broadcasted in my country and I really liked it. I would love to have this issue of Jump as well as the last tankobon...
Akimoto has a tendency to say "looking forward to your next series" to people like Kishimoto who just finished a 15 year long manga, so I get the feeling he doesn't have retirement in mind.
--- Double Post Merged, , Original Post Date: ---
also, I am actually amazed SnK sold more than one piece did at the same point in time. that seems so... wrong to me. i don't know. like it bothers me on a personal level.
oh well, such is life. I guess you can chalk it up to the fact that it had an extremely high quality anime series and had the fuck promoted out of it, also 90% of AoT's appeal is the mystery so it makes even more sense for anime watchers to move to the manga.
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