Despite Detractors, The Rising of the Shield Hero Becomes Wild Success With Over 6.2 Million Copies Printed
Despite detractors, The Rising of the Shield Hero novel and manga series by Aneko Yusagi has become a wild success especially in Japan where over 6.2 million copies of the series have been published.
Crunchyroll’s anime adaptation of The Rising of the Shield Hero faced significant attacks when the anime aired its first episode back in January. However, those detractors which included Anime Feminist, Anime News Network, Website S1E1 have not affected the novel and manga’s wild success. Kadokawa producer Junichiro Tamura had previously indicated the Japanese did not see any controversy in The Rising of the Shield Hero anime, “We in Japan do not see these anime as controversial, so we will continue to produce more content like Shield Hero.” He would also state, “There have not been any controversies regarding the series in Japan.”
In fact, Crunchyroll reports that the novel and manga is seeing even greater success due to the “ongoing TV anime adaptation which was chosen as the best winter 2019 TV anime in NTT Docomo’s online popularity ranking.”
While announcing the release of the 13th tankobon volume for The Rising of the Shield Hero, which debuts on April 23rd, Yusagi reported that the novel and manga adaptations have been printed over 6.2 million copies in Japan since it first hit the market in August 2013. Yusagi had previously reported that the novel and manga series had been printed over 4 million times on February 25,2019. That means there have been 1.2 million printings in less than 2 months!
The Rising of the Shield Hero novel and manga series includes the novel series which was originally published on Shosetsuka ni Narou in October 2012 and subsequently published by KADOKAWA’s MF Books in August 2013. It also includes the spin-off series The Reprise of the Spear Hero, which has currently released three volumes. The manga with illustrations by Aiya Kyu was serialized in KADOKAWA’s Monthly Comic Flapper beginning in 2014. As previously mentioned it will release its 13th tankobon this month. The Reprise of the Spear Hero has also been adapted into manga format with illustrations by Neet. There are currently four tankobon volumes.
What do you make of the wild success for The Rising of the Shield Hero in Japan despite Western critics of the series?