Comic Book Resources has posted the Diamond sales figures for October, and while I’m sure David Taylor will do a much better job providing an analysis of the manga elements, some things jumped out at me.
Tokyopop’s Direct Market dollar share bumped up from 1.96% in September to 2.88% in October. Viz’s dollar share dropped from 1.95% in September to 1.69% in October. A.D. Vision experienced a smallish upward bump from September’s .44% dollar share to October’s .46%.
Tokyopop has half of the top 50 manga titles for the month, including some OEL books. Mark of the Succubus shows up at #14 (#85 in graphic novels overall) and Psy-Comm at #34. A total of 19 manga titles made it into the top 100 graphic novels for the month, 13 of them from Tokyopop. This doesn’t really surprise me, as Tokyopop spares no expense on their section of Previews. Beyond standard solicitation elements (plot summary, cover art), they also provide what seem like retailer-friendly factoids (marketing tidbits, some “if your customers like…” suggestions, etc.). Marvel may have a special insert, but the thoroughness of Tokyopop’s solicitations isn’t to be sneezed at.
The rest of the manga entries in the top 100 GNs were divided among Dark Horse (Berserk #9), Digital Manga (Yellow #2), A.D. Vision (Full Metal Panic Overload #2), CMX (Kamikaze Kaito Jeanne #1), and Viz (Hana Kimi 8 and Video Girl Ai 13). While a lot of these 19 books are shonen-seinen, it’s nice to see josei Tramps Like Us #7 in 100th place and even nicer to see yaoi Yellow hitting 52nd place.
Many of Viz’s entries in the top 50 (14 total) aren’t actually debuting volumes. Naruto is still enjoying a bump from Cartoon Network, with the first six volumes showing up. And the third volume of Fullmetal Alchemist is still hanging on, even though it came out in August. Viz’s shojo output didn’t go unrepresented. Shojo Beat moved up the top 300 comics list, from 299 in September to 281 in October, and Yuu Watase had two entries in the top 50 manga (Fushigi Yugi Genbu Kaiden #2 at 20th, and Fushigi Yugi #8 at 45th.)
Go! Comi claims two places in the manga top 50, with debut volumes of the excellent Cantarella in 43rd place and Tenshi Ja Nai (I’m No Angel) in 48th. Other entries that make me happy are Kindaichi Case Files #12 in 25th (this after a fairly long gap but with an extra-thick installment) and Yotsuba&! #1 in 30th place. (I wonder if that isn’t supposed to be #3, which actually came out in September, though it would make me equally happy if the Direct Market audience was catching up with the book. I also wonder why A.D. Vision still doesn’t have information on the book posted on its web site.)
It’s not all joy, though, and I’m totally baffled by the presence of Honey Mustard #2, a truly awful bit of forced-marriage rom-com from Tokyopop, at 40th on the manga list. And this makes the second month running with no Del Rey titles in the top 100 graphic novels. Given their generally excellent bookstore performance, I can’t see them viewing it as a problem.