Summary
If an anime that gains considerable popularity in your country doesn’t get a second season, it is likely that it wasn’t popular in Japan. The reverse is true; an anime you hate continues to get season after season despite being disliked in your country and is most likely very well-loved in Japan. While a few extreme international successes tend to sway Japan’s anime studios, for most of them, it’s dependent upon Japan’s native audience to influence what manga gets adapted, and what anime gets to continue past season one.
This is why Anime News Network, colloquially known as ANN,published a reporton last season’s anime trends between the United States and Japan, to explore the differences in anime popularity, repeated genres, and other key data points over the summer. This report also explores the differences between the two countries that would lead to these trends. The analysis of the data was conducted by Miles Atherton of White Box Entertainment, an anime-focused marketing company.
Japan’s Favorite: Oshi no Ko Season #2
The Reincarnating Idol Anime Dominates Japan’s Mainstream
While the first season was popular in both countries, the second season seems to only be popular with Japanese audiences.Oshi no Kois so popular in Japan that “none of the July anime lineup has even half the viewership ofOshi no Koin Japan” according to ANN’s report. While the hype may have died downbetween seasons, the disparity in popularity in America’s love forOshi no Kois intense. So why is there such a difference between the two countries? Two words; cultural differences.
The first season focused primarily in a broad view of idol culture. While this isn’t something that the United States necessarily has, American anime fans have typically learned enough about idol culture through anime and other Japanese media that they can understand and empathize withwhat they see on screeninOshi no Ko. The season changes this, however, and focuses on a stage play adaptation of a manga. Stage plays aren’t particularly popular with American audiences when in English. Creating a season based on Japanese stage play culture is a whole other beast.
USA’s Favorite: Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian
America’s Sweetheart Is On The Student Council
The most popular anime in the United States during the last anime season took a quieter, more relatable approach. While this was the most popular anime of the season, it notably doesn’t have anywhere as big of a gap asOshi no Kodid in comparison to audience popularity between the two countries. The report notes that over the ten years Atherton has been doing market analysis on the industry, the United States has beenslowly driftingits tastes closer to what Japan has to offer.
Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russianis a fairly simple romantic comedy. There’s nothing inherently off-putting about it to Japan, as it’s fairly popular there as well. But there’s nothing that “screams” for an American audience in it either. The last anime season overall actually showed that America istrending more and more comediesin their most popular anime than in times past, when America focused solely on shōnen. Recent hits likeSpy x FamilyandKaguya-sama: Love is Warlean towards this hypothesis as well.
General Trends Between Countries
This Is How To Predict What Anime Will Be Popular In Each Country
When it comes to the current season of anime, and seasons of anime in the future, how can we predict what anime will become popular in either country? There’s a few things we can look at:
First of all, cultural differences. Most anime that focus on distinct Japanese cultural elements, as noted in theOshi no Ko Season #2section, tend not to do welloutside of Japan. Likewise, can be said for American-made anime; theRick and Mortyanime was seen by over three million people in the USA. However, it didn’t hit as well on Japan’s side of the world due to their lack of knowledge regarding the originalRick and Mortyshow.
Something else the report notes as a possible predictor is that American audiences prefer plot-focused anime, whereas Japanese audiences prefer character-driven anime. This is why slice-of-life anime tends to perform well in Japan even with minimal plot to be seen, but slice-of-life typically needsa special twistor a rock-solid plot to do well in America. On the flip side, America’s old trend of shonen-focused preferences still reigns to an extent due to American preferences for fun or enticing plot lines, even when the anime stars two-dimensional characters or has very little filler.
Another factor that tends to dictate popularity trends is where any givenanime is accessible. In Japan, anime is primarily watched on television. This means anime that premieres outside of school or work hours will perform significantly better than those at odd hours of the day. Getting a prime TV slot, which is primarily a funding or experience issue, can mean the difference between an anime’s popularity. This usually means anime by new studios will be overlooked by Japanese audiences regardless of quality. AsAnime News Network’sMiles Thomas Atherton says;
“I believe this analysis represents a step in the slow convergence of the global anime community’s tastes and preferences. What is Japanese is much less foreign to American viewers than it was for previous generations, and Gen Z’s love of subtitles is a huge boon for the future of anime in this country. A few outliers like Rick and Morty: The Anime or Tower of God may be extreme, but I don’t have reason to believe that they’re representative of larger trends”
In the USA, however, anime is primarily watched on streaming services. An anime’s popularity can be greatly affected by the streaming service it is onduring its initial release. If it’s anything outside of Netflix or Crunchyroll, its popularity can be hindered; something the report hypothesized also contributed to the lack of popularity forOshi no Ko’s American audience.
Anime trends will change over time, but it’s interesting to see what thecurrent anime mainstreamis across the globe right now. Knowing this can also allow us to see what anime may be trending in the future and whether it will get a second season. This doesn’t dictate your taste though; you can watch anime you’d like, regardless of your country of origin.
Source:ANN
Oshi No Ko
Oshi no Ko is an animated supernatural mystery series that follows a gynecologist named Gorou, a big fan of an idol whom he is caring for as she prepares to deliver her children. After an obsessive fan of the idols murders Gorou, he is reincarnated as her newborn son - but along with him, a terminal patient he knew is reborn as his twin sister. Years later, after yet another seemingly related murder, Gorou (now known as Aqua) decides to enter the idol world and find the culprit.
