What? Seriously? Well, yes. Tokyo Revengers manga beat Attack On Titan manga sales record, which is considered an astounding feat.
Above 5 million Tokyo Revengers copies were sold around the world up to May 2021.
This number jumped to above a stunning 22 million in September 2021!
Why and how was this manga managed to sell an astounding 17 million copies in just 4 months?
Let’s break it down.
Pro tip: Only read the text in bold if you are short on time.
Introduction
Tokyo Revengers offered something different to the people out there.
- No more cringe dialogues between a fight scene.
- No more typical shonen powers for characters
- Zero fan service or anything like that
- Pure hand to hand combat
Ever since Tokyo Revengers was adapted by Liden Films as an anime, the manga by Ken Wakui has skyrocketed the sales figures into unimaginable numbers.
And that is the first reason for the high sales of this manga.
Anime Adaptation
Tokyo Revengers has taken the year 2021 by storm and the popularity of this manga has turned so many heads towards it that they are calling it OVERRATED and honestly, I don’t blame them.
Nowadays, in the golden age of content, there is nothing like rated.
There are only two terms: Underrated and Overrated.
If a show is overrated, then it becomes over-hated in no time.
2021 is the golden age of content. We are witnessing thousands of shows, books, mangas, movies getting released day by day.
Attack On Titan anime was released in 2013 and that year wasn’t the golden age of content, hence, it was less popular. So, fewer sales of its manga.
The anime adaptation is the major reason for the exploding of sales of this manga.
Tokyo Revengers anime was released in late March 2021 and since then it hasn’t looked back.
Each episode of this anime that is available on the Muse Asia YouTube channel has garnered a minimum of 2 million views. This just shows how popular the show is, people do seem to enjoy it.
Once people came to know about an anime of this kind and when they enjoyed it, they just started purchasing the manga volume by volume, stockpiling it in their homes. Everyone who bought it became a fan of the manga, including me.
At first, I was also like: What is this new anime here? Why are people getting excited over it? What is the hype all about?
Then I tried the first episode. And boy! I didn’t look back. I quickly binge read the manga in three days.
(Of course, there must be mad people out there who would have finished it in just a day)
The Storyline
A story involving time travel with gangs? Count me in!
This is honestly the best point of this manga. The storyline is one of the best I have read this year. It kept people on edge of their seats as it was too unpredictable to decide what was going to happen next.
Although, Attack On Titan had one of the best storylines that a fiction material could have. But there wasn’t much hype when the manga was published. And now, the manga has already finished, so the sales for that have slowed down. If AOT would have still kept going till now then surely it would have been more, more popular than any other story.
That is the reason for people who binge read the entire manga in a matter of hours. This manga will make you read more and more without getting tired and the more you read, the more curiosity will be ignited inside you.
It is just uncontrollable. Even if you finish up to the latest chapter of the manga, you will still not be satisfied as your heart and mind and soul will want more.
Gangs and fights
This was a major reason for me to read the manga. A story about middle school kids joining gangs, doing gang politics, throwing hands with each other without even thinking. What else does one need?
Like I wrote earlier, finally something different. I haven’t actually read the manga of Great Teacher Onizuka, which also involves gangs, so I won’t comment on it, but it must be really great.
Nonetheless, Tokyo Revengers manga was really intriguing to me as it didn’t contain any powers for its characters and this wasn’t the manga where characters take half the chapter explaining their next move on their opponents.
No time was wasted on the dialogues in the middle of a fight and that erases the common issue that is with many shounen stories out there.
In this manga, it is just throwing punches and hammering kicks at each other. So refreshing.
This must be the reason for people to buy this manga. They wanted something different and damn right, they got it.
Related: Could Draken beat Mikey?
Plot Twists
This was another major reason for the sales and to be honest, there are countless plot twists in this story that this reason deserves a separate section, out from the storyline.
When I was reading the manga, I couldn’t predict any scene fully correctly. There was always something that was left out. But that didn’t matter as if I would have guessed everything, at the last moment the author would shift the storyline into some other dimension and I would be left helpless.
When I thought that Takemichi has resolved something then at that moment, the story would bring in another plot twist into its collection to depress me or to drift me completely away from the course.
This was the factor that stopped my eyes from blinking while reading the manga. I believe this was the reason why people kept on reading this further.
Characters
Never have I seen characters with this much drip. Not only me, everyone would surely say this even if they didn’t like the manga (although the possibility of that is just 10%).
The character design is just crazy about this manga. The creator must have utilized every second in designing them with most of his calibre.
Baji, Mikey, Draken, Kazutora, Haitani brothers, Hanma, Izana, Wakasa, Sanzu, Taiju, you just name the characters, each of them has a drip.
The characters are not only good in appearance but they are really well developed and care about their friends and other fellow gang members. This quality makes each of them more likeable than the other.
Kisaki Tetta, the main villain of this manga, is the one to watch out for. He will surely make anyone go crazy with his villainy stuff.
A must read
No wonder Tokyo Revengers keeps selling. It will be a different story to see how the manga will end, as right now, it is on its last arc.
This manga never fails to deliver to the fans its extraordinary events taking place in the story.
Do you know who else doesn’t fail to deliver?
Kisaki Tetta!
Find out why, unlike others, I like this bad guy from Tokyo Revengers.
If you want a manga that will surely terrify you without a ghost, then click on this link.
