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I am currently studying abroad for the summer in Japan. I`ve talked to many people, and had talked about some Anime and manga.

What I find weird is that some of the extremely popular titles in US, or even Taiwan(thats where im from), are sometimes unheard of here.

For example, very few people knows ChobitS, Cowboy Bebop, or more recently, Samurai Champloo.

However, they all know of Naruto, One piece, InuYasha, Evangelion, and of course, ghibli films.

Anyone have any thought on this. I am asking them whats popular atm also. There are far more titles than I thought, so it is really quite interesting.

wow, that's some great investigating you're doing there

tell us more!

any problems talking to people out there?

Titles such as Negima and Love Hina are supposedly considered `dirty`. It`s not a taboo or bad thing. It just falls under that category because there is nudity.

For my part, I've found that most Japanese people have little to no interest in anime after middle school. So unless you ask them about an anime that was around when they were younger, or something that for some reason or another is really well known (i.e. Miyazaki films) they won't have any idea what you are talking about because they have zero interest in current anime.

I actually think it is easier to find people interested in anime and manga outside of Japan. (Or at least people who are willing to talk about it Smile

)

To answer your question about relative popularity, I think the best example is Ninja Scroll which was tremendously popular on the states, but was largely ignored in Japan. The television series follow up to the orginal Ninja Scroll OAV was in fact produced primarily for a non-japanese audience.

I think a cultural difference also comes into play. There was recent Ask John article on it. Detective Conan was wildly popular in Japan (In fact, I think it still is) but it wasn't as huge of a hit here. People in Japan have different tastes. Some shows that are hugely popular here just didn't get attention over there. I think Mrs. Answerman said something about Escaflowne being one of those titles a while back.

Same goes with the GHOST IN THE SHELL movies

Anyway, if you wanna find someone who likes anime in JAPAN, isn't the best place to go to the OTAKU ghetto in AKIHABARA? *or wherever that is*

It`s not that they dont like anime, cause they do watch alot of it, just not what I thought they would.

Also, I am atm in Hiroshima. I`ll look around more. It`s rather fun.

In Japan if one calls someone an otaku they are in for a beating. I heard Slayers was popular in Japan, it was sorta popular a few years ago but not really.

Well GTO, I"s, Ichigo 100%, Cardcaptor Sakura are quite popular.

Doraemon is still immensely popular even today, among my age group(around 20).

Chobits is pretty well known too. Just not with the volunteer students that takes care of us Gaijins.

The only thing im really surprised is that they dont know cowboy bebop or Samurai Champloo. That also goes for Taiwan.

What you have to understand that people in japan read more manga than they do anime. Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo might have manga adaption, but they started out with anime.

So if you want people in japan to recognize more title, ask them about all the popular title serialzied in magazine that got anime adaption.

Over here, there are way more anime fans. So american anime fan will be more familar with certain title.

It really depends on what circles you talk to as well. Even though most US residents have heard of Star Trek, a good number of them would shrug if you start talking about Babylon 5, SG-1 or Farscape. Titles like Bebop and Wolf's Rain did hit the Amazon.co.jp lists regularly, and are not really obscure, just maybe a little less widespread than some think. They are however supported by fans who are willing to spend money on DVDs and books. The series that are unknown are the ones that don't have books/mooks published on them, like The Big O, Blue Gender, and Witch Hunter Robin. Long series based off shonen manga tend to be the most popular, like Dragon Ball, One Piece, Naruto. The exceptions that come to mind would be Gundam, Evangelion, and Masamune Shirow.

It's a damn shame that there are people who shrug emptily when SG-1 or Farscape are mentioned. But I agree with Randall as far as which circles you talk to. Anywhere you go, it's nigh impossible to get a good idea of what's popular among the masses, short of a huge survey.