Forum - View topicPopulation of anime fans in the US and Japan.
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Suzushii
Posts: 3 |
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I was wondering if anybody here knows, or if there was already mention on ANN, about the percentage of anime fans that actually exist in the US and in Japan?
I know there isn't any way concrete way to tell statistically how many people actually watch anime. But are there any sources out there that give some kind of approximation on how many fans there are versus the population of a country as a whole (such as through industry reports or DVD sales figures)? |
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fighterholic
Posts: 9193 |
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That's a very good question, but it is probably going to be hard to answer, because I would think there's not really a way to get an exact percentage. I know for a fact that Zac answered in his Answerman column a while ago about the percentage of male versus female fans, and female fans dominate the American fandom, while it's the other way around in Japan. That's all I know.
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ikillchicken
 Posts: 7272 Location: Vancouver |
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I don't mean to drag this off topic but are you referring to that demographic poll? If so, wasn't the conclusion that it is roughly equal overall. There are more female teenage fans but that was balanced out by more college age male fans. |
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fighterholic
Posts: 9193 |
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No I am not. I'm referring to the one ANswerman column that I saw some time ago where Zac actually gave an explanation of the ratio of American anime fandom. |
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dormcat
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 9902 Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC |
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Well, defining "anime fan" can be a tough job, which is also capable to attract hundreds of angry posts. 
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kakitamike
 Posts: 183 Location: Akron, OH |
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Does ANN have google analytics on it's site? You could at least get a percentage of people that go to this site, and use it as a rough estimate for "anime fans"
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GrdAdmiral
 Posts: 101 Location: Tokyo, Japan |
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I didn't know that. I would have figured it would have been the other way around in America too. Especially with all the "special" attention played to female characters. 
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Suzushii
Posts: 3 |
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I see. I suppose a minimal definition would be an anime fan being someone who has at least seen an anime or two, and would consider taking an interest in watching more, given the availabilty of time or money. In other words, someone who will continue to watch anime and possibly collect anything that is anime-related. Perhaps that definition would still be inadequate to some, but it was pretty much what I had in mind in my first post.
Actually, even a loose 1,5,10, or 25 percent number would be good enough to know, since this would be comparing anime fans and the country's population as a whole. I agree it would be almost impossible to have a precise number. |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18341 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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If you include "casual" anime fans (i.e. those that may occasionally watch anime on TV or borrow DVDs from friends but don't devote particular effort to the hobby beyond that) then I'd be surprised if the ratio in the U.S. is much higher than 1%. If we're talking about serious fans (i.e. those that actually consider watching and discussing it a hobby and regularly buy DVDs and/or watch fansubs) then you're probably looking at .2% or less.
One key indicator: anime DVD sales in 2007 are estimated to be in the range of $275-300 million, out of a total DVD sales of around $16 billion in the U.S. last year. (These figures are taken from various new sources, including ANN and USA Today.) That amounts to 1.7-1.8% of the U.S. market. Given that anime DVDs are more expensive per unit than normal DVDs, and that anime fans likely buy many more DVDs per capita in a given year than the general public, I feel my figures above are probably reasonable estimations. Last edited by Key on Fri Feb 15, 2008 4:45 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Porcupine
 Posts: 1033 |
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This isn't the first time that I've heard a claim that female fans dominate the American fandom. Can someone making this claim at least put up a link to Zac's article. Even then though, I'm not saying I would agree or disagree with him. But it would at least be nice to see what he said, in what context, and if he gave any references or figures or not.
The CEO of Funimation recently said that male fans almost completely dominate the DVD market, both for anime and non-anime DVDs in general. However I think he also said that there are plenty of female fans but they do not purchase DVDs. One thing that I would naturally agree with is that there is probably a far higher ratio of female-to-male anime fans in America than in Japan. However, I would still be reluctant to say that the ratio is greater than 1:1 over here. |
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Key
Moderator
Posts: 18341 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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Based on what I've seen at 'cons, the notion that female fans are in the majority amongst teenagers but a minority amongst adult (i.e. post-college) fans sounds about right. They are certainly a decided majority amongst cosplayers.
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BluMeino
Posts: 65 |
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I'd think there's also quite a number of people who can't be counted because they rarely buy any DVD's. But they may buy stuff directly from Japan.
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Porcupine
Posts: 1033 |
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I don't think that the population one sees at a con can accurately reflect the actual population distributions that exist in the world. I would go so far as to say that anime convention population head counts are utterly worthless.
Especially regarding cosplay, the results you get will certainly be skewed towards females. Girls love to buy clothes, guys usually don't. Girls wear all sorts of fancy dresses, outfits, and undergarments. Guys mostly wear the same things. Similarly, if one went to a Japanese hentai doujinshi con and saw almost all males, I would also call that a worthless head count for the purposes of trying to identify population distributions in the world in general. |
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Siegel Clyne
Posts: 201 |
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A few years ago, the Nomura Research Institute (NRI) conducted a survey on otaku in Japan, New Market Scale Estimation for Otaku: Population of 1.72 Million with Market Scale of \411 Billion- NRI classifies 5 types of otaku group, proposing a "New 3Cs" marketing frame -.
According to the survey, the estimated population of animation (anime) otaku in Japan during 2004 was 110,000, with an estimated market scale of 20 billion yen (using currency exchange rates current at the time of this post, around US$186 million). |
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Randall Miyashiro
 Posts: 2451 Location: A block away from Golden Gate Park |
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This is definitely what I have observed in San Francisco. Whenever I'm in Japan town or even Borders the manga section is mobbed by pre-teen girls. When I'm on the bus young girls always seem to be talking about anime. There have been a few times where I've been tempted on joining in on a conversation especially when their is a question presented that I know something about. I never do though since I'd rather not be known as that "creepy older guy who likes to talk to little girls about cartoons!" After all that is why it is nice to have a place like ANN. When I think about it most manga shops always seemed to have more shoujo manga than anything else even back in the 80s. I remember going to various Japanese bookstores and being able to spot the manga section by finding all the pink book spines. Because of this I always thought that manga was dominated by young girls in Japan, and the current US trend is just following this. |
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