Readership Data Analysis of Ichijinsha Publications

Japanese fansite Takahiro no Kenkyuukan recently published a report that inspects the readership data released by Ichijinsha of their magazine for potential advertisers.

The graphs show the ratio of gender and the age group of readers, as well as the difference of readers for each magazine. The data is interesting because such data isn't usually published. After some inspection, some facts were found that were both expected and unexpected.

Comic ZERO-SUM

ZERO-SUM is the first comic magazine of Ichijinsha and is also their main magazine. ZERO-SUM was derived from Square Enix's G-Fantasy, which targets female readers. We had expected that most of its readers would be women. The data proves our expectation to be correct, as it shows 85 percent of the readers are women. ZERO-SUM would probably never catch new male readers because magazines with similar style have already been created.

WARD, an extra issue of ZERO-SUM, has a similar theme. We assume that most of WARD's readers must be female. In examing the age group of readers, about 40 percent of them are teenagers, 60 percent are in their 20s and 25 percent are in their 30s. ZERO-SUM is favored by young adults.

Comic REX

Comic REX got started at the end of 2005 as a shonen manga magazine. It targeted male readers because ZERO-SUM and WARD aimed at females. The data shows 85 percent of readers are male. It's in counterpart to ZERO-SUM. Ichijinsha must have expected this result. Afterall, REX has a different style in comparison to the magazines by Square Enix. The age group of readers: 30 percent teen-aged and 70 percent are in their 20s or older. This is in spite of REX, which has been characterized as a shonen magazine.

Comic Yurihime

This magazine is a makeover of another magazine (Yuri Shimai by Magazine-Magazine Ltd.). It's a magazine for yuri fans. The data shows that 30 percent of its readers are male, even though yuri is usually favored by the female readers. Also, the drawing style is closer shojo manga, which makes this result very interesting, as it shows males favor yuri also. Yurihime got its start under the influence of the smash-hit Maria-sama ga Miteru. Maria-sama ga Miteru had a lot of male otaku fans also, which could be one of the reasons why Yurihime attracts so many male readers. Yurihime S, a spin-off of Yurihime, favors a moe theme and targets male readers who are into yuri. More than a half of Yurihime S's readers must be male. Most of Yurihime's readers are in their 20s or older. It seems that teenagers don't yet understand yuri, especially males.

Manga 4Koma KINGS Palette

KINGS Palette is all about "moe-4koma." Data shows an interesting result in terms of readership. Ninety percent of readers are male. The data shows a trend that "male otaku favor Moe 4koma" that is supported by other research results from similar data. Most of the creators of moe 4koma are female, but most of the readers are male. The age group in the data is also interesting. Teenagers only make up 15 percent of the readership, 85 percent of the fans are in their 20s or older and readers in their 30s occupy 31 percent of the readership. A previous investigation by Hobunsha showed that "relatively older readers, such as those in their 30s favor moe 4koma." This data confirms a similar result.

Tthe reason for such results could be because young manga readers are attracted to dynamic elements, such as battles, attractive stories and love affairs. They are not interested in the slow story that describes daily life.

Conclusion

The data shows very interesting facts about reader groups. The ratio of gender is biased in most of the magazines. While one would assume a majority of ZERO-SUM's readers to be female, and turned out to be mostly female. When REX was established, the ratio of readers was not like what it is today. Popularity had been shifted to titles that the male otaku fans favor. Kannagi is typical, and Idol Master and Touhou Bougetsushou ~ Silent Sinner in Blue are such sort of titles. This process must be happening purposely because a line of Enix magazines didn't used to favor otakus. The readers group of Manga 4Koma KINGS Palette centers on older males more than readers in their 20s, like other magazines, so Ichijinsha is expecting older manga readers. Ichijinsha was derived from Enix. However, the data of this investigation shows Ichizinsha has different reader groups in both gender and generation.

Original Article
Translated by T. Ohara
Proofread by Lorena