
Oricon has released results of their poll for the “most interesting” manga of 2008.
Putting aside the more formal statistics of manga sales numbers, the results provide a glimpse of what series are most preferred by Japan’s manga reading public.
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2008 has seen a huge variety of anime released, and the difficult question of assessing their success can approached in all sorts of ways, from TV ratings to 2ch thread activity, but DVD sales are usually given most prominence in such analysis.
This final summary of the TV anime of 2008 incorporates Blu-ray sales, which is particularly important in the case of blockbusters such as Macross F.
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With the end of the year comes an opportunity to recap all that we have seen in the two thirds of it during which Sankaku Complex has existed. Below are listed your favourite articles of 2008, ranked by page views and sorted into news, 2D and 3D galleries, and video galleries.
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Megami Magazine, well known for being the source of many of the finest ero posters available, has revealed its 2008 female character popularity ranking in its latest issue.
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A ranking of the number of 2ch threads started on new Fall 2008 late-night anime has been compiled and is presented here translated for your examination.
As 2ch is the center point of otaku culture online, it should serve as a rough gauge of series’ popularity through word of mouth:
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Oricon reports sales of the first volume of Macross F in Blu-ray have topped 35,000 since its release in late July, making it the 1# selling Blu-ray disc in Japan for 2008.
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2channers are currently amusing themselves at the expense of the rest of the world by looking at what sort of manga they are buying.
Even if we restrain ourselves from making national characterisations on the basis of the manga being bought, as is rather tempting in the case of Germany, the results are interesting:
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The world of fan made derivative works in anime, manga and games is vast, and as anybody who has pursued these works looking for something a little more erotic than is officially provided knows, a large portion of them are erotic in nature.
However, it is certainly not the case that all, or even the majority are such; a vast body of less noticed doujinshi exist, covering all manner of fan fiction. Below is reproduced an investigation of the numbers of these works published versus the number which are adult in character.
The results are instructive:
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Here we see the 2008 annual sales data for manga compilations (tankoubons), as compiled by Oricon:
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According to the results of a recent survey targeting young Japanese women, anime otaku are the second worst choice for a romance, being beaten out only by compulsive gamblers.
Surprisingly, less than 1% objected to PC and electronics otaku, whilst a mere 0.2% thought a movie otaku to be a poor choice.
The ranking is as follows:
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Eyebrows have been raised at the steady rise in popularity several potentially Vocaloid inspired names have enjoyed in Japan’s baby naming; Ren (ranked 4th), Rin (7th), Kaito (13th) and most notably Miku (up to 24th from 50th last year).
You can see the results below:
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The latest DVD sales figures to emerge, covering the week of the November new release period, are rather interesting to behold, showing as they do the expected success of two of the titles we favour so much here, Kannagi and Strike Witches.
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