Durarara!! Scores 1st Weekly #1 with 9th Volume

[Eudemon]

The ninth volume of Ryohgo Narita's Durarara!! light novel series became the first volume in the series to rank #1 on Oricon's bunko (pocket-sized paperback) chart during the February 7-13 week. ASCII Media Works' Dengeki Bunko imprint sold 84,873 copies of the latest Durarara!! volume between February 10 and February 13. Until now, the highest rank attained by the series was #2, which the eighth volume achieved last June by selling 79,598 copies in its first week of sales.

The anime adaptation of the story aired from January to June of last year. The website Crunchyroll streamed the anime outside Japan as it aired, and Aniplex of America is releasing the anime with an English dub.

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In a separate development, Natsumi Iwasaki's Moshi Kōkō Yakyū no Joshi Manager ga Drucker no Management o Yondara (Moshidora) business novel has sold 1,796,778 copies as of February 13. It is now the best-selling "general" book since Oricon began reporting book sales in Japan in 2008. (Oricon reports comic/manga and bunko sales in separate categories from the "general" book category; there are comic/manga and bunko books that have sold more copies than Moshidora.)

The previous record holder was J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which has sold 1.795 million copies in Japan since it went on sale in July of 2008. Moshidora only ranked #247 in the weekly general book chart when it debuted in December of 2009. However, it then became the #1 general book in sales last year with 1.212 million copies sold.

In the novel, whose title can be translated as What If a Female Manager of a High School Baseball Team Read Drucker's "Management"?, a high school girl named Minami Kawashima becomes the baseball team manager at Tokyo's Hodokubo High School. Minami accidentally buys Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices — a classic productivity guide by the Austrian-American management guru Peter Drucker — and uses it to rally her dispirited team.

AKB48 idol group member Atsuko Maeda will star in a live-action film version which will open in June. The Japanese public broadcaster NHK will also premiere a Moshidora television anime series from director Takayuki Hamana (The Prince of Tennis, The Beast Player Erin, Library War) and the anime studio Production I.G in March. A manga adaptation launched in Shueisha's Super Jump magazine on December 22.

Source:ANN