I dont think sales & quality correlate. How about you tell me if BEASTARS, HZ or Jigokuraku are selling equivalent to how great they are; they sure as hell arent. IMO all are S tier shonens with the former being arguably one of the best shonens of all time. Quality is subjective so it doesnt always correlate with sales
Actually, you're right.
Let me rephrase; Quality work that cater to the demographic and mainstream appeal will sell well. There are plenty of non WSJ manga out there that don't sell well but are stellar.
Well, I was talking about the physical market specifically, i.e the Oricon numbers which is what's usually discussed here. That same article you linked explains that the growth comes from the digital side while physical is going down. The MHA argument would work if there was anything else reaching the million, but even Kingdom is far from that. And of course Nakano wants more million-sellers. Why wouldn't he? Doesn't mean he can get them. I mean, are you saying that all the stuff that's on-going just so happens to not be as popular as all the stuff from back then? That's a little odd.
Why would you compare Toriko to Kimetsu? What about KnB, AssClass, peak Haikyuu, even Naruto and Bleach were still around in the early 2010s. I remember what people used to say about Toriko: That jump was pushing it and the sales, while good, weren't as good as expected. That's the same discourse you see nowadays with Dr. Stone., with barely 100K. And yet, Toriko's sales are still far above most stuff in the magazine, while even the top dogs not called One Piece struggle to just stay above 500K.
To make a real comparison we should list the current best-sellers in order and compare them to the best-sellers from, say, 5 year ago, and see if the situation has changed or not.
1. You said manga market. Hence my response with the link. I even said that market has been transitioning to digital. You are yet to answer what is WSJ's role in this transition to digital tho. Is it 50% or 30% or 1%? No one can answer this question and therefore the talk of digital is moot at this point.
2. Nakano would know more than you if a million + seller in today's "declining era" is attainable or not. If it's not, he would just outright say, million sellers are not possible in today's era unlike a decade ago. He never said that because, with all the information he has, he still believes its possible.
3. Yeah, I actually do think series of this generation aren't as big as two decades ago. BC isn't as popular as Reborn / Toriko / Nura. It's been on par with Beelzebub's debut and peak which is what I've always said. MHA isn't as popular as Bleach / Naruto / Gintama. TPN isn't as popular as AC.
MHA's anime has been out for what 3 years now? It has had two solo games one of which was for 3DS. Do you know how many games Bleach and Naruto got within few years of the anime? Bleach had 10 games within 2 years of its anime on various platforms. Got a trading card game and a rock musical (that became extremely popular and well received) within a year of the anime.
Okay, maybe comparing the franchises is stupid but then lets compare how the magazine itself reacted to the popularity. By chapter 160, Bleach was SO popular at it's peak, Ichigo's bankai reveal chapter got a full color chapter. One Piece, Naruto and KNB are the only other series that I'm aware of from the last two decades to get a full color chapter.
Yeah, I don't think they are on the same level and therefore their sales are not on the same level.
You bring in AC like as if THAT is a comparison. Assassination Classroom was EXTREMELY popular in Japan. I don't see that level of popularity for something like TPN which needed recommendations to keep growing whereas if I'm not mistaken AC's first two volumes did 1 million combined meaning each had a print of 500k. I remember they even made fireworks that took Koro-sensei's form because AC essentially became a celebrated franchise in Japan. You have no idea what you're comparing or what you're talking about.
The fact that you're comparing Toriko to something like Dr. Stone shows you're not aware of what you're talking about. Toriko had a fantastic debut week. Only AC had a better debut since it since then, and maybe MHA. Dr. Stone exists in the magazine for the same reason why HZ existed probably. Maybe its popular and liked but not well liked enough that people want to buy volumes to support it.
I compared Toriko with KNY to show that despite Toriko being a more "popular" series from launch, KNY still beat its peak and is still growing. Another reason I mentioned Toriko was how you mentioned things are "different" from a decade ago. So I brought in a series that started last decade.
How about we bring in WT? A series that came in 2013, had an incredibly slow growth prior to the anime and even during the anime (had a smaller and slower growth than BC did with the anime) following which it went on hiatus yet came back and has actually increased in sales (even higher than BC) despite being in a "declining era".
Or how about we take SxF? A
digital series that is outselling half of the magazine right now in physical volumes. Where does that stand in your idea of a "declining era"?
No the situation has not changed, at least not in WSJ. The fact that a digital series is outpacing half the magazine just shows that maybe the stuff in the magazine hasn't gotten the attention of the demographic they were hoping for. By saying times have changed, you're grossly underestimating how popular the series of 00s were.
People want to desperately grasp onto stuff like changing market to explain the drop in sales for their favorite series (example HQ! or OP) but it's not that simple. If you've followed sales from the start, you'd know that declining sales after peaking is a VERY common occurrence. Especially for stuff like HQ that have not had an anime for years now. Prince of Tennis experienced similar drops JUST like HQ but I guess that's because it was also in a "declining era" back then? *shrugs*
/r
Curiosity kills the cat.
