OP doesn't sell "a little over 2million" in a year, just last year volume 91 hit 2.388mln, and in 2018 OP 88 was close to 2.5mln in just 9 months. Saying that those print numbers would be met over the years was accurate, and as that stops being true, the first print number start getting reduced (like raf pointed out, that 3.3 already got lowered to 3.2mln). They're not just going to slam on the print numbers, they're going to do it gradually.
Here's a perspective: if OP is selling more than what's reported, why don't we get reprints information for it?
Oh, remember what they did last year saying OP was still the best-selling series despite KNY actually taking the top spot? They would totally go far to save face.
What did they do last year?. Do you mean celebrating a feat that OP has achieved with additional insider info since they are publisher of that series, and have the accurate data. Why would they save face, when the series that dethroned it actually a WSJ title as well. All of this sounds conspiracy theory to me as well.
Hello Lugia_, welcome aboard! It's nice that you got out of the lurker zone
It still doesn't make sense that Shueisha's number for KnY is lower than Oricon's number for KnY. Sure, OP can have sold more via digital sales than the Oricon number, but how would KnY have less sales than what Oricon gives as sales numbers? And 2 million copies less than Oricon at that, not some little difference.
I'm not saying it is at all, but OP could be selling more than it is reported and we wouldn't notice because it wouldn't get reprints, One Piece's first print run per volume is probably still like 3 million.. so it could be selling more than reported and it wouldn't need reprint simply because it already has sooo many printed volumes availble for retailers.
If you don't think releasing that info (which is most likely not even actual sales but some other metric), something that never happened in previous years, just before Oricon would release their ranking which everyone knew would have KnY on the top spot is suspicious, good for you.
I mean, claiming that Oricon was off by 2 mln for both was already kind of insane, but claiming they're off by like 40mln would be...wild. To say the least.
The "They are printing 1m more copies than needed to save face" argument doesn't hold up when you realize they were doing it even during the peak of the 2011 boost. The highest first print for a OP volume was Volume 67's, with 4.05m units. Yet, that volume only sold 3.05m units in the 2012 oricon year (it came out in August, so it had 3 and a half months to sell that much. Maybe its 2013 sales made up for that? No, they most likely didn't, Vol. 67 wasn't in the top 100 best selling volume of 2013 and #100 (Gintama #48) sold 422,566).
I'm not saying they are doing it to save face lol. I just said them doing something trying to save wouldn't be something new. OP's first print remaining 3.2 million is reasonable as it is, despite recent volumes struggling to reach 2 million.
They most likely aren't losing money in the long run (I'm talking 10+ years from now), the more copies of a book you print (A bulk order) the cheaper it gets.. Shueisha probably did some math and has projections of how much One Piece will sell years from now. And based on those projections they decide on the print run.
I sound delusional oh wow..?
Exactly there has to be a reason that we don't know about it, but saying they're printing more just to save face is not the way to go.
Yep that's what I'm thinking too. The probably want One Piece to be the kind of manga that's always available in every bookshop, no matter what. Like "If it's a bookshop, it must have a decent stock of the entirety of One Piece". Because One Piece is a "classic" it will keep selling a little basically forever
Saying that they're doing it to "save face" is just something that came to mind as a possible reason, there are plenty of valid reasons (and better reasons than this, like I've already seen posted by other users) you can think of, none of which are relevant because they aren't the crux of the argument. OP not selling anywhere near that amount (atleast not on a short term) is however a fact, there is a reason you don't see it ever getting reprints even years after their initial print: that initial print is never being met, thus reprints are never needed. Plain and simple.
Like, what is even this? Why are we even parting of the idea that Shueisha is 'losing money' by the amount of copies One Piece has printed, and that those copies are never sold? I honestly don't get how is that hard to understand that OP's demand is based not on a month-timeframe, but on years. It's printed that way in order to last through X amount of years without needing to reprint another huge amount of copies that may, in that case, fall into overprinting. The demand of the volume needs to be studied through different years and that's probably how Shueisha's playing it: print X millions and no need to print anymore until like who knows, 5-6 years. Printing OP is probably expensive, because we're talking about millions. Every series probably has its own treatment when it comes to its own demand, but it's clearly not the same making some thousands or ten-thousand copies' reprints for 'smaller' series than having to print what One Piece can actually demand. Be it to save face or not, which we won't really know, stating that they are 'losing money because of One Piece' is one of the craziest ideas ever stated in this discussion.
In my honest opinion, those 2 million from One Piece may perfectly belong to digital. Or even missed sales from Oricon; basically, it's a plausible number for One Piece at the end of the year. And what I think about KnY's number is that, plainly simple, it's an outdated number. Take in mind that, the person who revealed numbers was an editor of One Piece, don't remember who exactly. Not meaning anything with this other than he just probably didn't have updated numbers for Kimetsu. And this can actually be theorized or explained by an old interview in which it was reflected how fast Kimetsu's numbers grow. This interview mentioned that, at the moment the interview was being held, Kimetsu's print number was 40 million if we added both digital + physical copies. By the time that interview was gonna be published, physical copies alone already surpassed 40 million. This can give us an insight into how quickly these numbers changed, and how easy could it have been for the number that editor gave to be outdated.
that info came from One Piece Editor twitter, 3 days before Oricon chart came out, on a Monday. Then 2 days afterward they translated the message from JPN to English, and pin that
I know Oricon gives estimates but missing 2 million in sales would be a HUGE oversight and would probably destroy any credibility they have. I mean maybe if they were off by a ten thousand to one hundred thousand and there about , that wouldn't be so hard to believe but 2 million....