Anime & Manga News

Japan's Weekly Light Novel Rankings for Apr 16 - 22

by Snow
Apr 27, 2018 3:28 AM | 27 Comments
Here are the weekly light novel rankings for April 16 - 22

Rank / This week's sales by copies / Cumulative sales / Titles

*1. 20,352 123,847 Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei Vol.25
*2. 17,876 *35,323 Meitantei Conan: Zero no Shikkounin
*3. *7,444 **7,444 Tondemo Skill de Isekai Hourou Meshi Vol.5
*4. *6,020 *16,951 Rakudai Kishi no Cavalry Vol.14
*5. *6,006 *44,776 One Piece Novel A Vol.1
*6. *5,837 **5,837 Date A Live Fragments: Date A Bullet Vol.3
*7. *5,114 **5,114 Kimi to Boku no Saigo no Senjou, Aruiwa Sekai ga Hajimaru Seisen Vol.4
*8. *4,791 **4,791 Tsujou Kougeki ga Zentai Kougeki de 2-kai Kougeki no Okaasan wa Suki desu ka? Vol.5
*9. *4,763 168,910 Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online Vol.1
10. *4,502 **4,502 Gate Season 2 Vol.2

11. *3,847 **3,847 Ore ga Suki nano wa Imouto dakedo Imouto ja Nai Vol.6
12. *3,797 152,254 Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei Vol.24
13. *3,605 **4,942 Sono Mono. Nochi ni... Vol.8
14. *3,525 **3,525 Izure Saikyou no Renkinjutsushi? Vol.2
15. *3,503 **3,503 Ore, Twintail ni Narimasu. Vol.15
16. *3,378 *66,243 Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu Vol.16
17. *3,356 *23,453 Strike the Blood Append Vol.2
18. *3,262 **3,262 Haiyuu Kareshi to Aisare Ouchi Gohan
19. *3,130 *15,720 Seishun Buta Yarou Series Vol.8
20. *3,087 114,129 Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online Vol.2

21. *3,025 **4,374 Marginal Operation Rev. Vol.4
22. *2,877 **2,877 Bannousugiru Souzou Skill de Isekai wo Shitataka ni Ikiru!
23. *2,676 **6,930 Sengoku Komachi Kuroutan Vol.8
24. *2,430 **2,430 Ryuuou-sama no Okiniiri!: Ryuu no Shihou wa Madoromu

Separated by Specific Ranking
Bunko
*4. 20,352 123,847 Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei Vol.25
14. *6,020 *16,951 Rakudai Kishi no Cavalry Vol.14
15. *5,837 **5,837 Date A Live Fragments: Date A Bullet Vol.3
23. *5,114 **5,114 Kimi to Boku no Saigo no Senjou, Aruiwa Sekai ga Hajimaru Seisen Vol.4
28. *4,791 **4,791 Tsujou Kougeki ga Zentai Kougeki de 2-kai Kougeki no Okaasan wa Suki desu ka? Vol.5
30. *4,763 168,910 Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online Vol.1
39. *3,847 **3,847 Ore ga Suki nano wa Imouto dakedo Imouto ja Nai Vol.6
40. *3,797 152,254 Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei Vol.24
44. *3,503 **3,503 Ore, Twintail ni Narimasu. Vol.15
49. *3,378 *66,243 Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu Vol.16

50. *3,356 *23,453 Strike the Blood Append Vol.2
(cut-off 3,356)

Book
*6. 17,876 *35,323 Meitantei Conan: Zero no Shikkounin
17. *7,444 **7,444 Tondemo Skill de Isekai Hourou Meshi Vol.5
28. *6,006 *44,776 One Piece Novel A Vol.1
(cut-off 4,859)

Literature Books Genre (duplicates removed)
*7. *4,502 **4,502 Gate Season 2 Vol.2
*8. *3,605 **4,942 Sono Mono. Nochi ni... Vol.8
10. *3,525 **3,525 Izure Saikyou no Renkinjutsushi? Vol.2
12. *3,025 **4,374 Marginal Operation Rev. Vol.4
15. *2,877 **2,877 Bannousugiru Souzou Skill de Isekai wo Shitataka ni Ikiru!
17. *2,676 **6,930 Sengoku Komachi Kuroutan Vol.8
19. *2,430 **2,430 Ryuuou-sama no Okiniiri!: Ryuu no Shihou wa Madoromu
(cut-off 2,362)

Source: Oricon Youtaijou

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20 of 27 Comments Recent Comments

Zefyris said:
RobertBobert said:


That is, if I understand correctly, LN's female writers is much easier to write gender-neutral work than just focuses to female audience?

At the very least, it's probably easier (except maybe for BL?) for publishing companies to survive by being gender neutral or male audience oriented than female oriented. Take that with a grain of salt, as there are some female oriented LN label out there (Kadokawa Beans Bunko is the main example I know, and it may has the most successful female oriented LNs ever (kokuhaku yokou renshuu (especially this one), Gosick and Saiunkoku monogatari...) that seem to be doing fine.


Well, I watched the adaptation of kokuhaku yokou renshuu, a pretty sweet girly romance, though. Simply, the last obviously female-oriented LN's adaptation that I saw was in the form of Red Data Girl in 2013.

Apr 30, 2018 4:10 AM by RobertBobert

RobertBobert said:
Zefyris said:

There are plenty light novel oriented towards female fans, of course. Gosick is a well known example. There are even BL LN after all. However, I think most of them aren't successful enough to warrant an anime adaptation; so you don't see them as much in rankings (they still appear from time to time).
That Sengoku Komachi Kuroutan seems to be female oriented btw, regardless of the editor not being specialized in female audience, and seems quite interesting too.


That is, if I understand correctly, LN's female writers is much easier to write gender-neutral work than just focuses to female audience?

At the very least, it's probably easier (except maybe for BL?) for publishing companies to survive by being gender neutral or male audience oriented than female oriented. Take that with a grain of salt, as there are some female oriented LN label out there (Kadokawa Beans Bunko is the main example I know, and it may has the most successful female oriented LNs ever (kokuhaku yokou renshuu (especially this one), Gosick and Saiunkoku monogatari...) that seem to be doing fine.

Apr 30, 2018 3:04 AM by Zefyris

Zefyris said:
RobertBobert said:


Well, even if they do not have such a rating system, in recent months I've seen mostly work that is clearly focused on the male audience, especially considering isekai and school romance with bishoujo.

@kuuderes_shadow Well, I know that titles like Mahouka have a lot female fans, but most of the LN for girls that I saw here did not even have their own page, referring to Amazon.

There are plenty light novel oriented towards female fans, of course. Gosick is a well known example. There are even BL LN after all. However, I think most of them aren't successful enough to warrant an anime adaptation; so you don't see them as much in rankings (they still appear from time to time).
That Sengoku Komachi Kuroutan seems to be female oriented btw, regardless of the editor not being specialized in female audience, and seems quite interesting too.


That is, if I understand correctly, LN's female writers is much easier to write gender-neutral work than just focuses to female audience?

Apr 30, 2018 2:36 AM by RobertBobert

RobertBobert said:
degenerate said:

afaik light novels are neither shounen, seinen, shoujo or josei since they arent being published like mangas


Well, even if they do not have such a rating system, in recent months I've seen mostly work that is clearly focused on the male audience, especially considering isekai and school romance with bishoujo.

@kuuderes_shadow Well, I know that titles like Mahouka have a lot female fans, but most of the LN for girls that I saw here did not even have their own page, referring to Amazon.

There are plenty light novel oriented towards female fans, of course. Gosick is a well known example. There are even BL LN after all. However, I think most of them aren't successful enough to warrant an anime adaptation; so you don't see them as much in rankings (they still appear from time to time).
That Sengoku Komachi Kuroutan seems to be female oriented btw, regardless of the editor not being specialized in female audience, and seems quite interesting too.

Apr 30, 2018 1:37 AM by Zefyris

Mahouka hype!! still waiting for vol 19 to be fan translated... Yen Press is probably gonna finish translating the series by 2025 lol, they're is still translating vol 10 apparently.

Apr 29, 2018 11:51 PM by Satan-sama

Overlord at more or less than 110k next week?

Apr 28, 2018 7:09 PM by BStrifeSword114

Oh, yes once again Mahouka is 1st I can't describe how happy Im

Apr 28, 2018 4:22 AM by Congintive

kuuderes_shadow said:
RobertBobert said:


@kuuderes_shadow Well, I know that titles like Mahouka have a lot female fans, but most of the LN for girls that I saw here did not even have their own page, referring to Amazon.


That's because KuroDubZero doesn't add them, because I've largely stopped adding stuff due to having less time and series taking forever to get approved has sapped my motivation for doing so, and because most other people tend to add only stuff that they are reading or intend to read - the western fanbase for female-oriented light novels is basically non-existant.


I see... Well, if we do not take into account the LN-adaptation of shoujo manga, then I heard only about Maria-sama Mitteru and RDG as about LN with predominantly female audience. But in general, I would not refuse to see any anime based on such novels.

Apr 27, 2018 11:06 PM by RobertBobert

RobertBobert said:


@kuuderes_shadow Well, I know that titles like Mahouka have a lot female fans, but most of the LN for girls that I saw here did not even have their own page, referring to Amazon.


That's because KuroDubZero doesn't add them, because I've largely stopped adding stuff due to having less time and series taking forever to get approved has sapped my motivation for doing so, and because most other people tend to add only stuff that they are reading or intend to read - the western fanbase for female-oriented light novels is basically non-existant.

Apr 27, 2018 10:47 PM by kuuderes_shadow

lol at the Conan novel particularly.

Still see One Piece trickling sales. Just another market to milk off of.

Apr 27, 2018 4:45 PM by Stripes

degenerate said:
RobertBobert said:
Just wanted to ask, shoujo ranobe generally exist? All that I see in the various sales ratings is shonen and seinen...

afaik light novels are neither shounen, seinen, shoujo or josei since they arent being published like mangas


Well, even if they do not have such a rating system, in recent months I've seen mostly work that is clearly focused on the male audience, especially considering isekai and school romance with bishoujo.

@kuuderes_shadow Well, I know that titles like Mahouka have a lot female fans, but most of the LN for girls that I saw here did not even have their own page, referring to Amazon.

Apr 27, 2018 4:17 PM by RobertBobert

Nice volume 24 surpassed 150k and vol 25 is at 120k already

Apr 27, 2018 2:26 PM by -Mahesvara

Mom isekai doing well, hopefully anime in a few years, also new Gate anime when.

Apr 27, 2018 2:17 PM by ichii_1

>One Piece Novel A Vol.1
I don't think one piece audience can read novel lol

Apr 27, 2018 1:34 PM by GangsterCat

YorukaWaifu said:
Why is Tondemo Skill there? The LN came out on the 25th. I would say that it's because of pre-orders but better selling LNs like Arifureta, Hachinan-tte or Infinite Stratos came out the same day and they aren't in the ranking.


Overlap have always had a somewhat haphazard approach to release dates, and Overlap Novels (which Tondemo Skill de Isekai Hourou Meshi is) more so than Overlap Bunko (Arifureta and IS).

RobertBobert said:
Just wanted to ask, shoujo ranobe generally exist? All that I see in the various sales ratings is shonen and seinen...


What degenerate said.

But also yes there are plenty of light novels aimed at a female audience, although the proportion has dropped recently. Labels that are aimed at girls tend to be very firmly aimed at girls, though*, and so struggle to compete with the big name general audience stuff which make up most of the rankings - incidentally, series from labels that are aimed as exclusively at boys as your typical female audience light novel is aimed at girls are actually much rarer.

You do quite often see them at the lower end of the rankings, though, and there is the occasional series that manages to reach a larger market than the usual.

*Indeed they are overwhelmingly either BL or TL stuff. Both of these are genres with small but dedicated fandoms who tend to read a lot and so are easily able to keep the industry that cater to them afloat but aren't numerous to get the series into the higher ends of these rankings. Both are also genres whose male fanbase is almost nonexistant (BL likely has the larger male fandom of the two).

KurumiNightmare said:
fullmetalmasify said:
Rakudai's in the top 10 for the second week in the row and at least we only have one volume of Mahouka this week.


The sales are kinda dropping for rakudai though i remember around the time it had anime it was reaching around 25~30k after 2weeks. Tbh i dont think it will survive for much longer if the sales keep dropping though geting up to vol14 is quite nice i would say.

Volumes 8 and 10 hit 25k on week 2, although in both cases with a few more days than this one has had.
It's sales have declined, yes, but it is still a very successful series. It won't be ending because of its sales figures any time soon (although it may end for other reasons). Incidentally, this volume's sales are up about 5% on the previous volume in the same number of days.

Apr 27, 2018 11:46 AM by kuuderes_shadow

degenerate said:
RobertBobert said:
Just wanted to ask, shoujo ranobe generally exist? All that I see in the various sales ratings is shonen and seinen...

afaik light novels are neither shounen, seinen, shoujo or josei since they arent being published like mangas


There are LN magazines actually.

Apr 27, 2018 11:42 AM by __CHUNCHUNMARU__

Series rankings from Oricon website:
*1. Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei
*2. Gekijouban Meitantei Conan: Zero no Shikkounin
*3. Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online
*4. Overlord
*5. Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu
*6. Tondemo Skill de Isekai Hourou Meshi
*7. Sword Art Online
*8. No Game No Life
*9. Rakudai Kishi no Cavalry
10. One Piece Novelisation
11. Date A Bullet
12. Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku wo!
13. Tensei Shitara Slime Datta Ken
14. Kimi to Boku no Saigo no Senjou, Arui wa Sekai ga Hajimaru Seisen
15. Ryuuou no Oshigoto
16. Tsuujou Kougeki ga Zentai Kougeki de 2-kai Kougeki no Okaa-san wa Suki desu ga?
17. Ore ga Suki nano wa Imouto dakedo Imouto Janai
18. Gate Season 2
19. Hoshi no Kirby Novelisation
20. Izure Saijaku no Rekinjutsushi?

(Source: Oricon website)

Apr 27, 2018 11:16 AM by kuuderes_shadow

fullmetalmasify said:
Rakudai's in the top 10 for the second week in the row and at least we only have one volume of Mahouka this week.


The sales are kinda dropping for rakudai though i remember around the time it had anime it was reaching around 25~30k after 2weeks. Tbh i dont think it will survive for much longer if the sales keep dropping though geting up to vol14 is quite nice i would say.

Apr 27, 2018 10:09 AM by KurumiNightmare

RobertBobert said:
Just wanted to ask, shoujo ranobe generally exist? All that I see in the various sales ratings is shonen and seinen...

afaik light novels are neither shounen, seinen, shoujo or josei since they arent being published like mangas

Apr 27, 2018 8:54 AM by a74vk93ing

All I see are my favorites

Apr 27, 2018 8:51 AM by Jazzyforcefield

It’s time to ditch the text file.
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