NY Times Manga Bestsellers: Soul Eater, Death Note Light Novel Hit Top 10

For the third week in a row, the latest New York Times Graphic Books list finds the latest volumes of Naruto and Rosario + Vampire clinging steadfastly to the number 1 and 2 slots respectively. But there are some notable newcomers this week.

With its witches, pumpkins and death gods, it seems only fitting that the first volume of Soul Eater debuted in the #3 slot just in time for Halloween.

But this week's eyebrow-raiser moment was the inclusion of Death Note: L Change the World, the first light novel (a mostly prose novel interspersed with manga-style illustrations) to hit this top 10 list. Has the New York Times list been counting light novels all along, and this is just the only one to sell at this level, or is this a case where the NY Times didn't know how to classify this not-quite typical prose offering, not-really-a-graphic-novel?

While you ponder that point, here's the rest of the New York Times Manga Bestseller list for the week ending October 24, 2009:

NOTE: "RET" means that a title has returned to the Top 10 after an absence of a week or more. Weeks on the chart are counted as weeks on the Top 10.

Image credit: © Atsushi Ohkubo / SQUARE ENIX