How's Berserk doing? Well...

CRAZYBERSERKER

CRAZYBERSERKER

Quite good actually both in Japan and U.S. this is thread is mostly an update on hows Berserk doing in sells/popularity.

Japan Top Ten 3/10

1. 20th Century Boys 18
2. Berserk 28
3. Bleach 16
4. D Grey men 3
5. Gintama 6
6. Homunculous 5
7. Eyeshield 21 12
8. Hot Gimmick 10
9. Boku wa Imouto ni Koi wo suru (ew) 8
10. Ai yori Aoshi 15

source: http://forums.animeondvd.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=906120&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1

U.S. Jan Sales in Comic Book Stores

1. SAMURAI EXECUTIONER VOL 3 TP
4. GHOST I/T SHELL 2 VOL 1 MAN MACHINE INTERFACE TP
6. BERSERK VOL 6 TP
11. RUROUNI KENSHIN VOL 10 TP
25. NEGIMA VOL 4 GN
31. OH MY GODDESS SORA UNCHAINED VOL 19 TP
34. TSUBASA VOL 4 GN
37. XXXHOLIC VOL 4 GN
40. FULL METAL PANIC MANGA VOL 7 TP
43. GTO VOL 22 (OF 25) GN
44. AI YORI AOSHI VOL 7 (OF 13) GN
46. DEARS VOL 1 GN (OF 4)
47. KARE KANO VOL 13 (OF 18) GN

Source: http://forums.animeondvd.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=mangaforum&Number=884509&page=6&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1

It's too bad we can't see the sale figures for manga in Bookstores Manga Publishers don't released any sale figures. :(

The best I could do is find the Bookscan list and Berserk in that list Berserk is doing well.

The ultra-successful female manga-ka supergroup Clamp had two titles in the top 10, Tsubasa Vol. 4, published by Del Rey, at #3 and Legal Drug Vol. 2 (from Tokyopop) at #5.  The shonen-ai (literally "boy love") title Gravitation Vol. 10, published by Tokyopop, reached number four (its highest position ever) demonstrating that Maki Murakami's series is gaining in popularity. Kentaro Miura's Berserk manga (from Dark Horse) also appears to be gaining momentum -- Vol. 6 shot up to 15th place in just its second week in the stores.
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source: http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/6457.html

Overall Miura is one rich mutha... ;D
 
Aazealh

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Good news about the sales, but no real surprise. Berserk has been a best-seller in Japan for years.

ZODDGUTSU said:
Overall Miura is one rich mutha... ;D
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Well, he more than deserves it in my opinion, considering that he spent most of his life working on it, and still does...
 
BiQ_

BiQ_

" ... "
What kind of selling numbers does the Japanese chart equal to? Considering the amount of mangas sold in Japan, how many hundreds of thousands of sold copies is needed to get the No. 2 spot?

... *refreshing memory* yup, the YA episode 252 mentioned 20 million sold books total... and that's before vol 28, unless they included pre-orders.

So, if we take the assumption that most of the readers hog up the whole series and not just the newest volumes, then 20 000 000 / 28 (taking the safe side with pre-orders) is around ?714 000. No idea if the assumption was safe.


EDIT:
http://www.darkhorse.com/profile/profile.php?sku=10-490 Says that the first five DH volumes have sold over 100 000 copies. (I am confident it's a grand total, not per-volume figure)  :) Not bad.
 
C

Concealed_Rage

To bad the anime didn't do as well as the manga in japan, if it did we would problay be half way though completing our berserk season 2 box set. damn bubbly anime
 
Aazealh

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
BiQ-- said:
... *refreshing memory* yup, the YA episode 252 mentioned 20 million sold books total...
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It was the Young Animal n°03 of 2005, so that would be episode 250 actually.

Concealed_Rage said:
To bad the anime didn't do as well as the manga in japan
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The anime did well considering its timeslot, it was a hit actually.
 
aufond

aufond

Either way, it's definately a good thing for Berserk that the Dark Horse books are doing so well in US stores. If it's popular enough, they might realize that americans will pay big dollars for a translation of the PS2 game, and who knows what further..
 
T

Tristram

100% Germ Free Manure
aufond said:
Either way, it's definately a good thing for Berserk that the Dark Horse books are doing so well in US stores.  If it's popular enough, they might realize that americans will pay big dollars for a translation of the PS2 game, and who knows what further..
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Seeeee? They'd be stupid to not send the ps2 game our way. I'vebeen telling my friends this and they keep telling me it's very unlikely because the Dreamcast game was such an underdog game, and the comic/anime isn't that popular in the US. Think again! :D

Also I remember someone posting about how the release date for the US version was going to be announced at E3. I'm patiently awaiting the priz-izes.
 
Sparnage

Sparnage

2nd in Japan is very impressive, I never thought it would come that close on account of the adult material limiting the audience.

Prehaps we will get to see a future volume become number 1...
 
T

Tristram

100% Germ Free Manure
Smith said:
Maybe a second season for anime  8)



That might be what we are waiting for so so long ago...
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In full honesty I would hope against that. Then again, they'd have better funding and better animation technology now, so I guess it'd not be as bad as the 1st anime was/is (but thats just my oppinion). I have the 1st anime on box set but I mostly bought it because it's the only thing I can just buy in the US that I dont have to import, and that is in English, that would support Miura. I watched it once, and I am not sure if I will ever watch it through again, unless with a friend.

Speaking of the anime... I hated the opening credit "music". Thats all.
 
Aazealh

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Tristram said:
In full honesty I would hope against that.  Then again, they'd have better funding and better animation technology now
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Don't start talking about the anime and its hypothetic second season here, there's a thread for that, and you obviously haven't checked it before replying, judging by what you just said.

Same goes for Smith who felt like he had to point out what aufond was obviously hinting at.

Tristram said:
it's the only thing I can just buy in the US that I dont have to import
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You mean besides the manga released by Dark Horse.
 
Maiku

Maiku

BiQ-- said:
... *refreshing memory* yup, the YA episode 252 mentioned 20 million sold books total... and that's before vol 28, unless they included pre-orders.
Click to expand...

Is that 20 million the volumes or issues of Young Animal?
 
E

Erinu

(disclaimer) I'm not sure if this topic has been addressed before so ...  bear with me  :)

I thought Berserk was doing really well even before the 20million announcement. Why? Cos I was under the impression that when Miura started out it was a 1 man show, then later on as I was flipping through the volumes I had I realised that much of the drawing was credited to 'Studio Gibi' (sp?). So I just thought that anyone who could hire a bunch of other people to finish up his drawings must have come quite a long ways  ;D In short, I figured he was doing well :p
 
Aazealh

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Erinu said:
I realised that much of the drawing was credited to 'Studio Gibi' (sp?). So I just thought that anyone who could hire a bunch of other people to finish up his drawings must have come quite a long ways ;D
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You're not thinking the good way here... There's no indication as to what are the assistants precisely doing or how "much" do they work.

Anyway, Studio Gaga consists of Miura and his 3/4 assistants as far as I know. It's pretty common for mangaka to hire assistants and create their own studio. Even not-so-popular mangaka do it, and Miura got some relatively early:

Aazealh said:
Takashi Uchida (assistant) and Akira Shimada (editor) have been there at least since volume 7... Quite some time, if you ask me.
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Here's some information from the announcement about assistants recruitment in episodes 239, 240, 241, 242, etc:

They should live around Tokyo and be older than 18. Twice a month approximately, the assistants should go to downtown Tokyo (for 5 days per month in total).

The salary is 15,000 Yen a day (~ $140), but it also depends on the individual skills. They've got a bonus twice a year, and they're guaranteed to work (and get paid) at least 8 days a month. They're served food while working.

To be recruited, you have to send some works (that won't be sent back), a Curriculum Vitae and a photo. The illustrations required are one drawing of a human with armor and without armor (nude?), one drawing of some backgrounds (ex: castle and nature), and one drawing of some effects, beta-hura (panelling, page editing, ?), and screentone. It's just to check their aptitude (high quality isn't needed).

They're mainly seeking background artists for now, as well as effect artists. Just a few assistants (2 or 3) are needed.
 
E

Erinu

Aazealh said:
You're not thinking the good way here... There's no indication as to what are the assistants precisely doing or how "much" do they work.

Anyway, Studio Gaga consists of Miura and his 3/4 assistants as far as I know. It's pretty common for mangaka to hire assistants and create their own studio. Even not-so-popular mangaka do it, and Miura got some relatively early:

Here's some information from the announcement about assistants recruitment in episodes 239, 240, 241, 242, etc:

They should live around Tokyo and be older than 18. Twice a month approximately, the assistants should go to downtown Tokyo (for 5 days per month in total).

The salary is 15,000 Yen a day (~ $140), but it also depends on the individual skills. They've got a bonus twice a year, and they're guaranteed to work (and get paid) at least 8 days a month. They're served food while working.

To be recruited, you have to send some works (that won't be sent back), a Curriculum Vitae and a photo. The illustrations required are one drawing of a human with armor and without armor (nude?), one drawing of some backgrounds (ex: castle and nature), and one drawing of some effects, beta-hura (panelling, page editing, ?), and screentone. It's just to check their aptitude (high quality isn't needed).

They're mainly seeking background artists for now, as well as effect artists. Just a few assistants (2 or 3) are needed.
Click to expand...

Thanks, that's some interesting news :) I've always been more interested in reading manga than finding out what goes on behind the scenes hehe. It's just good that Berserk is selling well - so Miura can continue his work :)
 
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