#Demon Slayer Dominates the Japanese Publishing Industry in Oricon’s Mid-Year Manga and Light Novel Rankings

Japanese tracking website Oricon released its estimated numbers for most-sold manga and light novels earlier today for the first half of 2021, with Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba once again taking the top spot for both rankings (by series). Though not too far behind Demon Slayer is JUJUTSU KAISEN on the individual manga rankings, with the present-day series taking the top light novel slots, making for a rivalry between the two new Weekly Shonen Jump powerhouses.

As a side note, Oricon tracks the physical releases of books in Japan from the period of November 23, 2020, to May 23, 2021, and doesn’t factor in digital sales. 

Manga (Individual volumes sold):

1. 25. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yabia Volume 18 (1,005,265)
2. 24. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yabia Volume 19 (1,005,455)
3. 23. SPY x FAMILY Volume 6 (1,086,102)
4. 22. Attack on Titan Volume 33 (1,094,178)
5. 21. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yabia Volume 22 (1,171,508)
6. 20. JUJUTSU KAISENN Volume 5 (1,488,529)
7. 19. JUJUTSU KAISEN Volume 6 (1,492,324)
8. 18. JUJUTSU KAISEN Volume 3 (1,503,754)
9. 17. JUJUTSU KAISEN Volume 7 (1,505,348)
10. 16. JUJUTSU KAISEN Volume 4 (1,505,759)
11. 15. JUJUTSU KAISEN Volume 11 (1,511,238)
12. 14. JUJUTSU KAISEN Volume 10 (1,517,026)
13. 13. JUJUTSU KAISEN Volume 12 (1,521,362)
14. 12. JUJUTSU KAISEN Volume 2 (1,526,064)
15. 11. JUJUTSU KAISEN Volume 13 (1,531,848)
16. 10. JUJUTSU KAISEN Volume 8 (1,534,949)
17. 9. JUJUTSU KAISEN Volume 9 (1,535,199)
18. 8. JUJUTSU KAISEN Volume 1 (1,552,810)
19. 7. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yabia Official Fan Book II (1,630,162)
20. 6. JUJUTSU KAISEN 0 (1,640,157)
21. 5. One Piece Volume 98 (1,876,047)
22. 4. JUJUTSU KAISEN Volume 15 (2,016,143)
23. 3. JUJUTSU KAISEN Volume 14 (2,055,130)
24. 2. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yabia Side Story (2,289,411)
25. 1. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yabia Volume 23 (4,982,832)

Manga (by series, copies sold):

1. 5. Chainsaw Man (4,181,650)
2. 4. Attack on Titan (4,635,754)
3. 3. Tokyo Revengers (5,007,825)
4. 2. JUJUTSU KAISEN (23,797,483)
5. 1. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yabia (26,351,483)

Light Novel (by volume):

1. 10. Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Movie: Mugen Train Novel (123,984)
2. 9. That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Volume 18 (126,789)
3. 8. The Intuition of Haruhi Suzumiya (132,813)
4. 7. Sword Art Online Volume 25 (138,775)
5. 6. Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Movie: Mugen Train Novel Mirai Bunko Edition (146,841)
6. 5. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba: Kataha no Cho (162,810)
7. 4. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba: Shiawase no Hana (166,085)
8. 3. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba: Kaze no Michishirube (190,945)
9. 2. JUJUTSU KAISEN: Yoake no Ibara Michi (206,059)
10. 1. JUJUTSU KAISEN: Iku Natsu to Kaeru Aki (235,170)

Light Novel (by series):

1. 10. Sword Art Online (177,732)
2. 9. Osamake: Romcom Where The Childhood Friend Won’t Lose (185,751)
3. 8. JUJUTSU KAISEN: Yoake no Ibara Michi (206,059)
4. 7. Haikyu!! (225,002)
5. 6. JUJUTSU KAISEN: Iku Natsu to Kaeru Aki (235,170)
6. 5. Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Movie: Mugen Train Novel (270,825) [both editions added together]
7. 4. Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- (301,196)
8. 3. The Apothecary Diaries (350,043)
9. 2. That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime (357,852)
10. 1. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yabia (651,358)

In the regular book categories, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba also comes up on top with Koyoharu Gotouge‘s art book selling 470,183 copies, as well as making the manga creator the top-selling author in the overall books category with an estimated 1,146,042 copies sold of their art books. One crazy aspect of the rankings is that if volume 23 of Demon Slayer was counted by itself in the “series” category, it would be 3rd, ahead of every volume of Attack on Titan sold in the last 6 months, as well as literally every other manga series.

When the full-year numbers release at the end of the year, it’ll be interesting to see if we get a new champion in JUJUTSU KAISEN, or Demon Slayer continues its domination for another year after taking the crown from the decade long king of manga, One Piece.

Source: Oricon

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Daryl Harding is a Japan Correspondent for Crunchyroll News. He also runs a YouTube channel about Japan stuff called TheDoctorDazza, tweets at @DoctorDazza, and posts photos of his travels on Instagram.