Another day, another record broken for Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba. I know that feeling all too well. It seems like not a week goes by without us or others publishing an article on Kimetsu no Yaiba’s incredible success, with the latest being LiSA’s insert song for the movie breaking streaming records. Yet, I do think this one is interesting: Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba has become the first series to have all of its currently published volumes at the top of Oricon’s sales rankings.
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba already set a similar record back in May, when it became the first series to occupy completely Oricon’s top 10. But now, it has outdone itself: having all twenty-two currently released collected volumes completely dominate the rankings in an unbroken line from number 1 to number 22.
Coming in at number 1 is obviously the latest volume, released on October 2. The second spot, however, is quite interesting: volume 8, which has Rengoku on the cover. One can’t help but think that some viewers picked it up simply because they recognized the character…
The only series that was able to even approach the domain of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba’s Oricon success was Jojolion, the latest part of the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure series by Hirohiko Araki. But even then, there’s not much competition: Jojolion 24 managed to sell 54,801 copies while Kimetsu no Yaiba volume 21 – occupying 22nd place – managed to sell 111,813. That 57,012 difference is stark.
With all of this in mind, you do have to wonder: who out there still hasn’t bought the comic backlog? Surely, with the series surpassing 100 million copies in circulation, you’d expect it to have reached critical mass, but that’s far from the case. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba just keeps on growing, and it wouldn’t surprise me if it managed to beat this Oricon record once the final volume releases.
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba volume 23 will release on December 4.