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Which Summer 2024 Anime are Popular in the U.S. Compared to Japan?




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nobahn
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Joined: 14 Dec 2006
Posts: 5141
PostPosted: Fri Oct 25, 2024 9:42 am Reply with quote
Fascinating analysis.
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tintor2



Joined: 11 Aug 2010
Posts: 2095
PostPosted: Fri Oct 25, 2024 10:19 am Reply with quote
I always saw Ninja Kamui as directly created to appeal to Westerns due to Adult Swim being part in charge. I also read that Goro Taniguchi adapted Planetes with a confusing idea as its content does not appeal to Easterns and instead Westerns. Planetes' author Makoto Yukimura happens to be the artist of Vinland Saga which mainly centers on Western settings and while I love it, I fear that Mappa will not touch it again considering it doesn't have the appeal to Japanese that Jujutsu has. I mean when Vinland season 2, there was no preview for a season 3 even though the third story arc was completed and Yukimura is still writing the climax of the manga.

On the other hand, when Jujutsu season 2 ended, Mappa announced they were still working on the Culling Games arc even though by then there was no ending announced as they were still in the middle of the Shibuya arc. Chainsaw Man also seems to have been abandoned by Mappa after only a cour as the movie trailer was months ago.

The one that surprised me that was popular in Japan was the second season of Darker than Black which was kinda divisive in Western territories for using a story like Leon: The Professional as its basis meaning the popular Hei turned into a wasted Jean Reno. Not even the Bones artists like Hei's redesign despite the director himself liking it.

By the way, was the Ace Attorney anime popular? I really wish they adapted the second trilogy
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xxmsxx



Joined: 06 Sep 2017
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 25, 2024 11:27 am Reply with quote
Thank you for putting the data and analysis together!
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milkyy



Joined: 24 Jul 2018
Posts: 121
PostPosted: Fri Oct 25, 2024 12:26 pm Reply with quote
Great article! I think Alya in some degree got a big boost in the US due to the bilingual nature of the concept, although the majority of US centered discussions were around the "sex appeal" more than any story elements, plot points or even character names. Lots of stocking and foot... appreciators. Gooning is universal, it seems.
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Mikan-box Glasses-kun



Joined: 21 Apr 2023
Posts: 86
PostPosted: Fri Oct 25, 2024 12:42 pm Reply with quote
Really interesting and fun analysis to read! Like, I knew Oshi no Ko was really popular in Japan but forgot just how much it is. Also surprised to hear Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian was the most popular in the US last season, especially in a season with MHA and stuff.

One minor technical quibble I have is just that the image quality on those graphs is so low I have trouble reading most of the titles (both on desktop and mobile), and some are entirely impossible to read.
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Chipp12



Joined: 30 Mar 2012
Posts: 328
PostPosted: Fri Oct 25, 2024 12:52 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
As discussed last season, Solo Leveling was part of an erroneous online narrative that the series was deeply unpopular in Japan due to its poor home video sales.

Can you tell me where I can find this discussion/article please?
Mikan-box Glasses-kun wrote:
One minor technical quibble I have is just that the image quality on those graphs is so low I have trouble reading most of the titles (both on desktop and mobile), and some are entirely impossible to read.

Here's a repost of the pic with most of the titles.

It's definitely more blurry in the article but opening the image in a separate tab (or hopefully looking at it in my post) makes it look a bit cleaner.
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Lord Geo



Joined: 18 Sep 2005
Posts: 2657
Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey
PostPosted: Fri Oct 25, 2024 1:08 pm Reply with quote
Chipp12 wrote:
Quote:
As discussed last season, Solo Leveling was part of an erroneous online narrative that the series was deeply unpopular in Japan due to its poor home video sales.

Can you tell me where I can find this discussion/article please?


Miles linked it earlier in the article, when he said "I previously shared a comparison between the two countries for the previous simulcast season.", but here you go.
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KrisPNatz



Joined: 20 Jul 2024
Posts: 31
PostPosted: Fri Oct 25, 2024 1:33 pm Reply with quote
Mikan-box Glasses-kun wrote:
One minor technical quibble I have is just that the image quality on those graphs is so low I have trouble reading most of the titles (both on desktop and mobile), and some are entirely impossible to read.

seconding this, even for the zoomed in version some things are hard to make out
Quote:
Oshi no Ko and Tower of God are the only major sequels released with built-in fanbases

I know everyone loves to hate it but is Fairy Tail 100YQ not also considered this? I imagine it has a much smaller audience than the original series for a list of reasons but Fairy Tail definitely still has a built in audience.
Quote:
The lack of experience with Japanese history makes it harder to sell to large U.S. audiences, as has been the case for many period pieces before it, no matter how excellent they are. See Golden Kamuy, The Heike Story, INU-OH, Shōwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjū, House of Five Leaves, and even Sengoku Basara for other examples of this, or if you're simply looking for some of the best anime released in the last 15 years.

I'll forever hate crunchyroll for not moving Sengoku Basara over from Funimation (the original SB, End of Judgement is a depressing huge downgrade in all ways) but I think its worth mentioning the ever controversial outlier Rurouni Kenshin whose plot is fairly dependent on the politics of the time period it's set in so I wonder why (before the Watsuki arrest) it was able to be as popular as it was in the west where others like it have not.

When it comes to WSJ or really broadly shonen manga getting anime adaptations, I've noticed a trend over the past decade in a lot of these new anime adaptations having large coalitions of English speaking manga fans who basically act as unpaid promoters once their favorite series gets an anime announced or even long before that, Jujutsu Kaisen, Chainsaw Man and Blue Lock being a few that come to mind (with the latter being the most annoying case I've ever seen). I had never even seen mention of ES before its anime and was surprised it wasn't talked about as much despite being a successful WSJ manga when I much later found out it was so I imagine that has to also be a factor in its lack of initial popularity for western fans albeit probably also linked to the general disconnect mentioned relating to jp historical stories as well.

Since Rick & Morty was included I would be curious to see where Suicide Squad Isekai ended up. I imagine still skewing strongly american but DC Comics IP I would assume is more popular than R&M in japan (or maybe I'm wrong).
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Primus



Joined: 01 Mar 2006
Posts: 2811
Location: Toronto
PostPosted: Fri Oct 25, 2024 1:41 pm Reply with quote
I'm not sure the Rick & Morty anime was even officially released in Japan.
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MiniMarps



Joined: 08 Mar 2022
Posts: 93
PostPosted: Fri Oct 25, 2024 2:01 pm Reply with quote
This was really fun to look at. Personally my top-3 for the summer (Mayonaka Punch, Oshi no Ko, Dungeon People) were all more popular in Japan, while none of the most popular titles in the US really appealed to my tastes. I think that's mostly just to do with the "Japan likes characters; US likes plots" trend the article mentioned, which has been a very deep-rooted issue for at least as long as I've been old enough to understand the business end of manga/anime (mid-2000s). I've been around long enough to where it's funny to me how, for as much as the anime industry in the US has evolved over the past 20 years, there are certain things that haven't really changed at all -- and probably never will.
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TheSeventhSense



Joined: 09 Mar 2013
Posts: 104
PostPosted: Fri Oct 25, 2024 2:13 pm Reply with quote
"All publicity is good publicity." - Jason DeMarco reading about R&M: The Anime's 'popularity', probably
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