Between the explosion of “Jujutsu Kaisen” and the novelty “Kaguya-sama”, the manga is ready to live an exceptional year 2021 – Shueisha
- One Piece, Demon Slayer, Jujutsu Kaisen, Attack On Titan, My Hero Academia… We can no longer count the “millionaire” manga, whose sales are exploding.
- There is a real “animated” effect, with each new adaptation, with each new season.
- New products succeed in intervening and therefore boosting the market even more, like Kaguya-sama: Love is war at Pika, eagerly awaited by fans.
It is still only background noise, a rising rumor, figures that professionals share on social networks, while awaiting official data in mid-April. But, here it is, the manga market should experience a historic first quarter of 2021, and even “improbable” for The Bookseller is hiding, which advances six times more sales than in the first quarter of 2020. The editor Sullivan Rouaud, at the head of the new Mangetsu house, tempers with
“4.5 times more”.
Even if this is only the first quarter, 2021 promises to be an exceptional year for manga, which already represents almost one in two comics sold in France and which sees a proliferation of titles and publishers. It should be noted, however, that this success is mainly due to a handful of mastodons, as well as “middle” series and eagerly awaited novelties, such as Kaguya-sama: Love is war, this Wednesday at Pika.
The big boss “One Piece” still reigns supreme
More than 20 years One piece is the manga’s big boss, and it’s not about to end. Not right away, not this year. Even if Demon slayer came to tickle his ankles, Eiichiro Oda’s masterpiece remains the best-selling manga in the world, with nearly 500 million copies sold, including 23 million in France (publisher sales since publication). It was still the best-selling series in 2020, with three volumes in the top 10, alongside other big names (shelters?), Such as Naruto or Dragon ball. 2021 will be a special year for One piece with the release of volume 100, an event that the publisher Glénat is celebrating with collector editions for volumes 98, 99 and 100, as well as the publication of the Stampede anime comics, novels …
The “Demon Slayer” phenomenon sweeps over France
Despite a miss at its launch, the surge Demon slayer touched France, well helped by its animated adaptation available on Wakanim. Volume 1 was thus third in the top 10 sales in 2020 and its publisher Panini Manga evokes 1.5 million copies sold in all. As a reminder, Koyoharu Gotōge’s manga broke all sales records in Japan (ten times more than One piece in 2020), and his film The Infinity Train became the biggest hit of all time at the Japanese box office. It calms down. The manga has been finished since May 2020 in Japan, but it still has good days, and volumes, in France, with also the release of the film in the CGR cinema network and the return of the animated series for a season 2, both. planned for 2021.
The succession is assured with “Jujutsu Kaisen”
Like one shônen chasing another, the end of Demon slayer saw the advent of another title and success from publisher Shueisha and magazine Weekly Jump with Jujutsu kaisen, a fantastic universe, a demon story and fights against very classic monsters. But as Ahmed Agne, French editor of the series at Ki-oon, explains to
BFM TV, Jujutsu kaisen “Is representative of the demographic evolution of the readership”, and is aimed as much at young readers as at adult fans of shônen, with more mature characters, less naive stakes. “You could say it’s a seinen for young people and a shōnen for adults. “
The title has occupied several places in the top Oricon, the top 10 sales in Japan, for several weeks, and with 500,000 copies sold since its launch in February 2020, it is the best start of the publisher Ki-oon, and far exceeds their previous twelve-month sales record, held by My Hero Academia. There again, there was a significant, even essential, animated effect with the series broadcast as a simulcast on Crunchyroll between October 2020 and March 2021.
“My Hero Academia”, “Titans” … Anime boost sales
Started in 2014, My Hero Academia sees its sales explode with each new season of its animated adaptation, whether in simulcast (season 5 currently on DNA) or on Netflix (season 2 put online in early January). As a result, volume 1 sold nearly 100,000 copies in 2020, and the series exceeded one million in a single calendar year, for a total of more than 4 million (source GfK). Which brings manga into the big leagues, One piece, Naruto, Dragon ball and Fairy tail.
Same thing for The attack of the Titans, Pika bestseller with 3.5 million copies sold (“out of Hachette warehouses”), which saw its figures soar with the new and final season of the anime, on Wakanim since December: sales global multiplied by five, sales of volume 1 multiplied by ten, and 1.2 million reprints made in a hurry. A first in the history of Pika. Note that the manga will soon end in Japan, its author Hajime Isayama has just handed over the last chapter to his editor Kodansha.
The middle empire and novelties
These “millionaire” manga, also with One Punch Man at Kurokawa for example, should not eclipse an entire production qualified as “middle”, which does not necessarily break records but which attracts a real audience. However, these titles are more and more numerous: Chainsaw Man, Spy X Family, Mashle, The Quintessential Quintuplets, Haikyu !! – The aces of volleyball… The list is far from being exhaustive, and above all, it is renewed with new features, like Kaguya-sama: Love Is War, the first two volumes of which come out on Wednesday at Pika.
This eagerly awaited title, and even much in demand (the hashtag #KaguyaSamaEnFrance), renews the romantic comedy and tells how two high school students refuse to confess their feelings and thus wage a loving and tasty war. With more than 20 volumes in Japan, and of course the sacrosanct animated adaptation, the manga has everything to be successful in France. And he’s not the only one, fans are already waiting for the releases of Blue Lock (at Pika) and Ao Ashi – Playmaker (at Mangetsu), two football manga, or Kaiju 8, Shueisha’s new bombshell. The license is not yet announced in France, but the year 2021 is already ready to welcome it.