For now, let's call it a rumor. I've not seen any official source quoted, nor posted in regards to DGM's future. The plagiarism speculation is compelling, but I'm put off by the fact that this forum is quoted as the primary source. Plagiarism is such a big deal that Japanese news would be all over it, and it would be posted in English to a site that only quotes official sources (Anime News Network for instance). Maybe, just maybe, it will alternated seasons with Hunter x Hunter from now on. H x H will appear every winter and summer. DGM will take the spring and fall. No, I'm not basing that on anything substantial.
It's still a clear calibration of the intensity of the fanbase. I'm not saying that Toriko 4 will sell less than ToLoveRu 14 in the long run (of course it's not going to sell less than ToLoveRu...), but the fact remains, that without the first print running out restriction that happened to Toriko 1 and 2, Toriko 4's initial sales is surprisingly slow, consider it becoming stable at the 3rd~4th place in the same time period the chapters of 4th volume was serialized.
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"Intensity of the fanbase" is exactly right. Toriko's in its 4th volume, while To-Love-Ru is in its 14th. It's had a lot more time to get a group of dedicated fans who will rush out to buy it the moment it comes out. Toriko is still in its beginning stages. The fact that initial sales are this good reflects well on it.
Well to be fair, the tankobons aren't that expensive over at Japan. But one can't really expect for the sales to skyrocket everytime, I doubt Toriko is up there in the toc for tank sales, so it might not really make a difference in the long run, if sales do increase substantially.
None of us ever claimed Toriko was doing poorly, at least I didn't. Far from it. First week sales of 80,000+ by volume 4 is extraordinary. Most (non - Jump) series won't ever sell that much. Had it come out at the beginning of the tracking period it would have sold over 100,000, as volume 3 did in it's first week. I had hoped for better growth between volume 3 and 4, closer to the percentage it went up between volume 1(2), and volume 3. I'll need to compare two weeks sales before really knowing how much it really improved. My hope, but not expectation, is for it and Mago to pass the ToRa/Eyeshield tier by volume 5. Volume 3 also charted at number 6, BTW. Rank only matters so much though; the only significant series to debut in the top ten that wasn't from WSJ or SQ was Ouran High School Host Club at number 2. Only the top three had sales over 100,000. This was kind of a weak sales period.