What is the number one manga in the world?

by

Alfred Toh

Last updated September 1, 2022

I think you’ll agree with me when I say:

“I want to start a great new manga but having thousands of different ones every season, I don’t know which one to read.”

Or am I wrong?

What you might do is ask a friend, or possibly just head to Google and search “popular manga in Japan” or “best selling manga in Japan.”

I noticed that the second method isn’t all that efficient. The results you get from search engines are not entirely accurate.

Well, in this post, I will show four rankings that Japanese people use to discover:

• Trending shonen manga in Japan
• Most popular digital manga in Japan
• Best selling shoujo manga in Japan
• Best selling manga in 2021
• and more!

This post is based on quantitative data!

If you are looking for manga recommendations, you will love this post.

Let’s get started!

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Rakuten

I think that you’ll have heard of Rakuten, it’s probably the biggest e-commerce company in Japan. It’s often called “Japanese Amazon”.

They actually have a manga ranking where you can see the top-selling manga on Rakuten.

Top-selling shonen manga by volume in September are:

1. Tokyo Revengers (Vol. 29)
2. Spy × Family (Vol.10)
3. Haikyu!! (Vol.1-45 Complete Set)
4. World Trigger (Vol.25)
5. One Piece (Vol.1-103 Box Set)
6. One Piece (Vol. 103)
7. Tokyo Revengers (Vol.1-29 Box Set)
8. Jujutsu Kaisen (Vol.20)
9. SLAM DUNK [New Cover Edition] (Vol.1-20 Complete Set)
10. Detective Conan (Vol.102)

The complete top-selling list can be seen here (in Japanese).

How to become a MANGA ARTIST? Watch this video!

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LyZxZ9BI0s

Mangazenkan

Mangazenkan is a popular site in Japan to buy manga. They also have their own ranking based on their top sellers.

You can filter by digital & physical manga!

The most popular digital manga in Japan right now are:

1. Aoshi  (Vol.29)
2. Goblin Slayer (Vol.13)
3. Tokyo Revengers (Vol. 29)
4. Goblin Slayer (Vol.9)
5. Dakishimete, Tsuideni Kiss mo (Vol.9)
6. Jujutsu Kaisen (Vol.20)
7. How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom (Vol.9)
8. Say “I love you”. (Vol.19)
9. Shoujiki Fudousan (Vol.15)
10. The Daily Life of a Middle-Aged Online Shopper in Another World (Vol. )

The complete top-selling list can be seen here (in Japanese).

HOW and Where To PUBLISH Your Own MANGA? Watch this video to find it out!

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Pg22-lyxbo

CMOA

Another fantastic manga ranking is CMOA.

Compared with the other rankings, CMOA focuses more on teenage girls and adult women.

You can filter by Shoujo, Aoi, Josei manga, etc.

The highest rated shoujo manga (teenage girls manga) are:

1. Wakeari Reijou deshita ga, Dekiaisarete Ima de wa Shiawase desu (Vol.4)
2. Heibon na Ore ♂ dakedo Isekai de Dekiai saretemasu: Anthology Comic (Vol.2)
3. Aku no Kadou wo Ikimashou (Vol.2)
4. Oni no Hanayome (Vol.1)
5. Promise Cinderella (Vol.16)

Note: Most of the above haven’t been translated into English.

The complete top-ranking list is here.

Oricon

The last ranking that I would like to show is Oricon. You can find there the best-selling light novel, manga & books in general for 2021.

The lists above cover sales of physical copies surveyed from November 23, 2020, to November 21, 2021.

Best selling manga by series in Japan (2021):

1. Jujutsu Kaisen (30,917,746)
2. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba (29,511,021)
3. Tokyo Revengers (24,981,486)
4. Shingeki No Kyojin (7,332,398) 🔥
5. My Hero Academia (7,020,361)

Source

Best selling manga by volume in Japan (2021):

1. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba  Vol.23 (5,171,440)
2. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Side Story (2,374,621)
3. Jujutsu Kaisen Vol.14 (2,312,250)
4. Jujutsu Kaisen Vol.15 (2,306,950)
5. Jujutsu Kaisen Vol.16 (2,098,087)
6. One Piece Vol.98 (2,018,042)
7. Jujutsu Kaisen 0 Tokyo Toritsu Jujutsu Koto Senmon Gakko (1,930,831)
8. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Official Fan Book II (1,630,162)
9. One Piece Vol.99 (1,863,574)
10. One Piece Vol.100 (1,839,886)

The complete top-selling list can be seen here.

Also, don’t forget to check out how much a manga artist makes per year.

Click on the image to watch the video.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaBOqIW8Iak

And if you’re looking for popular Anime in Japan check out:

Or for Light novels recommendations:

Which Manga are you reading currently? Let me know right now in the comments below!

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