Spotlight: ADV Manga
I’m using the rankings (numbers for the week ending 6 July posted Tuesday) to look at the output of selected publishers — Covered Previously: Aurora Publishing. Today’s spotlight is on
ADV Manga
So, what’s up with ADV manga? Who do I have to threaten, bribe or cajole to get my copy of Yotsuba vol 6?
We have had relatively recent confirmation that ADV Manga isn’t dead: Brigid Alverson interviewed Chris Oarr for Publisher’s Weekly and he was able to confirm, yes, they still print manga, they’re committed to keeping the current volumes in print, and they’re doing a fair job selling them. That’s the good news; alas, no new series are in development at ADV and the rest of the PW article paints a less-than-rosy picture for the beleaguered manga division. And as Oarr says himself, “our main priority is our core business, which is anime.”
Launched in 2003 with a strong slate of licensed titles, and flush at the time with otaku cash (we were buying anime DVDs reqardless of shows’ respective merits like they were about to go out of style) ADV boldly entered the Manga business.
And Failed. They had some solid hits, but bad business decisions — and the scale of what they were attempting: more than 50 series apparently all at once — meant that decisions had to be made about where to cut, what to write off, and what they could realistically bring to print.
Ed Chavez over on MangaCast has done the hard work for us: his periodically updated Cancelled Manga List is the best resource for this kind of thing, and it is awfully heavy on the ADV titles.
Still, if ADV’s new mission is just to keep Azumanga Daioh and Yotsuba in print (as the vital historical documents that they so clearly are :P ) then I have to wish them the best. That, and bug them about finishing up the few series that they have left. [*cough* Yotsuba *cough*]
It looks like ADV managed to bring 76 volumes to market (assuming that their own web site lists all the volumes they’ve released) and of those, 5 series are genuinely popular, at least according to my charts:
[as of 6 July, out of 1672 ranked titles]
144. ↓-18 (126) : Yotsuba&! 5 – ADV, Oct 2007 [227.2] ::
228. ↓-67 (161) : Yotsuba&! 4 – ADV, Jun 2007 [144.3] ::
317. ↓-79 (238) : Yotsuba&! 1 – ADV, Jun 2005 [96.7] ::
334. ↓-82 (252) : Yotsuba&! 3 – ADV, Oct 2005 [92.4] ::
347. ↓-76 (271) : Yotsuba&! 2 – ADV, Jul 2005 [87.2] ::
1147. ↓-9 (1138) : Yotsuba&! 6 – ADV, TBA [1.4] ::
375. ↑84 (459) : Azumanga Daioh Omnibus – ADV, Nov 2007 [74.4] ::
658. ↑19 (677) : Azumanga Daioh 4 – ADV, Apr 2004 [17.5] ::
663. ↑13 (676) : Azumanga Daioh 3 – ADV, Feb 2004 [17.3] ::
664. ↑20 (684) : Azumanga Daioh 2 – ADV, Dec 2003 [17.1] ::
1404. ↑204 (1608) : Azumanga Daioh 1 – ADV, Sep 2003 [0.2] ::
688. ↑128 (816) : Gunslinger Girl 3 – ADV, Jun 2005 [14.7] ::
1179. ↓-5 (1174) : Gunslinger Girl 2 – ADV, Mar 2005 [0.8] ::
. (last ranked 29 Jun 08) : Gunslinger Girl 5 – ADV, Sep 2007 [0] ::
. (last ranked 29 Jun 08) : Gunslinger Girl 6 – ADV, Nov 2007 [0] ::
. (last ranked 8 June 08) : Gunslinger Girl 1 – ADV, Oct 2003 [0] ::
. (last ranked 23 Mar 08) : Gunslinger Girl 4 – ADV, Jun 2007 [0] ::
1174. ↓-1 (1173) : Neon Genesis Evangelion Angelic Days 4 – ADV, Mar 2007 [0.9] ::
. (last ranked 29 Jun 08) : Neon Genesis Evangelion Angelic Days 2 – ADV, Aug 2006 [0] ::
. (last ranked 22 June 08) : Neon Genesis Evangelion Angelic Days 1 – ADV, May 2006 [0] ::
. (last ranked 1 Jun 08) : Neon Genesis Evangelion Angelic Days 6 – ADV, Aug 2007 [0] ::
. (last ranked 25 May 08) : Neon Genesis Evangelion Angelic Days 3 – ADV, Nov 2006 [0] ::
. (last ranked 25 May 08) : Neon Genesis Evangelion Angelic Days 5 – ADV, Jun 2007 [0] ::
. (last ranked 29 Jun 08) : Full Metal Panic! 3 – ADV, Mar 2004 [0] ::
. (last ranked 25 May 08) : Full Metal Panic! 5 – ADV, Jun 2004 [0] ::
. (last ranked 4 May 08) : Full Metal Panic! 1 – ADV, Sep 2003 [0] ::
. (last ranked 4 May 08) : Full Metal Panic! 6 – ADV, Oct 2004 [0] ::
. (last ranked 4 May 08) : Full Metal Panic! 7 – ADV, Jan 2005 [0] ::
. (last ranked 4 May 08) : Full Metal Panic! 8 – ADV, Jul 2005 [0] ::
. (last ranked 4 May 08) : Full Metal Panic! 9 – ADV, Feb 2006 [0] ::
Of these five, there is Yotsuba&!, which of course we all love, and the rest are anime-tie-in-titles. (though one could argue whether the Azumanga Daioh DVDs sell the books, or vice versa.) Note also that folks are already pre-ordering Yotsubato 6 without even knowing when or if it will come out. Hey Chris Oarr, call Amazon and Buy.com (buy.com will take your preorder right now, if you’re so inclined) and heck, I bet you’d find enough demand and all-but-guaranteed sales to pay for the print run.
ADV has also had a smattering of other books on previous charts
. (last ranked 22 June 08) : Chrono Crusade 8 – ADV, Jun 2006 [0] ::
. (last ranked 25 May 08) : Everybody Cosplay 1 – ADV, Nov 2007 [0] ::
. (last ranked 25 May 08) : Maburaho 1 – ADV, Apr 2005 [0] ::
. (last ranked 18 May 08) : Najica Blitz tactics 2 – ADV, Oct 2004 [0] ::
…but noticably absent is Cromartie High School, a fav of many critics (and damn funny besides) but perhaps a bit too old for my charts, which only extend back about 4 months now.
Unless I just added wrong, this makes 34 out of 76 books that made the rankings — which as I noted in the Aurora post is great no matter how low in the rankings they place, as it means the books are still selling. Considering the vintage of some of these (3 and 4 years old now) having any sort of new sales is a good sign. Where there are sales, there is hope.
