Mag Talk Weekly Shonen Jump [2014] - Discussion and TOC Talk

[SharkBait]

I don't think there are series that have had the exact same reach, or influence as Bleach. I don't know how much it was selling back during the Arrancar and Aizen arc but the series in itself is one of the best known WSJ title in the World at the same rate as Naruto, One Piece or HxH.

Sure sales for the series declined but I don't think it's in immediate danger but it's certain that if this continues the editors will push it around to the exit even faster. I mean putting aside OP and Naruto, the only series in Jump that sells more than 400,000 units is Ansatsu Kyoushitsu.

Kurobas?

 

[vinceled]

Kurobas?

Indeed... it's true Kuroko no Basuke has a larger reach than Ansatsu Kyousitsu...

But well the fact is that Bleach is still selling more than 500,000 units before leaving the top 50 which not many manga in Jump can do.

Bleach #61 (37,203 / 505,811), and that was just before leaving the top 50. Ansatsu Kyoushitsu and Kuroko no Basuke sell more than 600,000. And with Naruto and OP I guess that makes 5~6 series only that sell more than 500,000 which is also how Shueisha makes most of its money through WSJ seeing most Japanese actually buy the tanks to read the series.

 

[SharkBait]

I finally had a chance to listen to the last podcast with Shonen Jump Sasaki-san. I didnt know they thought the number of subscribers to ESJ was not satisfying, always thought it was up and up so i hope it wont be something that will go the way of the dinosaur. Though perhaps they can get some special exception and increase the number series since that seemed to be what he said they needed to do to increase the number of subscribers. Cant think of anymore promos they could do. Additionally from my understanding it seemed to also want to start even more series than started last year.

 

[Kaiten]

Kurobas' popular, ongoing anime gives it greater reach than Ansatsu. That could change when the time comes for Ansatsu's anime.

I don't think there are series that have had the exact same reach, or influence as Bleach. I don't know how much it was selling back during the Arrancar and Aizen arc but the series in itself is one of the best known WSJ title in the World at the same rate as Naruto, One Piece or HxH.

Sure sales for the series declined but I don't think it's in immediate danger but it's certain that if this continues the editors will push it around to the exit even faster. I mean putting aside OP and Naruto, the only series in Jump that sells more than 400,000 units is Ansatsu Kyoushitsu.

Sales is a poor measure of reach and overall popularity. Book sales are a statistic, and like any statistic, can be heavily skewed by outside factors. Manga sales can be heavily skewed by age, gender, and intended audience. Sales of manga popular with these age groups can be skewed high. High sales would then reflect popularity within this specific demographic, rather than overall reach. Think of it like a political poll. If a poll is conducted predominantly among men 18 - 24, attending college, and living in a major city than the views reflected might not reflect the national political mood. Other demographics might not buy as much manga. Anything that appeals to these age groups might skew low no matter how popular. Nisekoi might not sell as much as Bleach, but the former has far greater reach at the moment. Nisekoi is only a few years old, with a popular, heavily marketed, new anime. The OP was a top ten hit this winter, peaking at #7 on the charts. Bleach's final arc is being serialized, it has not had an anime in two years, a new movie in four, little new merchandise, and no promotion. That is sometimes the best way to tell popularity. How heavily is a series promoted, and where. A few months ago I posted pics of life size Kurabas and Haikyuu advertisements in Shinjuku Station. Pizza Hut is currently doing a massive Love Live promotion. Pizza's come in Love Live boxes, restaurants and delivery scooters are decorated with pictures of the characters. Advertisement campaigns at the busiest train station in the world, and a national chain of fast food restaurants is real reach. Those are places where series can reach people who are not even manga or anime fans. Nothing remotely of the sort is done for Bleach. Those are the type of things that can help differentiate popularity. When the Gintama movie came out last summer, Lawson's (a national convenience store chain) launched a nationwide Gintama promotion. There was no comparable promotion for the Toriko movie, which came out around the same time.

If anyone is wondering, my feeling is that the Bleach anime ended because of time slot issues. Anime meant for early teen audiences traditionally have aired on weekdays in the early evening, after middle and high school kids get home from club activities. Over the past few years every channel that airs anime during that time has either been canceling or moving teen oriented anime. Most of the anime for early teens air on weekend afternoons now, except for a few hold outs, like Naruto. There are now fewer weekday anime time slots, most are filled by kids shows, like Cardight and Youkai Hunter. Bleach itself was replaced by a kid's show, the anime of the Rock Lee spinoff. I can't confirm if any anime airs in Bleach's old time slot now.

 

[Stark700]

I finally had a chance to listen to the last podcast with Shonen Jump Sasaki-san. I didnt know they thought the number of subscribers to ESJ was not satisfying, always thought it was up and up so i hope it wont be something that will go the way of the dinosaur. Though perhaps they can get some special exception and increase the number series since that seemed to be what he said they needed to do to increase the number of subscribers. Cant think of anymore promos they could do. Additionally from my understanding it seemed to also want to start even more series than started last year.

Really? In an early podcast (within the first 10) it was implied that sub count was low.
More manga would still cost them money.

Sales is a poor measure of reach and overall popularity.

Oh, I guess that means One Piece's 18 million+ copies sold in 2013 means nothing then. Thanks for clarifying.

 

[vinceled]

Kurobas' popular, ongoing anime gives it greater reach than Ansatsu. That could change when the time comes for Ansatsu's anime.



Sales is a poor measure of reach and overall popularity. Book sales are a statistic, and like any statistic, can be heavily skewed by outside factors. Manga sales can be heavily skewed by age, gender, and intended audience. Sales of manga popular with these age groups can be skewed high. High sales would then reflect popularity within this specific demographic, rather than overall reach. Think of it like a political poll. If a poll is conducted predominantly among men 18 - 24, attending college, and living in a major city than the views reflected might not reflect the national political mood. Other demographics might not buy as much manga. Anything that appeals to these age groups might skew low no matter how popular. Nisekoi might not sell as much as Bleach, but the former has far greater reach at the moment. Nisekoi is only a few years old, with a popular, heavily marketed, new anime. The OP was a top ten hit this winter, peaking at #7 on the charts. Bleach's final arc is being serialized, it has not had an anime in two years, a new movie in four, little new merchandise, and no promotion. That is sometimes the best way to tell popularity. How heavily is a series promoted, and where. A few months ago I posted pics of life size Kurabas and Haikyuu advertisements in Shinjuku Station. Pizza Hut is currently doing a massive Love Live promotion. Pizza's come in Love Live boxes, restaurants and delivery scooters are decorated with pictures of the characters. Advertisement campaigns at the busiest train station in the world, and a national chain of fast food restaurants is real reach. Those are places where series can reach people who are not even manga or anime fans. Nothing remotely of the sort is done for Bleach. Those are the type of things that can help differentiate popularity. When the Gintama movie came out last summer, Lawson's (a national convenience store chain) launched a nationwide Gintama promotion. There was no comparable promotion for the Toriko movie, which came out around the same time.

If anyone is wondering, my feeling is that the Bleach anime ended because of time slot issues. Anime meant for early teen audiences traditionally have aired on weekdays in the early evening, after middle and high school kids get home from club activities. Over the past few years every channel that airs anime during that time has either been canceling or moving teen oriented anime. Most of the anime for early teens air on weekend afternoons now, except for a few hold outs, like Naruto. There are now fewer weekday anime time slots, most are filled by kids shows, like Cardight and Youkai Hunter. Bleach itself was replaced by a kid's show, the anime of the Rock Lee spinoff. I can't confirm if any anime airs in Bleach's old time slot now.

My explanation was probably poor so you misunderstood but I didn't mean sales by reach, but only the people that know of the series. I was only talking about what I experienced in France (2nd paper market in manga after Japan), where Bleach is as well known as OP and Naruto for example. In Japan I assume this is basically the same, Bleach is really well known and I think it's reach is more important than HxH simply like you said because the age targeted isn't the same. I think Bleach targets like you said too early teen while HxH older teen between 14-16. Or for example Kuroko no Basuke has a really important reach towards female readers.
And while sales is a poor measure of reach and overall popularity I think it's still an indicator of the popularity of the manga.

---------- Post added at 09:12 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:08 PM ----------

I think I probably missed it but when was this announced? I didn't see it in the thread : http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2014-03-05/one-piece-manga-no.73-gets-4-million-print-run

 

[Kaizou 10]

I think I probably missed it but when was this announced? I didn't see it in the thread : http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2014-03-05/one-piece-manga-no.73-gets-4-million-print-run

I don't think that is surprising news or anything. It has been printing that much copies since volume 67, so I don't think people going to surprise about it.

 

[101nemesis]

To be honest, I do not see why they are printing 4 million for OP again. The previous few volumes barely made it above 3 million even after many months (talking about the top selling volumes list of 2013). Not that 3 million is not a huge ass number in itself or anything.

 

[SharkBait]

To be honest, I do not see why they are printing 4 million for OP again. The previous few volumes barely made it above 3 million even after many months (talking about the top selling volumes list of 2013). Not that 3 million is not a huge ass number in itself or anything.

If youre going to print 3 million, then one more million doesnt hurt.

But I think they should start doing 3.5mln or less, unless there are that many people buying volumes many months down the line.

 

[Kaizou 10]

To be honest, I do not see why they are printing 4 million for OP again. The previous few volumes barely made it above 3 million even after many months (talking about the top selling volumes list of 2013). Not that 3 million is not a huge ass number in itself or anything.

You shouldn't really expect the sale from Oricon is exact. Those data are mainly from big book store or electronic commerce company; so, they don't really have data for small or private-owned bookstore.

So, even though OP may hasn't reached 4 million in Oricon, but it doesn't determine that it actually didn't reach 4 million when you count every book store in Japan.

 

[Leoat12]

To be honest, I do not see why they are printing 4 million for OP again. The previous few volumes barely made it above 3 million even after many months (talking about the top selling volumes list of 2013). Not that 3 million is not a huge ass number in itself or anything.

To have a safe distance between the sales and how many they have in stock. One Piece is the principal manga of Shueisha, it always has to be on the shelves. Also, if I remember correctly, One Piece reached 4 milion in sales before, there is any guarantee that it cannot reach it again.
One Piece still will be serialized for ages, they sell it sooner or later. Regarding One Piece, probably they aren't having any loss with this.

 

[xi0]

Oh, I guess that means One Piece's 18 million+ copies sold in 2013 means nothing then. Thanks for clarifying.

But it isn't the only way to measure popularity. One Piece had all of the things he mentioned and more, so of course it's reliable for a series as gigantic as One Piece, come on.

 

[Stark700]

But it isn't the only way to measure popularity. One Piece had all of the things he mentioned and more, so of course it's reliable for a series as gigantic as One Piece, come on.

Must be pretty tough to pick up on sarcasm sometimes.

 

[MattC302]

To be honest, I do not see why they are printing 4 million for OP again. The previous few volumes barely made it above 3 million even after many months (talking about the top selling volumes list of 2013). Not that 3 million is not a huge ass number in itself or anything.

The first volume of One Piece from 15 years ago is still in print and has at least 100 printings. One Piece will probably still be running 10 years from now, so I think it is a safe bet that there will be at least a few people looking for volume 73 10 years from now if people are still buying volume 1 after 15 years. And it is probably more cost effective to have one big print run, rather than 100 smaller ones. So it might take 10 years for volume 73 to sell out its 4million print run.

 

[Stark700]

It wouldn't surprise if HxH was still on hiatus and Kochikame was still ongoing 10 years from now too. Lol.

Changing the subject, do you think that HxH will come back when the anime runs out of material?

 

[vinceled]

It wouldn't surprise if HxH was still on hiatus and Kochikame was still ongoing 10 years from now too. Lol.

Changing the subject, do you think that HxH will come back when the anime runs out of material?

If it doesn't then the series never will seeing as story wise (MC's main goal) the series is basically over. But well the anime will last around 3 to 6 months more I think (12~24 episodes or even more) depending on how the rest of the chimera ant is animated and wether the chairman election arc js animated too. The series is currently animated at a rate of 2~3 chapters per episode with 30 or 40 chapters left to animate in the chimera ant arc (around c280 for now)

 

[Kaizou 10]

Changing the subject, do you think that HxH will come back when the anime runs out of material?

Not sure; I don't think the end of HxH's anime will convince Togashi to return, like the chapter 339 is a good place for the anime to end. So, I doubt HxH will return in order to make material for its anime.

 

[SharkBait]

Not sure; I don't think the end of HxH's anime will convince Togashi to return, like the chapter 339 is a good place for the anime to end. So, I doubt HxH will return in order to make material for its anime.

I dont understand why the anime would convince him to start. If he were truly guided by the anime, then I tihnk he would have timed it enough so that madhouse could be animating like the other longer shonen action anime adaptations from jump (where theyre >50chps behind the manga) and having been knee deep or done with whatever arc is after the last manga arc....

 

[WyldViolet]

It wouldn't surprise if HxH was still on hiatus and Kochikame was still ongoing 10 years from now too. Lol.

Changing the subject, do you think that HxH will come back when the anime runs out of material?

That's been my theory for quite a long time.
I think that Togashi might be planning to come back when the anime ends because then all the anime-only viewers could be all caught up to the manga which could possibly give it a boost in magazine readership.

 

[Kaizou 10]

I think that Togashi might be planning to come back when the anime ends because then all the anime-only viewers could be all caught up to the manga which could possibly give it a boost in magazine readership.

Unlike the other authors, I don't think Togashi really care much about boosting the magazine's readership. I think he just want to write manga in his own pace.