For reference: our #1 title this week, Fruits Basket vol. 17, is #76 on the USA Today Top 150, which covers all books, even the ones without pictures in them. Also on the UT150 are Naruto vols. 18 (at #116), 17 (at #123), and 16 (at #131). Oddly enough, our rankings have the same Narutos but in reverse order. Missing from USA Today’s list are Negima!, Bleach, and the Erin Hunter Warriors Manga — all of which place higher than Naruto 18.

Not that the newspaper is wrong; we’re just kicking around some numbers.

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Your comments do matter! I asked if someone out there knew of a good internet retailer for manga, whose site also happened to have the search and sorting options necessary for the rankings, and we got it on the first try: monkeebiz pointed us toward DeepDiscount.com, and it was exactly what I was looking for. Thank you sir! (um, madam… or um, primate) and remember folks, on the internets we are all somebody.

Consolidated Online Manga Sales Rankings for 31 August
“There are two kinds of statistics, the kind you look up and the kind you make up.”

Sources:
Amazon — B&N — BAMM — Chapters (CA) — Deepdiscount.com
Sources checked between 12:15am and 12:30am on 31 August 2007

The arrows at left show movement in the rankings compared to last week. (Well, a little over a week: the last Pulse was 10 days ago.) A ! is new — or at least, a title not on the previous list.

Top Series (by esoteric mathematical formula, see note)

↑ 1. Fruits Basket (161.9)
↓ 2. Naruto (158.1)
! 3. Negima! (109.0)
↓ 4. Bleach (104.0)
↓ 5. Warriors (single volume) (88.0)
↑ * Dark Hunger – Feehan (preorder) (single volume) (50.0)
! 6. Van Von Hunter (39.2)
! * Making Comics – McCloud (single volume) (36.0)
! 7. Vampire Knight (35.4)
! 8. Tsubasa (34.6)
! 9. Ouran High School Host Club (33.0)
! 10. Battle Angel Alita: Last Order (32.0)

Go Fruits Basket! Fight-o! Even though the Naruto Nation push seems to have mobilized the backlist (honestly, I’m tired of typing in that damn fox-faced ninja’s name 30 some odd times each week when I’m compiling the raw data) there is a lot to be said for having the #1 selling volume. Both Feehan and McCloud get the Maris treatment: Dark Hunger because I’m not calling it manga until I see it (see my note on the last list), and Making Comics because as fine a volume as it is, it isn’t quite manga either.

And Van Von Hunter is a surprise this week — at first blush, it looks like the Kaplan SAT version of the book has prompted more than a few readers to seek out the unadulterated version. Who knew that studying could be so educational? (oh, you know what I mean…)

Top 40 Individual Volumes
#. Title + Vol# (score)

↔ 1. Fruits Basket 17 (#1 selection at Chapters) (154)
! 2. Negima! 15 (#1 selection at DD) (109)
↓ 3. Naruto 16 (96)
↑ 4. Bleach 20 (#1 selection at BAMM) (92)
↑ 4. Naruto 17 (#1 selection at B&N) (92)
↓ 6. Warriors 1 (88)
↔ 7. Naruto 15 (80)
↓ 8. Naruto 18 (76)
↑ 9. Naruto 13 (62)
↑ 10. Fruits Basket 16 (56)
↑ 10. Naruto 14 (56)
↑ 12. Dark Hunger – Feehan (preorder) (#1 selection at Amazon) (50)
↑ 13. Naruto 10 (38)
! 13. Van Von Hunter 1 (38)
↑ 13. Bleach 19 (38)
↑ 16. Naruto 3 (37)
↑ 17. Making Comics – McCloud (36)
↑ 18. Naruto 12 (35)
↑ 19. Tsubasa 14 (34)
↑ 19. Vampire Knight 2 (34)
↑ 21. Ouran High School Host Club 9 (33)
! 22. Battle Angel Alita: Last Order 9 (32)
↑ 22. Bleach 18 (32)
! 24. Vampire Hunter D vol 8 (30)
↓ 25. Fullmetal Alchemist 14 (28)
↓ 25. My Paranoid Next Door Neighbor (28)
↑ 27. Naruto 5 (27)
↓ 28. Love Mode 6 (26)
↓ 28. Skip Beat 8 (26)
↔ 30. Naruto 11 (25)
↑ 31. Death Note 2 (24)
! 31. Mushishi 2 (24)
↓ 33. Absolute Boyfriend 4 (23)
! 33. Fruits Basket 18 (preorder) (23)
! 35. The Devil Within 1 (22)
↑ 35. Death Note 10 (22)
↑ 35. Naruto 2 (22)
↓ 35. Pichi Pichi Pitch 6 (22)
↓ 39. Naruto 1 (21)
! 39. Bleach 21 (preorder) (21)

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Also appearing in sources, but not in the Top 40:
Avalon High 1, Beauty Pop 5, Berserk 12, Bleach 1 & 2, Can’t Win With You 1, Case Closed 18, Case Closed 19 (preorder), Claymore 4 & 5, Crimson Hero 6, The Crimson Spell (preorder), D. Gray-Man 6, Death Notes 1, 3, 4, & 11; Gundam Seed Destiny 4, Hayate the Combat Butler 4, Hellsing 2 & 3, Kaplan SAT editions of Warcraft, Psy-Comm, and Van Von Hunter; Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories 1 & 2, Kurohime 1, Love*Com 2, Milenium Snow 2, Naoki Urasawa’s Monster 10, the remaining Narutos (except for vol 8, nobody likes that one), Princess Princess 4, RG Veda 10 (preorder), Rozen Maiden 6, Shugo Chara 2, Spell, Stolen Heart, Tsubasa 13, and Vampire Knight 1

Scoring:

• For the Amazon and B&N lists, I awarded 2 points for placing at #25, and an additional 2 points for each rank above 25. (#1 = 50 points)
• For the BAMM (Books-a-Million), Chapters, and Deepdiscount.com lists, I gave 1 point for #25, and an additional 1 point for each rank above 25 (#1 = 25 points)
• Series rankings utilize the top score of one volume as a base and then adds one tenth of the scores for all remaining volumes. (The Naruto Clause)

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The next Pulse will be taken on Thursday, 6 September. I plan to piggyback my posts on the USA Today list (because a number of manga blogs cite the UT150 each week and I’m shameless and opportunistic — and it does give us a point of reference) so as soon as I see their numbers I’m going to start compiling mine.