Sailor Moon manga soared again in US Bookstores on April

Blue Exorcist manga is also on the rise!

The tenth volume of Naoko Takeuchi's Sailor Moon manga ranked at #4 on Nielsen BookScan's list of top 20 graphic novels in American bookstores for April.

The same volume had ranked at #5 on the list in March. The Sailor Moon volume is one of four manga titles on the list. Masashi Kishimoto's Naruto volume 60 ranked at #7, dropping from #3 from last month.

Kazue Katō's Blue Exorcist volume 9 and Tite Kubo's Bleach volume 56 ranked at #11 and #18 respectively. Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead comic series continued to dominate the chart, claiming nine places this month, with The Walking Dead Compendium volumes 1 and 2 again taking the top two spots.

Gene Luen Yang's Avatar the Last Airbender: The Search -- Part 1 ranked #3.

 The BookScan rankings represent sales at Barnes & Noble and other book chains, independent bookshops, and online purchases — but not sales at comic book stores, Walmart, and some other venues.

Source: ANN, ICv2

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Alvin Lu: Shonen Jump Alpha is ready to catch up with Japanese manga releases

Currently the magazine is two weeks late of Japanese releases, but the Executive Vice President of Viz Media Publishing, Alvin Lu, indicated on NYCC that Shonen Jump Alpha digital anthology will be moving to a simultaneous model with Japan "very soon." Most likely for next year.

Shonen Jump Alpha launched on January 30 to replace the print Shonen Jump USA. The magazine has since added other series such as Blue Exorcist, Takama-ga-hara, Barrage, Rurouni Kenshin Restoration, Rurouni Kenshin Act Zero, and Cross Manage.

Source: ANN, ICV2

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Blue Exorcist manga will be available in Shonen Jump Alpha!

Viz Media announced at its Weekly Shonen Jump Alpha panel at San Diego Comic Con on Sunday that Kazue Katō's Blue Exorcist manga series and Jūzō Kawai's Takama-ga-hara manga series will join the lineup of its digital anthology Weekly Shonen Jump Alpha. Takama-ga-hara will run weekly in the digital anthology starting on July 23. 

Viz Media will release Blue Exorcist volume 8 (pictured at right) on July 30 as a digital-first exclusive. Shonen Jump Alpha will then host two chapters of the manga past volume 8 in each issue starting on July 30. The speed-up will then catch up with the chapters in Japan on August 20. August 20's issue of Weekly Shonen Jump Alpha will contain the latest chapter of Blue Exorcist two weeks after it ran in Shueisha's Jump SQ. magazine. Weekly Shonen Jump Alpha will then host new chapters of the manga monthly two weeks after they are published in Japan.

source: ANN

'Kono Manga ga Sugoi' 2012 ranking lists the best manga magazine through a survey among professionals

Takarajimasha Inc. published the 2012 edition of the Kono Manga ga Sugoi! guidebook on Saturday with its list of the top titles in four categories. The lists are the result of surveys conducted among professionals in the fields of manga and publishing.

It is no surprise that HunterxHunter is among the top 10 for male readers. And Blue Exorcist is above One Piece??!

Among female readers, Chihayafuru has gained more and more popularity.

As for the top magazines, obviously Shonen Jump comes first, closely followed by Kodansha's Morning magazine. Whereas Feel Young magazine by Shodensha is the absolute leader among female readers in the industry.

The full ranking can be consulted here.

Source: ANN

One Piece, Naruto and Blue Exorcist the top selling mangas of the year 2011!

No doubt that One Piece is the KING this year, but Naruto and surprisingly newcomer Blue Exorcist don't stay far behind.

According to Oricon survey, Eiichiro Oda's One Piece pirate manga set a record for the most volumes of manga sold in one year since Oricon began posting its ranking charts in 2008. During the period of November 22, 2010 to November 20, 2011, One Piece sold 37,996,373 copies.

One Piece also took the top four spots for single manga volumes sold during the same time period. Volume 61 sold 3,382,588 copies, volume 62 sold 3,207,568 copies, volume 63 sold 3,073,175 copies, and volume 64 sold 2,652,700 copies. It is the third year in a row that One Piece volumes have taken the top four spots in that category. These four One Piece volumes were also the only manga volumes this year to sell more than 2 million copies.

In 2008, One Piece sold 5,956,540 copies, and in 2009, it sold 14,721,241 copies. Last year, it sold 32,343,809 copies.

2011's second best-selling manga series was Naruto with 6,874,840 copies, followed by Blue Exorcist's 5,223,712 copies.