New Report Breaks Down 2018’s Most Popular Manga Trends

Manga continues to be one of the highest selling mediums when it comes to book sales. From One Piece to Attack On Titan to Dragon Ball, the medium has a number of different stories to rely on to keep sales up and expand its ever growing fan base. At the recent Anime Expo last week, a number of specialists in the world of book publishing, and manga in general, convened for a special panel with Project Anime to discuss what trends were the most popular in the world of manga for 2018.

Twitter User Deb Aoki was at the panel in question, listing a number of interesting factoids about what trends could be seen with manga last year and several years prior:

It’s definitely interesting to see just how influential a successful anime can be in terms of propelling the chances of a manga raising its overall sales. Attack On Titan for example clearly had a positive impact on the manga medium overall, increasing sales since its inception and release to the general public. The Ancient Magus’ Bride was another example of a manga that saw a definitive increase in sales thanks to its popular anime franchise that took story bits from its predecessor.

Another interesting talking point here is that its very clear that Shonen manga is far and away makes for the most popular stories in the medium. The first 25 top selling in fact all fell under the category of Shonen to be precise. Whether a manga can ever overtake the Shonen series that steps outside of the “comfort zone” is still up in the air, but we’ve certainly seen something similar happen in western comic books with comics like the Walking Dead and Saga tearing up the charts.

What do you think of these manga trends that were listed for last year, and years prior, at Anime Expo? What trends have you seen emerge this year, 2019, in the medium? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly on Twitter @EVComedy to talk all things comics, anime, and statistical trends in the sale of manga!