Earlier this week, White Box Entertainment unveiled a new Substack account, Anime By the Numbers. In the accompanying press release, White Box promised readers a hard look at the business of anime, with insights from their in-house team of Miles Atherton, Chloe Catoya, Malu Arantes, and Klaudia Amenábar, and additional contributions from Animenomics’ Richardson Handjaja and ANN’s Jerome Mazandarani. The first post is up, and is worth reading; Atherton offers an in-depth look at how Netflix reports its anime streaming data. According to Atherton, “4.1% of all viewership on Netflix is anime-related. It’s not a small amount by any standard (that’s more than 4x as much as all of Bridgerton, including spinoffs, combined!).” He suggests, however, that this number doesn’t tell the full story, arguing that “Netflix gives just enough data to make people feel like they understand the space, but without a lot of massaging, there’s more noise than insights.” If you’re looking for detailed information about how many people watched your favorite series on Netflix, this post is for you!

NEWS ROUND-UP

Grand View Research just published a study of the US manga market that analyzes sales data from 2018-2024, and offers salesprojections for the next five years. [Behind the Manga]

Brigid Alverson pores over the Circana Bookscan list of 2024’s best-selling manga. “The Top 20 consisted entirely of two types of manga: Shonen Jump series and high-end collections,” she observes. “Every title in the Full Year Top 20 falls into one of those two categories.” [ICv2]

On the latest episode of It’s Not My Fault TheOASG Podcast Isn’t Popular, Justin and Helen run down the latest manga and streaming news. [The OASG]

Erica Friedman shares all the yuri news that’s fit to print. [Okazu]

Another Wednesday, another batch of licensing announcements from Seven Seas! Their latest haul includes a mixture of manga, manhwa, novels, and audiobooks. [Behind the Manga]

Dark Horse announced that it will put out a print edition of Sanho’s Purgatory Funeral Cakes in November. [Broken Frontier]

Not dead yet: Yana Taboso’s Black Butler will return from hiatus in the May issue of G Fantasy. The long-running series has been on a break since June 2024. [Otaku USA]

Lone Star anime and manga fans voiced concern over proposed legislation that could lead to bans on popular series with underage characters. Texas Senate Bill 20 would make it a felony to possess or promote “obscene visual material that appears to depict a child younger than 18 years old, regardless of whether the depiction is of an actual child, cartoon or animation, or an image created using AI or other computer software.” [Otaku USA]

GOOD READS

Lisa De La Cruz reflects on her changing relationship with anime and manga, noting that her days of binge consumption are over. “As I’ve gotten older and other parts of my life are always on “Go”, I’ve grown to appreciate the slowness in other areas, especially my media consumption,” she explains. “The appreciation for the slowness has only deepened my appreciation for the story and allowed me to engage with it more deeply and authentically.” [The Wonder of Anime]

Kara Dennison previews Titan Manga’s April 2025 releases. [Otaku USA]

Also at Otaku USA: Kara Dennison highlights three new VIZ titles that will debut next month. [Otaku USA]

How did an obscure Swedish publisher license Stop!! Hibari-kun!? Weendego sits down with Peow2 founder Patrick Crotty for the inside scoop. [Yatta-Tachi]

Brigid Alverson chats with Dark Horse editor Carl Horn about the company’s new editions of Berserk and Planetes, as well as Shin’ichi Sakamoto’s bloodthirsty drama Innocent. [ICv2]

REVIEWS

Over at Asian Movie Pulse, Giovanni Stigliano reviews the graphic novel adaptation of Liu Cixin’s Three Body Problem… Sarah gives If It’s You, I Might Try Falling in Love high marks… Marquan describes the hero of Rooster Fighter as “one bad motherclucker”… Megan D.revisits the original Tokyopop edition of Rave Master… and the latest Reader’s Corner weighs in on the latest volumes of Insomniacs After School, Omniscent Reader’s Viewpoint and more.

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