Oricon, a Japanese statistics gathering organization, has just released its yearly table ranking the best-selling manga volumes of the year. And 2021's list is really fascinating, as it gives us an overview of the state of the manga industry and pop culture as a whole. According to Anime News Network, Demon Slayer volume 23 sits in the top spot, selling 5,171,440 copies between November 23, 2020, and November 21, 2021.
This is a mind-blowing number of sales, and it is the highest number of sales recorded by Oricon since it started tracking manga sales in 2008. Last year, volume 18 of Demon Slayer took the top spot with 4,393,137 sales, meaning that volume 23 has sold over 700,000 more copies than its predecessor. However, while Demon Slayer holds the top spot, it isn't the most common series found in the top 30. While Demon Slayer has seven books in the top 30, Jujutsu Kaisen has a massive 18 volumes in the top 30, with volumes 2 to 17 represented on the table. In fact, one of the most striking trends in these figures is how few franchises are featured. Only five different franchises are found in the top thirty. Aside from Jujutsu Kaisen and Demon Slayer, One Piece has three volumes in the top 30, including the much-hyped volume 100.
This suggests that in the manga industry, success begets success. Every time a volume does well, more people hear about the franchise and check it out. These new fans buy the previous volumes of the series to catch up, leading to massive parts of a franchise selling well at once as people continue to work their way through the older books until they reach the latest volume. This actually fits the trend seen in last year's list, as that chart saw Demon Slayer take all 30 places.
The only two franchises to appear on the list only once are Attack On Titan and Spy×Family. The latter is likely surprising for many as while Spy×Family has been extremely popular in the pages of Shōnen Jump, and many wouldn't have predicted that it would become a best seller so quickly. Interestingly, Spy×Family is the only title on the list without a currently-airing anime. Many have argued that the Demon Slayer anime and the Mugen Train movie are partially responsible for Demon Slayer's impressive manga sales over the last two years, so it will be interesting to see if this holds true with Spy×Family. If the often-stated theory is believed, the anime series will encourage people to purchase the Spy×Family manga volumes causing the franchise to dominate the charts next year.
Another surprising title on the list is Jujutsu Kaisen 0. First released as Tokyo Metropolitan Curse Technical School in 2017, it was renamed and turned into a Jujutsu Kaisen prequel after Jujutsu Kaisen proved popular with readers. It isn't the only side content on the list, as Demon Slayer's Stories of Water and Flame and the Official Fan Book II also appear on the chart, showing how desperate people are for more Demon Slayer content.
One thing to take away from this chart is that the manga industry has massively grown in the past few years. If you go back to Oricon's first ranking table from 2008, One Piece #50 sits at the top of the chart with 1,678,208 sales. That’s 3,493,232 less than Demon Slayer #23, this year's top-seller. In fact, those sales would put One Piece #50 at position 27 of this year's table, showing the meteoric growth in manga sales in the last few years.
Oricon's figures offer us a fascinating snapshot of the anime industry. They show how some series can grab the public's imagination and utterly dominate both sales charts and pop culture as a whole. It will be interesting to see what next year's table looks like. Will Demon Slayer and Jujutsu Kaisen continue their dominance, or will a new franchise sweep in and claim both the top spot and many of the places on the table?
