- Do you like animes?
- Are you watching any at the moment?
- Have you ever finished any? What was the last one?
How many of these characters do you know?
- Which anime do you think is the most popular one?
- Which one is your favorite? Do you feel it is popular in your country?
Let’s read a text:
What’s the Most Popular Anime Around the World?
Adapted from: https://diamondlobby.com/geeky-stuff/most-popular-anime/
Have you ever wondered what the most popular anime in your country is?
For one reason or another, after finding out that Pokemon was the most popular anime series in the UK — where I live — that piece of information didn’t quite satisfy me. I conducted way too much research and analyzed a lot of data in the process, which I then put into visual graphics, or in other words… Check out our anime popularity findings in the map below.
On first look at the world map, it’s evident that Naruto and Pokemon are the absolute leaders in the anime scene – with Pokemon being the most popular anime in the world. However, the anime statistics get a lot more interesting as we take a closer look at each of the seven continents alone.
Whilst Pokemon comes out on top in some of the larger countries on this planet, it’s Naruto that’s most popular in by far the most countries. In fact, Naruto’s ‘World Domination’ score (yes, we made that up) came in at 43.3%, topping the list in 81 of the 187 countries we could obtain data for. Pokemon, in comparison, was way back at 18.2%. My colleagues tell me they were rooting for Pokemon as they’ve been describing Red and Blue as the best Gameboy Color games of all time — I’m not old enough to play with the same levels of nostalgia.
When designing the North & South American map, we noticed a pattern; the more north you go, the more prominent Pokemon becomes. On the flip side, the more you travel south, the more countries you will find that represent Naruto.
When it comes to the European continent, the pattern is quite evident. Pokemon dominates to the north while One Piece dominates the majority of the south. Naruto on the other hand is most popular to the east and central Europe. Naruto represents 18 out of 43 countries, which is 41.86% of the anime scene in Europe.
Though One Punch Man appears to be the most popular on the map in terms of color spread, that is far from the truth. In reality, it represents just 2.17% of the anime scene in countries across Asia. If we dig deeper and take a look at the details, Attack on Titan is the most popular anime in 18 out of 46 countries, representing 39.13% of the anime scene. In second and third place are Naruto and One Piece, which are the most popular anime series in 13 and 7 out of 46 countries representing 28.26% and 15.21% of the anime scene in Asia respectively.
Naruto is the clear winner for being the most popular anime by country in Africa. It spreads throughout central, northern, and southern Africa. During the design of the African continent, I noticed a very interesting pattern stemming down from Europe. Though completely different countries, languages, and cultures, we can see how One Piece, which we saw was most popular amongst southern European countries goes over the Mediterranean Sea and dominates all northern African countries.
With a total of 11 countries in the Oceania continent, Pokemon is by far the most popular anime, representing 7 out of the 11 countries including Australia, which totals 63.63% domination. The remaining four go to Naruto, which represents 18.18% of Oceania, and Attack on Titan & One Punch Man, which each represents 9.09% of the Oceanian anime scene.
Some questions:
- What is the most popular anime in your country?
- What about the continents?
- Did any number surprise you?
- Which anime do you think people should watch more/less? Why?
- In any country, do you see any connection between the people/culture and the most popular anime?
What about games?
- Have you ever played any games related to anime?
- Which ones?
- Did you enjoy them? Why (not)?
- What do you think of Pokémon Go?
- Do you think the creator ever imagined the anime going that far?
- How far would you go for your favorite anime?
Can you name any anime attack?
- How did the naming thing start?
- Why don’t the American cartoons name attacks?
- Why is it important for Manga readers?
- How is it related to Samurais?
- What does “Ki” mean?
Wrap up:
- Do you think animes are becoming less or more popular?
- What do you imagine is the future for them?
- Do you plan on starting a new one after this class?
Teacher Romero Alves 