Japan's Weekly Light Novel Rankings for Sep 25 - Oct 1

Yohimo_asakura said:
@kuuderes_shadow by any chance, do you have any information on how latest SAO volume compares to the previous one in terms of sales in the same amount of time? I feel like the numbers are actually a bit lower than usual, but maybe its just me...

It's not just you. From the refugee-chan sales thread: (sales - cum. sales - release date - # of days - volume)

104,221部　104,221部　17/02/10　***3日　ソードアート・オンライン　19　ムーン・クレイドル
*70,011部　174,232部　17/02/10　**10日　ソードアート・オンライン　19　ムーン・クレイドル
*34,220部　208,452部　17/02/10　**17日　ソードアート・オンライン　19　ムーン・クレイドル
*19,255部　227,707部　17/02/10　**24日　ソードアート・オンライン　19　ムーン・クレイドル
*13,954部　241,661部　17/02/10　**31日　ソードアート・オンライン　19　ムーン・クレイドル
**9,024部　250,685部　17/02/10　**38日　ソードアート・オンライン　19　ムーン・クレイドル
**7,247部　257,932部　17/02/10　**45日　ソードアート・オンライン　19　ムーン・クレイドル
**6,285部　264,217部　17/02/10　**52日　ソードアート・オンライン　19　ムーン・クレイドル
**4,458部　268,675部　17/02/10　**59日　ソードアート・オンライン　19　ムーン・クレイドル

*88,376部　*88,376部　17/09/08　***3日　ソードアート・オンライン　20　ムーン・クレイドル
*55,194部　143,570部　17/09/08　**10日　ソードアート・オンライン　20　ムーン・クレイドル
*29,221部　172,791部　17/09/08　**17日　ソードアート・オンライン　20　ムーン・クレイドル
*17,434部　190,225部　17/09/08　**24日　ソードアート・オンライン　20　ムーン・クレイドル

Oct 6, 2017 11:23 PM by kuuderes_shadow

So many great series at the top this time!

@kuuderes_shadow by any chance, do you have any information on how latest SAO volume compares to the previous one in terms of sales in the same amount of time? I feel like the numbers are actually a bit lower than usual, but maybe its just me...

Oct 6, 2017 4:32 PM by TapuTapuu

kuuderes_shadow said:

mizukasa said:

2 weeks since release... So weak! Too weak it makes me sad. I've never seen it reach 60k sales.

You've never seen it because it's never happened. Or never been reported as happening anyway. The best sales figure for any volume of the series is just a tad over 50k, and even that was from 6 months of sales resulting from a perfectly timed release for the half-yearly rankings. If it had come out just 4 days earlier or possibly just a day or two later then it wouldn't have gotten into the bottom place on those rankings like it did, and we'd be talking about 43k for the best selling volume instead. Which was also the result of 5 months' sales. The series has only once seen a volume hit 35k on these weekly sales threads, and never 40k.

That's... really interesting to hear. Maybe it's because I tend to compare other LN to bigger series like SAO or Danmachi but TR always seemed moderately popular based on it's sales.

Oct 5, 2017 7:58 AM by Iron_Maw

As far as I remember the sales drop for Tokyo Ravens is not as bad as drop for Blade Dance. The irregular hiatus it get really hurt the sales. The hiatus is so bad that fans even call the series cursed.

Oct 5, 2017 6:27 AM by NeoAnkara

mizukasa said:

You seem very knowledgeable about these things. In your opinion, what do you think of its sales? Good or bad? If good then how good is it?

I'm just guessing but maybe the two-year hiatus is one of the reasons why the sales dropped?

I'd describe it as doing very well. Nothing more, nothing less.

The almost 2 year hiatus won't have helped, but there was the EX volume in between which might have dampened the effect somewhat. It's also worth noting that the entire market is seeing sales reported by Oricon as perhaps 20-25% lower than in 2015. This isn't due to a rapid decline in the light novel industry, but a result of the growth in the proportion of the market made up by e-books, which aren't reported by Oricon. This then probably accounts for at least half of the entire drop from the last volume to this one.

Maybe because it didn't have fanservice or maybe the fillers in the early episodes struck as boring to many people. It is sad because the LN is pretty damn interesting too. I really am just hoping the author will be able to properly wrap it up without him rushing it to its end because it got axed.

The latter half of that first sentence is the more likely one. People tend to overestimate the impact of the amount of fanservice in a series on its success in boosting source material. Indeed, the biggest successes are almost always series with little or no fanservice. Just look at the biggest sales boosts from anime over the last five years. Yes, there was NGNL, but that's surrounded by Overlord, Youjo Senki, Re:Zero, KonoSuba, OreGairu, YouJitsu, Maou-sama and DanMachi (in no particular order). In terms of physical size of boost (although not proportionate to previous sales) you could add Mahouka to that list as well. Yes, some of them have the odd bit of fanservice, but many of them don't, and none of them are fanservice heavy series.

It's worth noting, though, that the anime boost for Tokyo Ravens did turn it from a 15k seller to a 30k one, which is almost the same level of boost as SaeKano got, and SaeKano is usually regarded as a success in terms of sales boosts.

And I can say with absolute confidence that Tokyo Ravens is not going to get axed by the publisher any time soon.

Oct 5, 2017 6:11 AM by kuuderes_shadow

NeoAnkara said:

mizukasa said:

Maybe because it didn't have fanservice or maybe the fillers in the early episodes struck as boring to many people. It is sad because the LN is pretty damn interesting too. I really am just hoping the author will be able to properly wrap it up without him rushing it to its end because it got axed.

Well you can blame it to the CGI too but that's not too bad. The worst thing about Tokyo Ravens anime is at the beginning the sound effect are annoyingly loud. Other than that I don't see any problem.

I thought the CGI was okay but those ear-cracking sounds! It always fucking startles me when something explodes and I have my speakers' volume on high. I can't even watch the fight scenes with the volume on high because of those sounds. Why did the studio's staff even decide with them?

Oct 5, 2017 6:05 AM by mizukasa

mizukasa said:

Jagd84 said:
Sadly, TR never exploded in popularity during it's anime run.

Maybe because it didn't have fanservice or maybe the fillers in the early episodes struck as boring to many people. It is sad because the LN is pretty damn interesting too. I really am just hoping the author will be able to properly wrap it up without him rushing it to its end because it got axed.

Well you can blame it to the CGI too but that's not too bad. The worst thing about Tokyo Ravens anime is at the beginning the sound effect are annoyingly loud. Other than that I don't see any problem.

Oct 5, 2017 5:34 AM by NeoAnkara

kuuderes_shadow said:

mizukasa said:

2 weeks since release... So weak! Too weak it makes me sad. I've never seen it reach 60k sales.

You've never seen it because it's never happened. Or never been reported as happening anyway. The best sales figure for any volume of the series is just a tad over 50k, and even that was from 6 months of sales resulting from a perfectly timed release for the half-yearly rankings. If it had come out just 4 days earlier or possibly just a day or two later then it wouldn't have gotten into the bottom place on those rankings like it did, and we'd be talking about 43k for the best selling volume instead. Which was also the result of 5 months' sales. The series has only once seen a volume hit 35k on these weekly sales threads, and never 40k.

You seem very knowledgeable about these things. In your opinion, what do you think of its sales? Good or bad? If good then how good is it?

I'm just guessing but maybe the two-year hiatus is one of the reasons why the sales dropped?

Jagd84 said:
Sadly, TR never exploded in popularity during it's anime run.

Maybe because it didn't have fanservice or maybe the fillers in the early episodes struck as boring to many people. It is sad because the LN is pretty damn interesting too. I really am just hoping the author will be able to properly wrap it up without him rushing it to its end because it got axed.

Oct 5, 2017 5:21 AM by mizukasa

Paulo27 said:

kuuderes_shadow said:

It's quite normal for new volumes of popular series to give a boost of a few hundred extra copies per volume for the past volumes. This week there was 12.8k copies of back volumes sold, against 13.6k last week. It was 11.7k the week before this latest volume came out. OreGairu on the other hand had been selling <3k backlog volumes per week (probably much less than this) before the latest volume came out, rising to 4.3k last week and then dropping to 3.2k this week.

I mean, it just seemed a bit weird ReZero is doing 1/3 of its new volume sales in backlog sales when it's doing sub 50k right now on week 2, didn't think it was grabbing that many new people anymore and I believe its new volumes has been steadily declining in sales too. But then again, volume 1 is probably close to 300k at this point so I guess it's just the series that's friendly to new readers but doesn't grab that many of them for the long run.

No, it's been selling between 45 and 50k in the first two weeks since volume 10. The sales have actually been very stable.

Oct 5, 2017 5:11 AM by Nobidexx

kuuderes_shadow said:

NeoAnkara said:

I guess that's how sales from HJ Bunko is then. I want to ask about Kou 1 Desu ga too but it look like the result would be same.

It doesn't help that their releases came out at the end of the week this month.

Then again so did most other things this week - Kadokawa Beans Bunko released their number one and two best selling series in the week covered by this thread. Both Shounen Onmyouji and Kokuhaku Yokou Renshuu have seen their sales drop hard over the last few years, but if the figures aren't much higher next week we're in unprecedented territory for sales drops for both and what was for quite a while the top LN label aimed at girls can be dismissed as all but dead. In comparison a few relatively successful series from a fairly minor label like HJ Bunko not quite making the rankings rather than just barely making them is not even noteworthy.

Well I should be glad that Rokujouma even get into ranking every time it release new volume then. Their other series that rank from time to time would be Seirei Gensouki.

Oct 5, 2017 5:05 AM by NeoAnkara

kuuderes_shadow said:

Paulo27 said:

Does ReZero still sell old volumes? It's below Oregairu by over 7k and it's above it here in total. Not like the new volume is bringing in amazing numbers in comparison to other things for those 7k to be justified, anything happen to promote old volumes?

It's quite normal for new volumes of popular series to give a boost of a few hundred extra copies per volume for the past volumes. This week there was 12.8k copies of back volumes sold, against 13.6k last week. It was 11.7k the week before this latest volume came out. OreGairu on the other hand had been selling <3k backlog volumes per week (probably much less than this) before the latest volume came out, rising to 4.3k last week and then dropping to 3.2k this week.

I mean, it just seemed a bit weird ReZero is doing 1/3 of its new volume sales in backlog sales when it's doing sub 50k right now on week 2, didn't think it was grabbing that many new people anymore and I believe its new volumes has been steadily declining in sales too. But then again, volume 1 is probably close to 300k at this point so I guess it's just the series that's friendly to new readers but doesn't grab that many of them for the long run.

Oct 5, 2017 4:46 AM by Paulo27

NeoAnkara said:

kuuderes_shadow said:

For this week? No - only that it's less than 3974. The volume came out on Saturday, though, so should sell more in the current week than this one.

POS has it on 106th for Bunko, but that tends to give new volumes lower ranks than Oricon reports - Shounen Onmyouji is 90th on there, for instance, as opposed to 38th on Oricon's ranks, and it's ranked above Sennen Sensou Aigis on POS, which narrowly made the top 50 on Oricon's rankings (although it's below Saishin no Game wa Sugosugi Daro).
I would suspect it's in the 3000s.

I guess that's how sales from HJ Bunko is then. I want to ask about Kou 1 Desu ga too but it look like the result would be same.

It doesn't help that their releases came out at the end of the week this month.

Then again so did most other things this week - Kadokawa Beans Bunko released their number one and two best selling series in the week covered by this thread. Both Shounen Onmyouji and Kokuhaku Yokou Renshuu have seen their sales drop hard over the last few years, but if the figures aren't much higher next week we're in unprecedented territory for sales drops for both and what was for quite a while the top LN label aimed at girls can be dismissed as all but dead. In comparison a few relatively successful series from a fairly minor label like HJ Bunko not quite making the rankings rather than just barely making them is not even noteworthy.

Oct 5, 2017 4:41 AM by kuuderes_shadow

Paulo27 said:

kuuderes_shadow said:
Series rankings from Oricon website:
*1. Overlord
*2. Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu
*3. Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Come wa Machigatteiru
*4. Sword Art Online
*5. Youkoso Jitsuryoku Shijou Shugi no Kyoushitsu e
*6. Knight's & Magic
*7. Hidan no Aria
*8. Kenja no Mago
*9. Toaru Ossan no VRMMO Katsudouki
10. Isekai wa Smartphone to Tomo ni.
11. Imouto Sae Ireba Ii.
12. Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku wo!
13. Kokuhaku Yokou Renshuu
14. Sozai Saishuka no Isekai Ryokouki
15. No Game No Life
16. Gamers!
17. Tokyo Ravens
18. Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei
19. Tensei Ouji wa Daraketai
20. Goblin Slayer

(Source: Oricon website)

Does ReZero still sell old volumes? It's below Oregairu by over 7k and it's above it here in total. Not like the new volume is bringing in amazing numbers in comparison to other things for those 7k to be justified, anything happen to promote old volumes?

It's quite normal for new volumes of popular series to give a boost of a few hundred extra copies per volume for the past volumes. This week there was 12.8k copies of back volumes sold, against 13.6k last week. It was 11.7k the week before this latest volume came out. OreGairu on the other hand had been selling <3k backlog volumes per week (probably much less than this) before the latest volume came out, rising to 4.3k last week and then dropping to 3.2k this week.

Oct 5, 2017 4:31 AM by kuuderes_shadow

kuuderes_shadow said:

NeoAnkara said:
@kuuderes_shadow

Do you know the sales number for Infinite Dendrogram?

For this week? No - only that it's less than 3974. The volume came out on Saturday, though, so should sell more in the current week than this one.

POS has it on 106th for Bunko, but that tends to give new volumes lower ranks than Oricon reports - Shounen Onmyouji is 90th on there, for instance, as opposed to 38th on Oricon's ranks, and it's ranked above Sennen Sensou Aigis on POS, which narrowly made the top 50 on Oricon's rankings (although it's below Saishin no Game wa Sugosugi Daro).
I would suspect it's in the 3000s.

I guess that's how sales from HJ Bunko is then. I want to ask about Kou 1 Desu ga too but it look like the result would be same.

Oct 5, 2017 4:23 AM by NeoAnkara

kuuderes_shadow said:
Series rankings from Oricon website:
*1. Overlord
*2. Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu
*3. Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Come wa Machigatteiru
*4. Sword Art Online
*5. Youkoso Jitsuryoku Shijou Shugi no Kyoushitsu e
*6. Knight's & Magic
*7. Hidan no Aria
*8. Kenja no Mago
*9. Toaru Ossan no VRMMO Katsudouki
10. Isekai wa Smartphone to Tomo ni.
11. Imouto Sae Ireba Ii.
12. Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku wo!
13. Kokuhaku Yokou Renshuu
14. Sozai Saishuka no Isekai Ryokouki
15. No Game No Life
16. Gamers!
17. Tokyo Ravens
18. Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei
19. Tensei Ouji wa Daraketai
20. Goblin Slayer

(Source: Oricon website)

Does ReZero still sell old volumes? It's below Oregairu by over 7k and it's above it here in total. Not like the new volume is bringing in amazing numbers in comparison to other things for those 7k to be justified, anything happen to promote old volumes?

And weird Youkoso volumes show up this week again when they didn't last week. Wonder if people got mad at the ending of the anime and wanted to send a message lol.

Oct 5, 2017 4:13 AM by Paulo27

kuuderes_shadow said:

RobertBobert said:

I'm even afraid to ask what caused this. Is the original novel too weak, or is it simply not popular?

What makes you think it's not popular? It's comfortably within the and still the top 5% bestselling light novels, and is currently the 5th best selling series of one of the three big light novel labels in terms of the number of hits that come from them - and Tokyo Ravens is definitely one of those hits.

Just the above you talked about sales, so I made this conclusion. I apologize if I misunderstood you.

Oct 5, 2017 3:43 AM by RobertBobert

AntwanMantilla said:
Ah, nice to see SAO, Re:Zero, Yahari and Overlord in the top.

nice to see SAO, Re:Zero and Overlord in the top.

sad to see Yahari in top

Oct 5, 2017 3:41 AM by thepath

All of those high sales and no sign of season 2. Sasuga japan.

Oct 5, 2017 3:32 AM by nymi

NeoAnkara said:
@kuuderes_shadow

Do you know the sales number for Infinite Dendrogram?

For this week? No - only that it's less than 3974. The volume came out on Saturday, though, so should sell more in the current week than this one.

POS has it on 106th for Bunko, but that tends to give new volumes lower ranks than Oricon reports - Shounen Onmyouji is 90th on there, for instance, as opposed to 38th on Oricon's ranks, and it's ranked above Sennen Sensou Aigis on POS, which narrowly made the top 50 on Oricon's rankings (although it's below Saishin no Game wa Sugosugi Daro).
I would suspect it's in the 3000s.

Oct 5, 2017 3:10 AM by kuuderes_shadow

RobertBobert said:

kuuderes_shadow said:
You've never seen it because it's never happened. Or never been reported as happening anyway. The best sales figure for any volume of the series is just a tad over 50k, and even that was from 6 months of sales resulting from a perfectly timed release for the half-yearly rankings. If it had come out just 4 days earlier or possibly just a day or two later then it wouldn't have gotten into the bottom place on those rankings like it did, and we'd be talking about 43k for the best selling volume instead. Which was also the result of 5 months' sales. The series has only once seen a volume hit 35k on these weekly sales threads, and never 40k.

I'm even afraid to ask what caused this. Is the original novel too weak, or is it simply not popular?

What makes you think it's not popular? It's comfortably within the and still the top 5% bestselling light novels, and is currently the 5th best selling series of one of the three big light novel labels in terms of the number of hits that come from them - and Tokyo Ravens is definitely one of those hits.

Oct 5, 2017 3:00 AM by kuuderes_shadow

Japan's Weekly Light Novel Rankings for Sep 25 - Oct 1

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