The 2025 Oricon News rankings for top-selling manga highlight significant changes within the Japanese comic industry. While perennial favorites continue to dominate, there's a clear rise in romantic titles, often propelled by successful anime adaptations. This year's data also points to a potential market correction, with overall sales declining from the previous year's pandemic-driven surge, possibly indicating a growing preference for digital platforms among readers.
Examining the latest figures from Oricon News for 2025 reveals compelling shifts in Japan's manga market. While established series like 'One Piece' and 'Jujutsu Kaisen' maintain their strong positions, a notable trend is the increasing popularity of romantic-comedy manga. This surge is largely attributed to recent anime adaptations, which have successfully expanded their audience base. However, the overall sales volume has seen a dip compared to 2024, suggesting a potential shift in consumer habits towards digital formats and a normalization of the market post-COVID-19 boom. The continued influence of anime on manga sales underscores its importance as a key driver for commercial success.
The Ascent of Romance and Anime's Impact on Manga Sales
Oricon News's 2025 best-selling manga list showcases a significant shift, with romantic-comedy titles like 'The Fragrant Flower Blooms with Dignity' and 'Blue Box' making strong appearances, a departure from previous years. This surge in popularity for romance manga is largely credited to their recent anime adaptations, which have effectively introduced these stories to a wider audience and translated into increased print sales. The data underscores the critical role anime plays in boosting a manga's commercial success and influencing market trends.
The 2025 Oricon News report on top-selling manga in Japan highlights a fascinating evolution in reader preferences. For the first time, romantic-comedy titles like 'The Fragrant Flower Blooms with Dignity' by Saka Mikami and Kouji Miura's 'Blue Box' have broken into the top ten. This unexpected rise is primarily attributed to their successful anime adaptations, which debuted in late 2024 and July of the current year, respectively. These adaptations have acted as powerful catalysts, drawing new readers to the original manga and significantly boosting their sales figures. While established action and fantasy series continue to perform strongly, the emergence of romance titles indicates a broadening of market appeal and the undeniable influence of media crossovers in driving manga popularity. Even 'Dan Da Dan,' a supernatural action-thriller, benefits from its romantic subplots between protagonists Momo and Okarun, further cementing the idea that engaging character dynamics, particularly romantic ones, can amplify a series' appeal when coupled with an anime release.
Market Dynamics: Post-Pandemic Normalization and Digital Trends
Despite the success of individual titles, the overall manga sales for 2025 show a noticeable decrease compared to the previous year. This decline from 2024's peak, where 'Jujutsu Kaisen' sold seven million copies, to 'One Piece' leading with four million in 2025, suggests a potential return to pre-pandemic sales averages. This trend may also indicate a growing preference among readers for digital manga, especially given rising print material costs influenced by factors like US tariffs. Publishers, however, remain optimistic, attributing this to market normalization rather than a crisis, reinforcing the enduring link between anime's popularity and manga's commercial viability.
The 2025 sales data from Oricon News reveals a broader market adjustment within the manga industry. While specific series continue to thrive, the aggregate sales volume across the board has experienced a downturn from the heightened levels observed in 2024. For instance, the top-selling manga of 2024, 'Jujutsu Kaisen,' achieved seven million copies, a figure significantly higher than 'One Piece's' four million in 2025. This divergence points to a potential normalization of the market after the surge experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic, when readership dramatically increased. Furthermore, this shift could be indicative of a broader trend towards digital consumption, with readers potentially opting for online versions to mitigate the impact of rising print costs, partly influenced by international tariffs on printed materials. Despite these shifts, industry insiders and publishers generally view this as a recalibration rather than a market crisis, emphasizing that the intrinsic link between a successful anime adaptation and a manga's sales continues to be a cornerstone of the industry's health and growth. The sustained interest in various genres, now including a significant romantic element, coupled with the proven impact of anime, ensures a dynamic and evolving landscape for manga.
