naiwa 2026-05-27

The semi-annual Oricon ranking recorded a historic result: a series without updates for almost a year defeated a genre legend.



The Japanese agency Oricon summarized manga sales results for the period from November 2025 to May 2026. For the first time in the semi-annual chart, the top spot was taken by "Frieren: Beyond Journey's End" — with a result of 1.62 million copies versus 1.6 million for "One Piece." The gap is small but symbolic: "Frieren" has not published new chapters since October 2025 — the authors, manga artist Kanehito Yamada and illustrator Tsukasa Abe, went on hiatus due to health reasons. Only already published volumes were sold.

The success of "Frieren" is explained by the release of the second season of the anime, which aired throughout the winter of 2026 and coincided exactly with the reporting period. After the first season, the worldwide manga circulation grew from 10 to 20 million, and the same pattern repeated again. "One Piece" released only one volume during the same half-year — the 114th, in March; the next, the 115th, will appear only on July 3.
Special attention deserves the positions of "Jujutsu Kaisen": despite the main series ending in 2024, it holds third place. Combined with sales of the spin-off "Jujutsu Kaisen: Module" (which finished in March 2026), the entire franchise universe sold 2.57 million copies — more than any other series on the list. A debutant in the top 10