I’m running 5-6 days behind on this post, which is problematic considering I’m compiling a weekly bestseller chart. If I wait too much longer I might as well just give it a rest for a day or two and instead double up, cover two weeks worth of charts with a monster commentary on a ‘regularly scheduled’ Sunday afternoon.

(I reserve the right to do that any week now)

From your perspective as a reader, you have to impatiently wait for me to get off my metaphoric ass and type up the usual crap, occasionally punctuated with the lovely lovely numbers: picked, sorted, and formated in a number of tasty ways. You only get your fix once a week, whenever I deign to post the fruits of my data-entry-and-manipulation labour.

However, from my perspective this isn’t just a weekly exercise. In fact there is no real end to the number-crunching. For the past five weeks I’ve been checking sales sites nigh daily and am so deep into spreadsheets I have make a mental adjustment before I post to think of something as, say, the Naruto Shadow Box Collection as opposed to “Viz Shonen Jump Nov 2007 bx Naruto”.

Even in my posted charts, you’ll occasionally see a ‘bx’ or some other marker that I missed. Or left in because I’m lazy.

Most days I’m up at 5am doing data entry before going in to work (before breakfast… before I’m even awake really), or else I’m plugging in the numbers during my lunch break. I eat more servings of numbers than vegetables. I’ll make an effort to post ‘on-time’ from now on, but if it’s a choice between taking time to post and taking time to crunch numbers, I’ll take a big bowl of numbers with milk almost every time.

The usual six paragraphs on sources:

Tower and Virgin get an upgrade, as I am now looking at a Top 100 from each site, as opposed to merely a Top 50. No, they haven’t really improved much (though Tower gets half a credit for finally posting a full top 100 for manga, and not just a top 60) but there is a compelling reason and a decent excuse for the change: 1) I need more data and 2) I have so much data that no matter how odd their lists get, it isn’t going to affect the top 150 I post each week.

No really. Amazon and B&N form my base, and other sources either support those two or support each other and gang together to promote, say, Chibi Vampire vol 7 — #122 this week without showing up on Amazon or B&N at all.

And now let us consider Fye.com — Fye has both problems and advantages. Advantages first: They sell a lot of manga. Take a gander at Fye’s bestseller list — that’s the book bestseller list, mind you: all genres, all formats. Even so, 18 of the top 20 titles are manga. (17 of those are outselling Harry Potter. Dude.) The bestseller list is about 40% manga overall. Fye would be an excellent addition to my sources — The problem is that despite all this manga they’re selling, no one has thought to add manga or even ‘comics & graphic novels’ as a category on the site. (A keyword search only pulls up books with manga as a word in the title — mostly how-to-draw books, not so helpful)

Yes, you can find a specific title on Fye.com about as fast as you can type it. Quite a few folks are doing that already, as evidenced by their own bestseller chart. But let’s say one wanted to ‘window shop’ or perhaps wanted to find another new manga series to order along with the latest Naruto volume. Can’t find it on Fye — and guys, if I have to go to another site for info, what makes you think I’ll surf back to your site just to order? You’re losing sales, and honestly with the music business tanking like James Garner in that 1984 bomb and with shopping malls nationwide undergoing major transitions (some might use the word ‘decline’) you’d think Fye would like to make the most of any sales segment, particularly one that is growing, particularly one that is say 40% of their top 100 bestselling books… but who knows? Maybe they want to run their business into the ground and retire on golden parachutes at the expense of stock holders and creditors. (These guys also own Suncoast, after all. And MediaPlay. Remember MediaPlay?)

If Fye can only give me a general book bestseller list, well, that’s fine. There’s enough manga on that for me to work with. I scored Fye’s #1 manga title at 50 points, and worked my way down the list. That leaves seven empty slots at the bottom, but I’m not overly concerned about 7 points (.7 in the final analysis) and I want that data. I really want a Top 100 from Fye, but I’m flexible.

This week is (yet another) transition week, in that Fye was only checked once and added almost as an afterthought, and the Tower and Virgin numbers from last week were only Top 50s, and that won’t match up one-for-one with the Top 100 lists checked on the 22nd. The introduced errors (if there are any) will only affect the list this week; next week (30 December, last list of 2006) all changes will be in effect — overall input jumps from 3200 listings to 3500 (give or take a dozen: the ‘empty slots’ mentioned above) which will require about 45 more minutes of work, and which yields 9% more data. Mmmm… more data. [*homeresque gargle*]

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There was a tie for last place this week, so we’re looking at 151 titles in our top 150. By Publisher:

ADV: 3 (all Yotsuba&!)
Bandai: 1
Berkley: 1
Dark Horse: 3, plus a Vampire Hunter D novel (Joint with DMP)
Del Rey: 7
DMP: 4, plus D above.
Go! Comi: 2
HarperCollins: 5 (which includes 4 vols. of HC/Tokyopop co-branded manga)
Tokyopop: 30 (which includes 4 vols. of HC/Tokyopop co-branded manga)
Udon: 1
Vertical: 1
Viz: 88
- Shonen Jump - 46
- Shonen Jump Advanced - 13
- Shojo Beat - 21
- Viz Signature - 1
- Vizkids - 4

There were also some drawing technique, other how-to, and reference books: two from Japan Publications Trading Co. and one each from Collins & Brown, Collins Design, Dorling Kindersley, Stone Bridge Press, and Watson-Guptill.

By date of U.S. publication:

2003: 3
Jan-Jun 2004: 3
Jul-Dec 2004: 8
Jan-Jun 2005: 9
Jul-Dec 2005: 10
Jan-Jun 2006: 9
Jul-Dec 2006: 15
Jan-Jun 2007: 14
Jul-Sep 2007: 18
Oct 2007: 17
Nov 2007: 14
Dec 2007: 26
2008 preorders: 5

To compare the six month time frame Jul-Dec year-to-year (2006 to 2007) that would be 15 vs. 75. It should surprise no one that new titles are selling better, but I have the data so I posted that little factoid anyway.

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Volume Ones: Death Note, Naruto, Warriors, Bleach, Vampire Knight, Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, Avalon High, Kingdom Hearts II, Ouran High School Host Club, Wild Ones, Ai no Kusabi, Vampire Kisses, Magical JxR

One-shots, possible 1st volumes but ones I’ve never heard of, and other orphans: Dark Hunger, The Art of Naruto: Uzumaki, Warcraft Sunwell Trilogy Ultimate Edition, The Anime Encyclopedia, Making Comics (McCloud), King of the Lamp, Draw Manga: How to Draw Manga in Your Own Unique Style (Lewis), The Monster Book of Manga, After I Win

Easy enough to digest for the top 150. Let’s expand it:

Volume Ones: Buddha, Fruits Basket, Kingdom Hearts, Ral & Grad, .hack// G.U., Love Master A, Millennium Snow, Fruits Basket Ultimate Edition, Petshop of Horrors: Tokyo, The Other Side of the Mirror, Doors of Chaos, King City, Avril Lavigne’s Make 5 Wishes, S.A (Special A), Legends of the Dark Crystal, Fall in Love Like a Comic, The Guin Saga: the Seven Magi, Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories, Warcraft, Chibi Vampire, Prince Standard, Yurara, SM Hunter, High School Debut, Be with You, Twelve Kingdoms (novel, paperback), Love Attack, Dragon Drive, Invisible Boy, Fullmetal Alchemist, Her Majesty’s Dog, Alice on Deadlines, Sengoku Nights, Naked Jewels, Murder Princess, Crescent Moon, Gakuen Alice, Dog Style, Yotsuba&!, Battle Royale Ultimate Edition, Manga Sutra (Futari H), Megatokyo, Jazz, Pretty Face, How to Draw Manga Ultimate Manga Lessons, Harukaze Bitter Bop, Vampire Hunter D (novel), VB Rose, Gentlemen’s Alliance†, Aria, Kino no Tabi, Inubaka: Crazy for Dogs, Inuyasha, Trinity Blood, Witchblade Takeru, Gunsmith Cats Burst, Naruto Anime Profiles, Disgaea 2, Sundome, Junjo Romantica, Y Square, Claymore, Rurouni Kenshin, Love*Com, Uzumaki, Kekkaishi, Minima!, Return to Labyrinth, Shugo Chara, Chikyu Misaki, The Tyrant Falls in Love, W Juliet, How to Draw Manga Costume Encyclopedia, Testarotho, Hana-Kimi, Gunsmith Cats Omnibus, Full House, Platina, Princess, Mitsukazu Mihara: IC in a Sunflower, MAR, With the Light… Raising an Autistic Child, Oath to Love and Passion, Ranma ½, Mushishi, Vampire Hunter D (manga), Peter Panda, Slayers (novel), Promise, Tears of a Lamb, Yozakura Quartet, Strawberry 100%

One-shots, poss 1st volumes, and other orphans: Glass Sky, Battle Royale novel, Love a la Carte, Cute Beast, Tekkonkinkreet: Black & White, Mw, Demon Ororon: Complete Edition, Death Note: Another Note (novel), Princess Ai Ultimate Edition, Laugh Under the Sun, Crushing Love, The Cute Book (Aranzi Aronzo), Duetto, Azumanga Daioh Omnibus, Ka Shin Fu, Monochrome Factor, The Art of Spirited Away, Manga Sisters, Pet on Duty, The Art of My Neighbor Totoro, The Art of Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Little Darling, Sensitive Pornograph, Kururi from the Sea, Manga Pro Superstar Workshop (Doran), The Crimson Spell, Sex Friend, Death Note: Lethally Fun Facts (Cocoro Books), Shojo Beat Manga Artist Academy, My Paranoid Next Door Neighbor, Town of Evening Calm Country of Cherry Blossoms, Demon Flowers, Deja Vu: Spring Summer Fall Winter, The Art of Howl’s Moving Castle, Brave Story, Love Bus Stop, Welcome to the NHK novel, Oh My Goddess! First End, I’ll Get You! Wanted: Mysterious Man!, Manga Matrix: Create Unique Characters using the Japanese Matrix System, Mobile Suit Gundam: Awakening, Escalation, Confrontation (Stone Bridge Press), Japan Ai: A Tall Girl’s Adventures in Japan, Cute Dolls (Aranzi Aronzo), The Four Immigrants Manga, I Want to be Naughty, From Up Above, Manga Messiah, Manga: the Complete Guide (Thompson), Everlasting Love, The Cat Returns Picture Book, How to Draw Manga Ninja Warriors (Top That publ.), Water Baby, Invisible Love, Japanese Comickers

There were 767 total volumes in the full list; about 1 in 7 is a first volume or one-shot. I wouldn’t blame you if your eyes just glazed over. Next!

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Dropping out of the top 150:

500. ↓ -355 (145) More How to Draw Manga — Graphic Sha 1
366. ↓ -240 (126) Naruto 2008 Wall Calendar *
380. ↓ -237 (143) Alice on Deadlines 1
294. ↓ -144 (150) Kitchen Princess 4
280. ↓ -143 (137) Eyeshield 21 17
258. ↓ -140 (118) Warcraft 1
271. ↓ -130 (141) From Eroica with Love 11
256. ↓ -126 (130) Warcraft 3
263. ↓ -115 (148) Fruits Basket Fan Book
261. ↓ -114 (147) Shaman King 14

There are others, but those were the biggest losers. And of course we balance that out with the titles climbing the chart:

150. ↑ 326 (476) Shaman Warrior 5
148. ↑ 265 (413) Battle Angel Alita: Last Order 9
139. ↑ 262 (401) Magical JxR 1
122. ↑ 248 (370) Chibi Vampire 7
137. ↑ 237 (374) Witchblade Tankobon 5
149. ↑ 236 (385) Crimson Hero 7
100. ↑ 163 (263) Invisible Boy 2
112. ↑ 145 (257) Dragon Drive 5
132. ↑ 78 (210) Le Chevalier d’Eon 3

Next!

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Naruto takes up way too much of the rankings. (20% — 1 book in 5). I’m just sayin’… as an owner of 27 volumes myself, I’m Part Of The Problem™ of course, but I economised and bought the box set. It was the dominance of Naruto (and other Shonen Jump titles) that prompted me to dig deeper, find more sources, and expand the scope of the rankings so I could get past merely ranking Nauto volumes in order and learn about a few other titles. (otherwise I might still be posting a Top 40.)

Without 30 Narutos, the 12 Death Notes, and 13 volumes of Bleach, what’s left? Well, it leaves the most recent (single) volumes of Buso Renkin, Dragon Drive, One Piece, and Yu-Gi-Oh as the only representatives of Shonen Jump. Tokyopop and Shojo Beat dominate this, um, castrated list — let me give you a top 100 without those top series:

#) actual rank. ↑↔↓ (last wks. rank) title + vol # : publisher

1) 5. ↑ 3 (8) Fruits Basket 17 : Tokyopop
2) 12. ↑ 15 (27) Fullmetal Alchemist 15 : Viz
3) 13. ↑ 1 (14) Fruits Basket 18 : Tokyopop
4) 17. ↔ 0 (17) Vampire Knight 3 : Viz Shojo Beat
5) 26. ↔ 0 (26) Warriors 1 : HC/Tokyopop
6) 37. ↓ -3 (34) Dark Hunger — Feehan : Berkley
7) 40. ↑ 2 (42) Let’s Find Pokemon! Special Edition : Vizkids
8) 42. ↑ 1 (43) Vampire Knight 2 : Viz Shojo Beat
9) 44. ↑ 2 (46) Kingdom Hearts bx : Tokyopop
10) 46. ↓ -2 (44) Vampire Knight 1 : Viz Shojo Beat

Let me interupt here — We only get 10 titles out of the top 50 when we look at the list through this filter. (Just thought I’d point that out in case you missed it.)

11) 51. ↓ -4 (47) Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories bx : Tokyopop
12) 52. ↑ 3 (55) Making Comics — McCloud : HarperCollins
13) 56. ↓ -5 (51) Best of Pokemon Adventures: Yellow : Vizkids
14) 57. ↑ 5 (62) Berserk 20 : Dark Horse
15) 58. ↓ -8 (50) Best of Pokemon Adventures: Red : Vizkids
16) 59. ↑ 7 (66) Yotsuba&! 5 : ADV
17) 60. ↓ -2 (58) Fruits Basket 16 : Tokyopop
18) 62. ↑ 1 (63) Fullmetal Alchemist 14 : Viz
19) 64. ↑ 3 (67) Warriors 2 : HC/Tokyopop
20) 67. ↓ -8 (59) Yu-Gi-Oh! GX 1 : Viz Shonen Jump
21) 68. ↓ -20 (48) Tail of the Moon 8 : Viz Shojo Beat
22) 69. ↑ 4 (73) Gentlemen’s Alliance† 4 : Viz Shojo Beat
23) 72. ↓ -4 (68) Tsubasa 15 : Del Rey
24) 73. ↑ 1 (74) Hana-Kimi 21 : Viz Shojo Beat
25) 74. ↑ 62 (136) Negima! 16 : Del Rey
26) 75. ↑ 7 (82) The Anime Encyclopedia — Clements, McCarthy : Stone Bridge Press
27) 76. ↓ -6 (70) Avalon High 1 : HC/Tokyopop
28) 77. ↔ 0 (77) Japanese in Mangaland 1 : Japan Publ. Inc.
29) 78. ↔ 0 (78) Kingdom Hearts II 1 : Tokyopop
30) 79. ↑ 12 (91) Ouran High School Host Club 1 : Viz Shojo Beat
31) 80. ↓ -4 (76) Loveless 7 : Tokyopop
32) 81. ↓ -2 (79) The Monster Book of Manga — Estudio Joso : Collins Design
33) 83. ↓ -8 (75) Ouran High School Host Club 9 : Viz Shojo Beat
34) 84. ↓ -3 (81) Fruits Basket 9 : Tokyopop
35) 87. ↑ 47 (134) Avatar Cine-Manga vols 1-3 bx : Tokyopop
36) 88. ↓ -8 (80) Genshiken 9 : Del Rey
37) 91. ↑ 14 (105) Fruits Basket vols 1-4 bx : Tokyopop
38) 92. ↑ 10 (102) Kanji de Manga 1 : Japanime
39) 93. ↑ 53 (146) King of the Lamp : Go! Comi
40) 94. ↓ -3 (91) Fruits Basket 5 : Tokyopop
41) 95. ↑ 46 (141) Yurara 3 : Viz Shojo Beat
42) 96. ↓ -1 (95) Millennium Snow 2 : Viz Shojo Beat
43) 97. ↓ -1 (96) Manga Mania Chibi and Furry Characters : Watson-Guptill
44) 97. ↔ 0 (97) Vampire Hunter D (novel) 9 : DH Press
45) 99. ↓ -5 (94) Dramacon 3 : Tokyopop
46) 100. ↑ 163 (263) Invisible Boy 2 : DMP
47) 101. ↑ 12 (113) Absolute Boyfriend 4 : Viz Shojo Beat
48) 102. ↓ -9 (93) +Anima 6 : Tokyopop
49) 103. ↓ -13 (90) Beauty Pop 6 : Viz Shojo Beat
50) 103. ↑ 59 (162) Berserk 19 : Dark Horse
51) 105. ↑ 47 (152) Buso Renkin 9 : Viz SJ Advanced
52) 106. ↓ -6 (100) Pichi Pichi Pitch 7 : Del Rey
53) 107. ↓ -3 (104) Draw Manga: How to Draw Manga in Your Own Unique Style : Collins & Brown
54) 108. ↓ -10 (98) Pokemon: Mystery Dungeon : Vizkids
55) 109. ↓ -8 (101) Transformers: The Ultimate Guide : Dorling Kindersley
56) 110. ↓ -4 (106) Fruits Basket 4 : Tokyopop
57) 111. ↑ 13 (124) Yotsuba&! 2 : ADV
58) 112. ↓ -9 (103) Fruits Basket 13 : Tokyopop
59) 112. ↑ 145 (257) Dragon Drive 5 : Viz Shonen Jump
60) 114. ↓ -16 (98) Fruits Basket 6 : Tokyopop
61) 115. ↑ 24 (139) Passion 4 : DMP
62) 116. ↑ 42 (158) Dragon Eye 3 : Del Rey
63) 117. ↓ -33 (84) One Piece 16 : Viz Shonen Jump
64) 118. ↓ -11 (107) Fruits Basket 10 : Tokyopop
65) 120. ↓ -5 (115) Wild Ones 1 : Viz Shojo Beat
66) 121. ↓ -8 (113) Ouran High School Host Club 4 : Viz Shojo Beat
67) 122. ↓ -36 (86) Fruits Basket 15 : Tokyopop
68) 122. ↓ -3 (119) Warcraft Sunwell Trilogy, Ultimate Edition : Tokyopop
69) 122. ↑ 248 (370) Chibi Vampire 7 : Tokyopop
70) 125. ↓ -13 (112) Ouran High School Host Club 2 : Viz Shojo Beat
71) 126. ↓ -9 (117) Chibi Vampire 6 : Tokyopop
72) 127. ↓ -16 (111) Ouran High School Host Club 5 : Viz Shojo Beat
73) 128. ↑ 33 (161) Ouran High School Host Club 10 : Viz Shojo Beat
74) 129. ↓ -19 (110) Fruits Basket 3 : Tokyopop
75) 129. ↑ 20 (149) Andromeda Stories 2 : Vertical
76) 131. ↑ 8 (139) Ai no Kusabi 1 : DMP
77) 132. ↑ 44 (176) Fushigi Yugi: Genbu Kaiden 6 : Viz Shojo Beat
78) 132. ↑ 60 (192) Avatar Cine-Manga 4 : Tokyopop
79) 132. ↑ 78 (210) Le Chevalier d’Eon 3 : Del Rey
80) 135. ↑ 9 (144) Ouran High School Host Club 3 : Viz Shojo Beat
81) 136. ↑ 56 (192) Skip Beat! 10 : Viz Shojo Beat
82) 137. ↑ 237 (374) Witchblade Tankobon 5 : Bandai
83) 138. ↓ -11 (127) Vampire Kisses 1 : HC/Tokyopop
84) 139. ↓ -23 (116) Wallflower 14 : Del Rey
85) 139. ↑ 262 (401) Magical JxR 1 : Udon
86) 141. ↑ 22 (163) Yotsuba&! 3 : ADV
87) 142. ↑ 13 (155) Cantarella 9 : Go! Comi
88) 143. ↓ -15 (128) Welcome to the NHK 5 : Tokyopop
89) 144. ↓ -25 (119) Return to Labyrinth 2 : Tokyopop
90) 145. ↑ 27 (172) Japanese in Mangaland: Workbook 1 : Japan Publ. Inc.
91) 146. ↑ 48 (194) Loveless 6 : Tokyopop
92) 147. ↓ -10 (137) After I Win : DMP
93) 148. ↑ 265 (413) Battle Angel Alita: Last Order 9 : Viz
94) 149. ↑ 236 (385) Crimson Hero 7 : Viz Shojo Beat
95) 150. ↑ 5 (155) Naoki Urasawa’s Monster 12 : Viz Signature
96) 150. ↑ 326 (476) Shaman Warrior 5 : Dark Horse
97) 153 ↑ 74 (227) Glass Sky : DMP
98) 154 ↑ 77 (231) Rave Master 26 : Tokyopop
99) 155 ↓ -1 (154) Pretty Face 3 : Viz SJ Advanced
100) 156 ↑ 13 (169) Loveless 5 : Tokyopop

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Questions, comments, corrections? Is there a feature you’d like to see added, or something you think I should add to the listings? It’s interactive, this internet thing: let me know and I’ll try to accommodate you.