Yama Wayama’s Hoshi in the Girls’ Garden took the top spot on Oricon’s monthly comic ranking for September 2026. The fifth volume sold an estimated 182,399 print copies, and it did it in a fairly short window: the book shipped on September 8.
Oricon published the ranking on October 9. The numbers cover estimated print sales at retail outlets across Japan between August 31 and September 27, so a volume released mid-month only gets a partial run at the chart. Hoshi in the Girls’ Garden still cleared the field by a wide margin.
The series, published by Shodensha, was nominated for the 18th Manga Taisho Awards and the 49th Kodansha Manga Awards last year. Those two nominations are worth noting because they represent different audiences: Manga Taisho is voted on by bookstore staff, the Kodansha awards by a publisher jury. A title that lands on both lists tends to have reach beyond its own genre.
Kagurabachi and Dandadan hold second and third
Second place went to Kagurabachi volume 12, with 124,297 copies. Takeru Hokazono’s series shipped the volume on September 4, and it carries a level of momentum that most Shueisha titles would envy. Viz Media and Shueisha’s MANGA Plus service release it in English digitally, Viz also handles print, and the anime adaptation arrives in April 2027. A volume landing at number two on the monthly chart seven months before its anime premieres is a good position to be in.
Dandadan volume 25 came in third at 114,716 copies. Yukinobu Tatsu serializes it on Shonen Jump+, Viz publishes it in English, and the third season of the anime is set for 2027. Another title sitting comfortably ahead of its next broadcast.
The rest of the top ten
Fourth place went to The Fragrant Flower Blooms With Dignity volume 24 by Saka Mikami, at 94,463 copies for Kodansha. Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun volume 50 by Osamu Nishi followed with 93,238 for Akita Shoten. Volume fifty is a number most series never reach. In the Clear Moonlit Dusk volume 11 by Mika Yamamori took sixth with 88,833. The JOJOLands volume 9 by Hirohiko Araki came seventh at 87,786. Kingdom volume 80 by Yasuhisa Hara was eighth with 80,661 in the period, though its cumulative figure of 446,040 is the largest single total on the list. WIND BREAKER volume 27 by Satoru Nii placed ninth at 73,538, and Your Castle’s Little Helper volume 5 from Square Enix closed the top ten at 61,618.
Eleven through twenty
In order: Kochikame: Tokyo Beat Cops volume 202 by Osamu Akimoto at 60,290; Chiikawa volume 8 by Nagano at 49,520 with a cumulative 353,992; Hitoner volume 1 by Tomohiro Yagi at 48,345; Farming Life in Another World volume 17 at 46,826; Black Butler volume 36 by Yana Toboso at 46,274; Blue Lock volume 40 at 44,611 with 172,010 cumulative; The Prince of Tennis II volume 48 by Takeshi Konomi at 39,508; Made in Abyss volume 15 by Akihito Tsukushi at 38,634 with 100,989 cumulative; Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai — Yūsha Avan to Gokuen no Mao volume 16 at 37,370; and Not Quite Love volume 2 by Daisuke Hagiwara at 34,848.
What the chart says about the market
A few things stand out. Kochikame at volume 202 is not a typo, and Osamu Akimoto’s series continues to sell at a rate that would be respectable for a title launched this decade. Chiikawa‘s cumulative 353,992 for a single volume is the second-highest total on the chart, and that is before you account for the franchise’s merchandise and anime reach. Hitoner reaching the top twenty with a debut volume is a strong start for Tomohiro Yagi.
The list also shows how much of the manga market is driven by long runners. Kingdom, Kochikame, Blue Lock, The Prince of Tennis II, Black Butler, Made in Abyss — these are series with decades or near-decades behind them, and they still ship enough copies in a four-week window to hold off brand-new releases. A debut volume has to be genuinely popular to crack this particular chart at all.
Rankings like this one are also a reminder that adaptation announcements and chart performance feed each other. Kagurabachi is already riding an anime bump that has not technically started yet. Witch Hat Atelier placed 8th on BookWalker’s summer chart on the digital side, which is where a lot of the growth in backlist sales now happens. Print is still the number Oricon measures, but it is no longer the whole picture.
Oricon has published book rankings since 2008, and its figures are estimates based on point-of-sale data from participating retailers rather than a full census. Read the numbers as a reliable indicator of relative performance rather than an exact sales count.
Source
Anime News Network — Hoshi in the Girls’ Garden Tops Oricon’s Comic Ranking for September
Featured image: Cover of Hoshi in the Girls’ Garden volume 5 by Yama Wayama, via Anime News Network.
