Japan Vs. America: Recent Seasonal Anime Favorites

Key Takeaways

• Anime popularity varies between Japan and the USA due to cultural differences.
• USA trending towards plot-focused anime, Japan prefers character-driven.
• Accessibility and airing times influence anime popularity globally.

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 report on 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 Ko is so popular in Japan that “none of the July anime lineup has even half the viewership of Oshi no Ko in Japan” according to ANN’s report. While the hype may have died down between seasons, the disparity in popularity in America’s love for Oshi no Ko is 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 with what they see on screen in Oshi 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 as Oshi no Ko did 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 been slowly drifting its tastes closer to what Japan has to offer.

Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian is 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 is trending more and more comedies in their most popular anime than in times past, when America focused solely on shōnen. Recent hits like Spy x Family and Kaguya-sama: Love is War lean 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 the Oshi no Ko Season #2 section, tend not to do well outside of Japan. Likewise, can be said for American-made anime; the Rick and Morty anime 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 original Rick and Morty show.

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 needs a special twist or 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 given anime 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. As Anime News Network’s Miles 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 on during 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 for Oshi no Ko’s American audience.

Anime trends will change over time, but it’s interesting to see what the current anime mainstream is 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