Another index to a mess of indices: Spring 2011 Manga Charts
It seems like just six weeks ago I was posting another ‘catch up’ set of links, for the Winter charts. Oh wait, that was just six weeks ago.
Life and work, as always, intrude on what we actually want to do, and this year as a bookseller has been very… entertaining… so far. I haven’t always had the time (or the motivation) to sit down to a big plate of data entry and math.
But still — I do enjoy my very odd hobby, especially the ‘posting results’ part:
Weekly Manga 500 Rankings
Week 14, 3 Apr : index/summary & full chart
Week 15, 10 Apr : index/summary & full chart
Week 16, 17 Apr : index/summary & full chart
Week 17, 24 Apr : index/summary & full chart
Week 18, 1 May : index/summary & full chart
Week 19, 8 May : index/summary & full chart
Week 20, 15 May : index/summary & full chart
Week 21, 22 May : index/summary & full chart
Week 22, 30 May : index/summary & full chart
Week 23, 5 Jun : index/summary & full chart
Week 24, 12 Jun : index/summary & full chart
Week 25, 19 Jun : index/summary & full chart
Week 26, 26 Jun : index/summary & full chart
2011 Q2 Spring Cumulative Manga Bestsellers : index/summary & full chart
Those of you following along at home, especially the manhwa fans, might notice the charts look a little sparse here and there.
A contributing factor was the loss/abandonment of some of the less ideal (and occasionally annoying) websites I use as my sources, but the largest chunk is the mountain of printed manga that is available.
As of week 26 (the end of June) my database has over 10,000 entries in it (individual volumes) and with popular series now entering the 30s (or even 50s) there are just a lot more books to consider. Also, Amazon, previously a great source, has combined their Kindle books with regular manga (which is great, actually, as this is apparently a growing part of the market) so to find the gems in the far corners of the market one has to dig deeper.
I’ve already adapted and modified my spreadsheet to draw even deeper from trusted sources, and have thoroughly researched alternate sites to expand my data set — in part to bolster the current sources, but also as a hedge in case Borders.com closes and I lose them as a source.
While it has taken six weeks to catch up to this point, I’m still behind. The good news is that I’ve managed to churn through seven weeks (and the quarertly chart) in just nine days, so I’m cruising at a fair clip and should be able to post ‘live’ charts in a week or two.
Thanks as always for reading. I hope you still find these useful.
