Forum - View topicWhich anime are the most popular in America EVER?
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Josh7289
Posts: 1252 |
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Are there any official statistics we can piece together to get a picture here? Which anime have the highest sales, the most "views"/highest awareness, etc.
I know this is a very difficult thing to say, but I'm really curious as to exactly which anime have been "that" popular over here. Edit: I kind of messed up the thread title, but whatever... =/ Edit 2: It was fixed. 
Last edited by Josh7289 on Sat Sep 13, 2008 2:18 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18590 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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In terms of TV broadcast numbers, Pokemon almost unquestionably holds that title. Its rating (i.e. % of households tuned in) peaked as high as 7.9 in the fall of 2002 and was averaging in the mid-4s throughout 2002 and 2003, during which time period it was broadcast on the Kids WB!
DVD sales figures are much trickier because American anime companies rarely report exact sales figures and Wal-Mart, one of the biggest anime distributors, generally doesn't report DVD sales of any kind. It's possible that the Inuyasha franchise is the title-holder there, though, as I remember hearing a year or two ago that the franchise as a whole had topped the 1 million unit sales mark. I would be very surprised if Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, and Dragonball Z aren't among the other top performers; the latter was #1 in sales in 2007, for instance. Good luck finding exact numbers to back this up, though. |
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wolfsbane12
Posts: 55 |
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Among the mainstream populus it's probably Pokemon just because of the mass market blitzkrieg that the show created when it first came out on Kids WB.
In DVD's I think it's probably Inuyasha or maybe the uncut Dragonball Z. But I've never heard any clear numbers. |
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marie-antoinette
 Posts: 4136 Location: Ottawa, Canada |
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Even if it doesn't have the highest DVD sales, Pokemon is without a doubt the most popular anime in North America. It's the one that everyone knows and the show that many people who don't watch anime have seen. There are a few others out there with that draw (Sailor Moon was pretty big, Inuyasha has already been mentioned), but I don't think any come close to being as well-known and well-loved as Pokemon.
Of course, it's also much more than just an anime, it's a merchandising machine. |
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JacobC
ANN Past Staff
 Posts: 3728 Location: SoCal |
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Yeah, to put it one way? Out of my 3rd grade class, EVERYBODY liked Pokemon. Everyone.
Out of my sister's fifth grade class, most of the boys like Pokemon. This is ten years later. It hasn't lost much steam at all. I mean, holy crap, go to Toys R' Us, and they still have the merch all over the place, it's just featuring different creatures. It had a profound enough effect on me that it was my gateway drug to anime and I still adore the original season. It's stupid, but it's a Scooby Doo kind of stupid you can't help but enjoy a little. |
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Josh7289
Posts: 1252 |
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Yeah, I figured Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh!, and Dragon Ball Z would all be up there, if only because they were all my first loves in anime (not in that order, though).
Hmmm...About InuYasha, I can see it being really popular, but I wouldn't put it in the same category as those other three. If I were to put the above three in a "Tier 1" category in terms of popularity, then InuYasha would be more like a Tier 2 title. And while Sailor Moon might have been pretty big in the past, I think that was only because it was one of the only shows available on TV at the time. And the anime fandom at the time was a lot smaller, so compared to the other shows, I'm not so sure if it was really that popular..... So, I personally think of Sailor Moon as a "Tier 3" series. Though without more numbers, this is all just going with my observations and gut feelings. 
Yeah, I know what you mean. But for me, it was 4th grade, since that was late 1998 - early 1999 for me. Every single day when we had our break times and things (and even during class for some people), we'd all be playing the Game Boy games, battling, trading, etc. (with both the video games and the card game). And that's still pretty much going on with the ~10 year olds today? Very impressive (and I feel proud that all the younger kids get to have that experience, too ).
So just based on that, I'm comfortable with calling Pokémon the most popular anime in this country ever (and still today?). None of the others have entered the national consciousness like that one has... Of course, please keep bringing up other titles that are in the same classes as these ones, in terms of sheer popularity and national awareness...And if you can find some more numbers, that's even better. 
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Mr Adventure
 Posts: 1598 |
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Speed Racer or Voltron probably have the single highest name reconnection across all demographics.
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Ligene
 Posts: 137 Location: Mary-land! |
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You have to ask? Pokemon without a doubt.
Speed Racer is probably a close second. |
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marie-antoinette
Posts: 4136 Location: Ottawa, Canada |
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I would disagree with this, because I remember in my class in grade 6 all the girls were watching Sailor Moon. It had a beyond anime fans appeal similar to Pokemon, but it wasn't as big and it shows because it's not still on the air, at least not that I know of (though I do remember finding episodes of it on YTV a few years back). |
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TheVok
Posts: 613 Location: North York, Ontario, Canada |
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Not compared to Pokemon. That thing was more than a TV show, it was a marketing phenomenon. Everyone knows its name, even those of us who, for age or other reasons, never came anywhere close to it. |
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BrentNewhall
 Posts: 31 |
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I have no figures, but if I were to guess:
1. Pokemon 2. Dragonball Z 3. Sailor Moon 4. Robotech They've all been around for so long, and sold so many DVDs and VHS tapes (and related merchandise) that they swamp any single anime series. Japan has very different numbers, of course; Doraemon and Lupin III would probably top the charts over there, for similar reasons; they've just been around forever and selling tapes/discs for decades. Of course, popularity is a funny thing. Akira and Ghost in the Shell were certainly very, very popular in their day in America, but they didn't sell a lot of tapes or discs. Different demographics and standards for popularity. |
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Elfen12
 Posts: 480 Location: Bay Area |
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This might be a dumb question, but, Isn't Yu-Gi-Oh an anime too? I might be mistaken, but if it is, woudln't it also be up there?
-Elfen12- |
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Kruszer
 Posts: 7995 Location: Minnesota, USA |
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Starblazers/Space Battleship Yamato also had a huge fanbase I believe. I've seen threads on it at a non anime board I go to go on forever.
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Ggultra2764
 Subscriber Posts: 3992 Location: New York state. |
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If we're talking anime popular due to their wider mainstream presence, then I would have to go with these 10 titles in order:
1. Pokemon- Merchandise, video games, trading cards, the TV show and movies. The craze created by Nintendo has become a part of American popular culture and is practically well-known to every kid and parent. 2. Yu-gi-oh- Is well-known from the trading card game and anime series. Also has a manga, some video games, and a couple movies but are either not well-known to most people or just sucked. 3. Dragon Ball Z- Toonami and Funimation's flagship title that helped start off the anime boom in the late 1990s. Has merchandise and some successful video game adaptations of the series. 4. Inuyasha- The next anime craze to boom after DBZ which brought in folks to watch Adult Swim and led to merchandising and video games to be launched. 5. Sailor Moon- The only shoujo anime to hit it off successfully in America during the mid-1990s with a syndicated TV show and merchandising. 6. Robotech- Helped grant recognition to anime in the mid 1980s by keeping the drama and complexity of its plot intact compared to the dumbing down in plot from past anime titles brought onto syndicated American television. 7. Speed Racer- The popularity of this series from Saturday morning cartoon runs in the 1960s has spawned a live-action movie released earlier this year and pop culture parodies due to its quirky "fast" English dub dialogue. 8. Astro Boy- Another popular 1960s Saturday morning cartoon that revived in reruns on Adult Swim a while back and a CG-animated movie is currently in the works for it. 9. Naruto- The current anime craze right now which is Toonami's major title at the moment (despite Cartoon Network's recent downsizing of anime). 10. Digimon- One of Fox Kids's popular Saturday morning cartoons during the first couple seasons before later airing on ABC Family, UPN, and Toon Disney's Jetix lineup. |
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Randall Miyashiro
 Posts: 2451 Location: A block away from Golden Gate Park |
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I think that the above top 10 is a fairly good representation to popular anime in the States.
I'm not sure if Yu-gi-oh ever made it as a household name and know that many of the non-anime fans who don't have kids that are my age would not be able to recognize the name compared to Pokemon or Dragon Ball which bled far beyond it's demographic audience. For me both this and Digimon don't quite make the top 10. I would rather place Kimba/Jungle Taitei onto the list which is a name that many non-anime fans who were around when it was released would recognize. I believe that Kimba made a bigger impact than Astro Boy, although Speed Racer (which I would place right below Dragon Ball Z) is still the king for 60s anime. I would also place Robotech in the number 2 or 3 spot. This series inspired US comic books, RPGs, videogames and a long series of novels. Robotech even also spawned it's own convention. Although not as big of a household name as Pokemon, Robotech fans were a really rabid lot. Shows like Star Blazers, Voltron, Inuyasha and Sailor Moon might have had their share of fans, but never really became a huge marketing machine like Robotech. |
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