Kinnikuman, often referred to as Ultimate Muscle in North America, defeated Hunter x Hunter, garnering eighty-five million copies in circulation. Yoshihiro Togashi’s popular shonen series has, as of the writing of this article, netted over eighty-four million copies in the wild, but now trails behind the hard-hitting competition. Gon shouldn’t feel too bad, however, since Ultimate Muscle had quite the head start. First premiering in 1979, Kinnikuman has become an institution in the anime world, both still producing new anime adaptations and earning its title as a household name. For Hunter x Hunter, the series debuted decades later in 1998, so the higher sales for Kinnikuman are a bit easier to understand.
Recently, to celebrate the major milestone of the wrestling manga, writer Takashi Shimada shared the secret to success: “This is the result of steadily continuing to draw for 46 years with Nakai, encouraging each other, and hardly taking breaks. I’m honestly happy that the total number of copies of the Kinnikuman comics has surpassed 85 million. My partner Nakai and I have been running full speed ahead from age 18 to 64, for 46 years straight. Unlike in the past, today’s hit manga can sell millions of copies just in the first edition, and there are plenty of works that have exceeded 100 million in total circulation. But even if our progress was slow, thanks to the fans who have supported us for 46 years, we’ve gone beyond 85 million, and that makes me the happiest.“
