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Franchises with their own pages:

    Gundam 
As a Real Robot multiverse with the series-wide motif of War Is Hell (which, inevitably, brings complaints of Anvilicious treatment), a myriad of Gundam series often result in this happening.
  • In the original Mobile Suit Gundam, the character of Gihren Zabi is far less tolerated in the west than by Japan for obvious reasons. However in Japan, while he is not as popular as the massively-popular Char, he is the poster boy for the Zabi Family and is significantly popular enough to have his own game series named after him. His Sieg Zeon speech is also considered a major moment in Gundam history and has been repeated in various conventions. This is possibly due to lax laws on the depiction of Nazi aesthetics in Japan along with possible influence of Japan's infamous record of war crimes denial about its actions in WWII. Series creator Yoshiyuki Tomino wrote Gihren as a pure Hate Sink (the evilest characters in a War Is Hell story tend to prolong conflict for the sake of personal glory), so it's a tad ironic that those who view the character as he intended mostly come from outside his home country.
  • Mobile Suit Gundam Wing:
    • Rebellious Princess Relena Darlian/Peacecraft has a split fanbase in America, while in Japan, she often appears in Gundam Ace's "Top 30 Females" list (the only Gundam Wing character to ever appear on the list) and more recently ranking #1 on a list of Gundam women whom female fans admired (saying they liked her good looks, keen mind, and how she keeps to her word). Back in the day the hatred was truly stunning; originally many viewers had an absolute refusal to recognize any of her character development, but over time this attitude has mellowed and quite a few people will admit to being fans. Nowadays, it's mostly fangirls in full Die For Our Ship mode who still carry that torch.
    • As much as the distributors tried, in Brazil, the series as a whole failed to take off. It had it all -– a nice timeslot, a good dub, decent amounts of promotion — yet it just didn't seem to click with the channel's audience who, to this day, can only remember it as "that confusing robot cartoon that was on between Samurai X and Inuyasha". Its disappointing performance ensured that no other Gundam would be licensed to the country, to the dismay of Brazilian Gundam fans (especially of UC).
  • Mobile Suit Gundam SEED:
    • Kira Yamato and Lacus Clyne continue to rank high in the top 10 character polls in Japan (including Newtype) long after Destiny ended and Kira himself beat Char and Amuro for the number one spot in the Gundam 30th Anniversary favorite character poll, but they have many detractors among the western Gundam fandom. This largely comes from the belief that the pair used their Omniscient Morality License to shove their beliefs down the rest of the Cosmic Era world's throats at gunpoint, all based off evidence which Lacus herself admitted might have been faulty.
    • Destiny gets this treatment in the west. Not a specific character, but the whole series. The most basic complaint is that Kira Yamato (and many other characters from the previous show) went from simply cameoing in the series to outright assuming the position of the main characters, and with this also became the "right side" in the conflict (without giving a convincing reason why the new cast was wrong). For a good example, Destiny has a huge number of detractors in North America; many considered the series to be the worst Gundam series ever conceived before AGE came along. In its native Japan, it was the most popular anime period for two years after its production ended before Code Geass dethroned it.
    • On a related note we have Flay Allster, Kira's first girlfriend. Because of her early actions (namely, blaming Kira for her father's death and then manipulating his feelings for her to try and get him killed), a lot of Western fans despise her to the point where her My God, What Have I Done? moment and her attempts to redeem herself fall on deaf ears. The Japanese fans, however, were more willing to forgive. What makes this really ironic is the director's statement in a post-series interview that Flay was intended to be the kind of character who would appeal to Western audiences. Apparently, something went horribly wrong and reversed, so when she was killed in the final episode by Rau Le Creuset, her death was seen as a Take That, Scrappy! instead of an Alas, Poor Scrappy.
  • Similarly to Flay (in several regards), Nena Trinity of Mobile Suit Gundam 00 is considered one of the more popular female characters in Japan (and was the most popular until dropping Out of Focus and being replaced by Ensemble Dark Horse Feldt Grace) but is widely loathed in America. It's been suggested that Nena appeals to Japanese fans because her carefree personality and lack of inhibitions are considered exotic in a country where most people, especially women, are expected to be excessively polite and reserved. On the other hand, her being loathed in America seems to have less to do with her personality and more with the way she strafed a wedding full of innocent civilians which, just like with Flay's actions, the Japanese are apparently more forgiving of (one wonders what it'd take for a character to get on their bad side).
  • Ein Dalton of Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans. In Japan, he's a well-liked character due to his remembrance of the people who respected him and the audience sympathizes with him for his tragic life of losing his mentor, being maimed and modified into a Mobile Suit and ultimately, inadvertently becoming a tool to ensnare Gjallarhorn by McGillis. In the West, people hated him for his Revenge Before Reason tendency, such as deeming the Tekkadan "sinful children" despite knowing only Mika was responsible for Crank's death note , brutalizing Azee and Lafter, and eventually going against Crank's original order and attempted to outright kill Kudelia, a politician who has nothing to do with Crank's death.
  • The Gundam Build Fighters Battleouge episode "The Adventures of Fumina and Gyanko" was particularly hated by the West due to a number of factors, largely because that it's a Parody Episode of the Pretty Cure franchise, which is barely known in English-speaking countries outside of the Glitter Force dubs on Netflix.
  • Gundam Build Divers is mostly disliked by older Gundam fans in the West. This is due to the fact that the series is Lighter and Softer, it runs the gamut of various Shonen cliches and lacks the tongue-in-cheek self-awareness of the Build Fighters series. As it stands, a lot of the anger does stem from heavy Values Dissonance.

    Hetalia Axis Powers 
Given that the characters of Hetalia: Axis Powers are Anthropomorphic Personifications of countries, this is inevitable.
  • Like many depictions of Korea in Japanese media, this series became extremely controversial and despised by Koreans for its personification of South Korea, depicted as an Ethnic Scrappy Know-Nothing Know-It-All Annoying Younger Sibling to China and Japan and a pervert who tries to grope their chests. It especially didn't help that Hetalia originally took place during World War II, while Korea was under the brutal occupation of Imperial Japan, which got the series accusations of being right-wing nationalist propaganda. The controversy resulted in the Korea character getting cut from the anime completely and gradually phased out of the franchise (with occasional appearances in Holiday events.)
  • The character Japan gets a lot more mixed reception in the West than in his own country. There are definitely Western fans who like him, but also an equal number of fans who are "meh" about him at best and brand him as an Extreme Doormat, Flat Character, and/or even the series' Creator's Pet at worst due to his relatively stoic personality and him representing the author's homeland which automatically makes him the character most vulnerable to favoritism accusations. A major factor in this is that Japan is so very Japanese that many Western people who are not familiar with Japan and Japanese culture simply don't get or can't appreciate the jokes about him, therefore finding him boring and flat. In particular, those more acquainted with Anime Character Types than general National Stereotypes had expected the personification of Japan to play funny anime stereotypes like Otaku and Dirty Old Man to the hilt and perceived the relative lack of these stereotypes in his character to be a case of the Japanese author trying to make his home country look better than the rest of the cast, not knowing or realizing that Japan's personality is a laundry list of Asian/Japanese stereotypes that are much more well-known in real life and media than the anime-based stereotypes.
  • This extends to even Ships involving Japan: England/Japan is easily the first or second most popular ship in Japanese fandom. In western fandom... not so much. Some Western fans even seem to dislike the England/Japan ship mainly because of its massive popularity in Japan. Even Greece/Japan, the most popular ship for Japan in western fandom, seems at times to be favored not so much because more Western fans like it than Japanese fans do, but because all other ships for Japan are simply less popular in western fandom than in Japanese fandom, and it just had the good fortune to not conflict with Western fans' most common OTPs. Netherlands/Japan and Turkey/Japan, in particular, have decent followings in J-fen but Western shippers for them are virtually an endangered species. Japan/Taiwan goes a similar way, since J-Fen has it as the most popular het ship for Japan and THE Taiwan ship, but it brings quite the "controversy" in W-Fen circles since it's used to bash Taiwan.
  • Though not as controversial as Korea, various nations' depictions have gotten confused to negative reactions from their respective countries for having little to nothing to do with their familiar stereotypes and history.
    • Hetalia's Poland can be highly polarizing for Polish fans, due to him being an immature Cloud Cuckoo Lander and an effeminate Wholesome Crossdresser with a close bond to Lithuania (which gets heavily exaggerated in the fandom.) Many find this extremely inappropriate for a country which is still very conservative and homophobic. Polish fans also tend to be frustrated at how the history they're proud of is rarely shown even in the World War II strips, and that Poland's appearances almost always revolve around Lithuania to the point of him coming off as a Satellite Character to him (and, consequently, the fandom will rarely ship Poland with anyone but Lithuania) and that the rich history Poland has with countries such as Hungary or Ukraine feels neglected.
    • Finland gets similar backdraft from Finnish fans for being a sweet, cute and super talkative Nice Guy who Sweden calls his "wife," and nothing like the cold, silent and gruff stereotype Finns are familar with (like the one in Scandinavia and the World).

    Yu-Gi-Oh! 
With as large, long-lasting and internationally-appealing a franchise as Yu-Gi-Oh!, it's perhaps unsurprising that certain aspects of the anime don't appeal to everyone.
  • Fans in Japan seem to have no real preferences for the different series (though First Installment Wins is in effect to a degree). In the West, the fandoms are much more divided, and fans of the original tend to only like the original.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL was very well-liked in Japan, even managing to be the first series to actually see an uptick in the ratings after things had been in a downward trend since the end of the original series (with Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds doing particularly notably poorly). In America, it tends to be regarded as one of the most divisive shows, if not one of the weakest. ZEXAL was marketed as a Gateway Series for younger audiences in Japan, and it features far more elements of Japanese culture than every prior series put together (bordering on Quirky Work at points). This meant that existing fans were turned off by it due to the initially more kid-oriented storytelling, and contributed to its dub (by the shambolic remains of 4Kids Entertainment) being a rather confused and low-effort affair that struggled to create new ones. Even fans who do stick up for it tend to exclusively favor the second half, when the series became more serious, and consider the first half a burden you have to sit through to get to the fun bits. One particularly infamous instance of this was in the Western release of Duels From the Deep, a pack that consisted of support for various anime Water-type duelists. The Japanese release had Nasch on the cover, the show's highly popular deuteragonist and final main villain, while the Western release went with Mako Tsunami, a borderline one-off character from the original series—though this was widely mocked, it's rather indicative for how little faith the franchise's owners have in ZEXAL in America.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS is arguably even more divisive than ZEXAL. Coming off the heels of the incredibly divisive Yu Gi Oh ARCV, VRAINS seemingly acted as the anti-ARC-V, eschewing a lot of the franchise's fantasy elements in favor of a hard sci-fi Cyberpunk approach. However, the western fandom (who didn't mind ARC-V as much) sees VRAINS as one of the franchise's most controversial entries with a serious case of Seasonal Rot in Season 2 and poor treatment of its side characters (especially the female characters).
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! SEVENS is perhaps one of the biggest points of contention between the Japanese & western Yu-Gi-Oh! fandoms. Much like ZEXAL, SEVENS is made for a younger audience and features a lot of references to Japanese culture that would go over most western viewers' heads. However unlike ZEXAL, SEVENS focuses on "Rush Duels": a Soft Reboot of the game with a simpler ruleset made appeal to younger players. The perceived dumbing-down of the game, combined with a bad case of No Export for You made it hard for the western fandom to feel excited for SEVENS.
  • Yubel from Yu-Gi-Oh! GX was initially much more of a Base-Breaking Character in the West than in the East. Maybe it's their Knight of Cerebus aspects, maybe it's how they ended up Easily Forgiven, maybe it was because the fourth season (where they became Judai's Spirit Advisor) was cut from the Western broadcasts, maybe it's because the dub amped up their villainy while removing anything that made them sympathetic, maybe it was how creepy they were, maybe it's because they got in the way of Spiritshipping/Fiancéeshipping/GX Rivalshipping whatever... In Japan, though, they were popular enough to cameo in Yu-Gi-Oh!: Bonds Beyond Time, and gets a lot of fanart. That said time has been kind to Yubel and their popularity in the English-speaking fandom has increased considerably over the decades due to their scariness, competance, coolness and providing a fitting opponent to Jaden/Judai. Yubel is now widely held as one of the franchise's greatest villains in both sides of the fandom.
  • In GX, Johan gets mixed reception at best in the West, where some hate him for being perceived as overly perfect while others actually adore him and his relationship with Judai. In Japan, fanart of him is all over Pixiv, and his archetype even got some support cards designed to look like him years after the show ended. Though much like Yubel, he was better received later on.
  • Divine of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds, whose methods are far less popular among English fans than Japanese ones.
  • ZEXAL's protagonist Yuma Tsukumo is seen as a funny Idiot Hero, with his and Astral's relationship working as part of a Boke and Tsukkomi Routine. Western fans however are far less kind to the kid. His idiocy and lack of skill at playing the game at first are seen as less endearing and more annoying (not helped by his dub voice actor), and the Shining Draw he can pull off is routinely criticized as an Ass Pull.
  • In ZEXAL, while the Japanese Lolicon fans absolutely love Kotori if her merchandise sales and Pixiv artwork is anything to go by, western fans consider her to be completely useless and often nickname her "Yuma.wav." Her rather uncomfortable design (by Western standards) certainly exacerbates the issue.
  • The protagonist of VRAINS: Yusaku Fujiki (AKA: Playmaker) is one of the most controversial characters across both sides of the pacific. Western fans criticize him for his "boring" stoic demeanor, Jerkass moments towards other characters for seemingly no reason, perceived lack of Character Development until the last possible moment and lack of any on-screen losses outside of flashbacks. However, Japanese fans can't get enough of him, seeing him as a cool no-nonsense hero capable of handling any situation with ease and a massive step-up from Yuya Sakaki.

    Genres 
Certain genres tend to not appeal to certain cultures, regardless of medium. Anime is no different.
  • As a whole, anime as a medium took a very long time to take off outside its home country. The first few shows to make it across the Pacific were shows developed by Osamu Tezuka such as Astro Boy and Kimba the White Lion or Tatsunoko shows like Science Ninja Team Gatchaman (localised as Battle of the Planets) and Speed Racer. Beyond that, most anime was barely able to make it out of Japan for decades, with the few that did suffering many a Macekre (including the show the trope was named after). That was until the 90's with the one-two punch of Cartoon Network's Toonami block in the English-speaking world and the sudden popularity of Pokémon. While the medium has slightly waned in the spotlight in recent years, anime is still a tentpole of entertainment around the world.
  • The Idol Genre gets a lot more flack in western nations than most. While beloved in East Asia due to the massive popularity of the J-Pop and K-Pop music genres, the western anime fandom is far more of a Broken Base on the issue, with the complaints coming down either to the infamously-exploitative nature of the Japanese idol industry, the extreme behaviors of its worst fans, or even just the cutesy aesthetic not gelling well with western tastes.
    • Oshi no Ko is the clear exception to this as a Genre Deconstruction, as not only does the story address the two complaints in-universe, but the bright candy-colored aesthetic is used solely for spoiler-free marketing and the idol backdrop is very minimal in the series itself.
  • As a whole, the Isekai genre is not held in the highest regard in the west. While in Japan, shows like Re:Zero, KonoSuba or The Rising of the Shield Hero basically print money, western fans view the genre as at best, mindless escapist wish-fulfillment Power Fantasies for the Lowest Common Denominator and as the epitome of creative bankruptcy at worstnote . Not helping matters is the genre's later inclusion of elements such as slavery for the main character to build their harem, which are seen as incredibly creepy and tone-deaf additions on a good day.
  • The Magical Girl or "Mahou Shoujo" genre never truly caught on in the west to the same extent as Japan, with only a few exceptions in the forms of Sailor Moonnote , Cardcaptor Sakuranote  and Puella Magi Madoka Magicanote , with even the cultural juggernaut of the genre, Pretty Cure failing to break into the west. This is likely due to the "girly" aesthetic harming its chances at appealing to the intended audience for anime in the west at the time, which was boys between the ages of 8-12.
  • While by no means a failure, the mecha genre doesn't manage to be as popular in the west as in Japan, with only a handful of shows gaining mainstream attention. Part of the reason is that many mecha anime have to deal with America's native competition, others being that many of the most famous mecha anime like Mazinger Z or Getter Robo are over 50 years old, and appear outdated both in story and animation to western audiences.
  • Despite Moe being highly popular with Japanese audiences, it is much more divisive in the west due to its general aesthetic and the heavy Slice of Life focus that shows associated with it tend to have. While shows like Azumanga Daioh, Lucky Star, and K-On! have sizable fandoms in the West (even with the first example's anime adaptation rumored to suffer from Creator Backlash), it's not unheard of for Slice of Life anime to get accused of being too formulaic and cutesy at best. Western anime fans also prefer more fanciful sci-fi and fantasy-based anime, believing that the everyday settings of slice of life series waste the medium's potential for storytelling.
  • With few exceptions, sports anime and manga weren't as appealing to many anime fans outside of Japan for a long time, not even in countries with strong sports scenes like the United States or Australia. This was primarily due to the low amount of overlap at the time between people who watched sports and people who watched anime, and it seemed like sports anime would never take off in North America after Funimation's English release of Big Windup! did very poorly in sales. However, this would later change for a few reasons. The first was that series like Free!, Haikyuu!!, and Kuroko's Basketball gained notoriety for their Casts Full of Pretty Boys, bringing in female fans who found those characters attractive as opposed to young boys like most sports anime did beforehand, and the second being the mainstreaming of anime as a medium, which allowed for more people (including those who enjoy sports) to enter the fandom.
  • "Imouto" as a genre is not usually very popular in the West, due to how controversial these types of relationships are considered. Especially because in the West a guy falling in love with his stepsister or adopted sister is considered something disgusting, even if they are not related by blood.

Specific anime and manga

    A-D 
  • Attack on Titan has become this in South Korea, despite starting off as popular as it was back in Japan and in the West, to the point that the series have become Old Shame to Koreans who otherwise enjoy anime and manga. This is due to revelations that mangaka Hajime Isayama has admitted to basing Dot Pixis, one of the characters from the series, off Akiyama Yoshifuru, an infamous Imperial Japanese Army general, and has reportedly sympathized with nationalism and Imperial Japan.
  • While Berserk itself is quite popular and well-regarded in the US, many, if not most American fans absolutely loathe Puck, especially the ones that have no patience for his particular brand of humor. The most likely and obvious reason being that he's a cute, androgynous, Plucky Comic Relief fairy creature that comes across as hugely out of place in a series that prides itself on brutality and darkness. In Japan, a force of over-the-top cuteness like Puck is nothing strange or surprising, but to many Americans, he's a bafflingly childish character whose inclusion clashes horribly with the grim, graphic tone of the story.
  • Black Clover: In Japan, Gauche is a popular character. He ranked 8th and 10th place in the second and third popularity polls, beating out fan favorites like Zora and Finral. However, he is disliked by many fans in the West because of his creepy obsession with his younger sister and generally being an unlikable, aggressive Jerkass who takes out his belligerence on friends, nuns, civilians, and people like Neige who got injured in a filler arc trying to rescue his sister whenever Marie is in peril.
  • Bleach:
    • Momo Hinamori manages to rank very high in Japanese popularity polls, but she's disliked in America. This may be because Japanese readers like her very feminine, gentle nature and blind loyalty, while in America those traits are seen as weak and sexist. Outside both Japan and America, she's liked well enough, being neither as popular as she is in Japan nor as disliked as she is in America.
    • Toshiro Hitsugaya is among the most popular characters in Japan, but is very controversial and often hated in America. It seems that the Japanese fanbase sees him as something of an Escapist Character and an easy reader-insert, since he's the youngest of the Captains and his personality and skillset amounts to "he's a Teen Genius, he hangs out with a hot lady, and he loves his childhood friend," reminding them a lot of the Stock Light-Novel Hero, on top of his rather standard-but-still-clearly-personalized power set. This caused people to latch onto him very quickly, which then led to him getting extra character focus, to the point of being possibly the most prominent character to not be in Ichigo's main friend circle. In America, on the other hand, Hitsugaya's "easy reader-insert" nature is seen as one of the worst things about him, with him being viewed as one of the dullest of the Captains—something exacerbated by his shoddy record in fights, habit of making up new powers out of nowhere, and minimal character growth over the run of the manga. And all these things were exacerbated further when Hitsugaya kept getting focus, fights, and sudden saves all the way to the end, occasionally pulling wins against people he really shouldn't have been able to beat, and getting a whole movie dedicated to him. Essentially, Hitsugaya got a lot of hate over there because he existed for Pandering to the Base when said base didn't really exist, which made him come across as a Creator's Pet instead. While the hatewagon didn't really catch on outside of America, he's still not notably popular in other territories.
  • Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo:
    • Beauty, who is the 4th most popular character in Japan, is hated by Westerns for being a useless ally who only serves as the Straight Man during jokes and is also a Damsel Scrappy.
    • Namero Yononaka from the sequel manga, Shinsetsu Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo. He's the most popular of the three new protagonists of the manga (making 9th place in the last Japan popularity contest; the other two came in 11th and 20th respectively) but his nihilism, narcissism, and lack of humor make him despised among the western fan-base.
  • Brothers Conflict has gotten flack from some Western viewers not only for being yet another incest anime (just with the roles reversed), but for several scenes that - while not Diabolik Lovers bad - are uncomfortable to watch such as pedophilia of both genders (one of the brothers is ten years old and others are 31 and 28) and an Attempted Rape that is quickly swept under the rug and Easily Forgiven.
  • From Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School, Ruruka Andou was proven to popular in the Japanese fandom due to her talent, characterization, and her relationship with Izayoi. However, due to her being part of the hugely controversial Radicals alliance, her Alpha Bitch tendencies, her mean-spirited remarks towards Kimura, her Unintentionally Unsympathetic behavior, and breaking the Moral Event Horizon by drugging Juzo, attempting to kill Kyoko in which Kizakura saved her at the case of his own life, and killing Izayoi, she has gotten a bunch of haters from the Western side of things.
  • Death Note: While Japanese fans are more or less accepting of Misa Amane, she's loathed in the West, with her English voice actress's performance being perceived as irritating by most fans, and her character seen as shallow, annoying, and stupid. The large number of fans who prefer other ships also have something to do with it.
  • Digimon:
  • Domestic Girlfriend has the western fanbase largely dislike Hina feeling that living her life for a man in Natsuo makes her a bad example of women, much preferring her far more independent career-seeking sister Rui. When Hina ultimately married Natsuo the western fanbase went ballistic on social media attacking author Kei Sasuga and eventually forcing her off Twitter. Sasuga specifically called out "overseas" fans for their bad attitude.
  • Doraemon:
    • The series is a cultural institution in Japan, its characters having been on every kind of product imaginable and is as ubiquitous and recognizable as Star Wars is in North America. While Doraemon has had some success in some parts of Europe, like Italy and Spain, every attempt to market Doraemon in North America has fallen flat, remaining an obscure franchise most North American anime fans are largely passingly familiar with at best. The English dub on Disney XD, the biggest attempt yet, has become increasingly hard to find on its schedule over time (though whether that's due to low ratings or a case of Screwed by the Network is unclear), and North American supermarkets almost all turned down Doraemon-branded dorayaki, most likely because it is a bean-based dessert and westerners don't normally associate beans with dessert.
    • Doraemon was not successful in Brazil either. Only 20 episodes of the 1979 anime were dubbed and its audience ratings were so low that it only lasted 2 years in rather interrupted airing, and after that no other television network wanted to acquire the series. The 2005 anime didn't fare much better, with a chaotic distribution where it was jumping between Netflix, Wow! Play and finally the TV channel Band, without achieving good audience ratings on either and being quickly taken off the air, never to return.
    • It also did very poorly in France, where its ratings were extremely poor and urban legends say it was banned for "corruption in children", although the latter has never been confirmed.
    • It also wasn't that popular in the United Kingdom, where it aired on Boomerang. The dub's treatment by the network might have played a role in it.
  • Dragon Ball:
    • Kid Trunks, Gotenks, and especially Mr. Satan of Dragon Ball Z are wildly popular in Japan, but are Base Breaking Characters in the West.
    • From a Big Bad standpoint, Majin Buu counts. In the Western fandom, he's easily the most divisive of the Big Bads with some fans decrying him as annoying and an Invincible Villain whose arc goes on too long and has too many contrived ways to drag it on more. Even Western fans who do enjoy Buu tend to agree that he's the weakest of the series' main villains. In Japan, however, he tends to rank higher in popularity polls than Cell (who, in the eyes of a sizable portion of the Western audience, is considered the series' best villain; though Frieza is still the overall favorite on both sides).
    • Masako Nozawa is renowned in her home country for her roles in the series, voicing main character Goku as well as his father and sons/grandsons regardless of age, and managing to give each character a distinct voice and idiosyncrasies. In America? You're bound to find legions of haters for her Goku voice (a rarity for a Japanese anime voice), comparing it to Naruto Uzumaki at best and using the derisive Fan Nickname "Granny Goku" at worst. This is largely due to the Grandfather Clause and American Kirby Is Hardcore; the reason why Nozawa voices adult Goku is because she was chosen to voice child Goku, who debuted in the original Dragon Ball, and simply continued to stick with the character as he grew up. In America, DBZ was marketed more successfully than DB and adult Goku was voiced by adult men from the beginning, and most fans therefore see Goku as a manly hero rather than a goofy child in a man's body. This applies in varying degrees to Nozawa's other characters, but none more so than Bardock, whose Japanese voice is criticized in the West even among fans of Nozawa-as-Goku.
    • Due to its dub, 7 out of 10 Spaniards will tell you that they hate the entire franchise because of this.
    • The Doctor Slump crossover of Super had a vocal group in the US who hated the episode, citing the wonky power scaling and a gag character not fitting the tone of what they think Dragon Ball should be (which is another issue entirely with the fanbase).
    • During the Tournament of Power, the reception Ribrianne had in her native Japan is actually quite favorable, while in the west Ribrianne is despised due to her magical girl parody being seen out of place. It doesn't help that magical girl shows like Pretty Cure tend to be dismissed as "Sailor Moon ripoffs" in the United States.

    F-K 
  • As any English Fairy Tail forum will tell you, Jellal Fernandez is one of the biggest Base Breaking Characters in the series. While his initial role as a villain was well received, his frequent appearances in following arcs have attracted complaints that he's overstayed his welcome versus those who like him and enjoy the Ship Tease with Erza versus those who wished he'd just stayed dead after his original arc. However, in Japan and China, he consistently ranks high in opinion polls, coming up just beneath the five main characters. Pretty high, considering he's a side character who isn't even in the titular guild. Post-Time Skip he's ended up better received by the fanbase, although this trope still hold in some circles.
  • Fullmetal Alchemist:
    • Before manga-faithful Brotherhood came out in 2009, the original manga took a while to catch on in the West due to the aforementioned issue of anime being much more accessible than manga at the time. The 2003 anime became extremely popular in the West during its airing and it differs significantly from the manga, so there were many fans of the anime who were disinterested in the manga due to how different the story and tone was, and when they saw Brotherhood many mistakenly believed the first anime was the "original." However, Brotherhood would eventually became the globally preferred adaptation by a long mile.
    • Solf J. Kimblee is one of the most beloved antagonists around the globe but much more of a Base-Breaking Character to Western audiences, mainly due to his Social Darwinist views and gleefully committing genocide against a race of brown-skinned people with zero remorse, making him much more controversial especially as he's meant to be morally ambiguous rather than outright villain. Another possible reason Kimblee isn’t as popular in the West is that he’s based on the Salaryman archetype, which Westerners are less familiar with (though he does remind Western viewers of Patrick Bateman, which serves in his favor.)
    • Ling Yao, Lan Fan and Fu are certainly not hated by Western audiences, but they do suffer from being Overshadowed by Awesome, mainly when Ling starts sharing a body with Greed, who's extremely popular and adored especially by Western fans. While Greed is hugely popular whether by himself or with Ling, Ling doesn't enjoy the same popularity independent of him in the West, while Lan Fan and Fu are Satellite Characters to Ling. Ling/Lan Fan is a well-liked ship, but English language fan works are much more likely to make it a Beta Couple to more popular ships such as Roy/Riza rather than the focus. In the Japanese fandom however, a 2023 poll has Ling Yao ranking the 3rd most popular character behind Ed and Roy, and Lan Fan ranking as the second most popular female character after Riza.
    • Like many "small cute sweet Nice Girl" characters, Mei Chang is much more decisive among the Western fandom than the Eastern, in spite of her also being a highly competent alchemist and Action Girl who helps Scar and later the heroes during the climax. Her naiveté, idealism and obsession with romance especially doesn't do her favors with certain parts of the fandom. Her Ship Tease and implied endgame with Alphonse is also more likely to be considered Squick by Western fans rather than cute Puppy Love, since even though Al is only 2 years older than her, they spent most of their screen time together while Al's soul is in a hulking suit of armor.
  • Gate:
    • Aside from those who are just there for the scenes where modern military forces mow down medieval armies, the series hasn't been well received in the United States, especially war veterans. It's been criticized by Americans and other Western audiences for its rather rabid right-wing themes and blatant anti-American sentiment that plays up very frustrating and unrealistic Type 2 Eagleland stereotypes. Some have compared it to a Japan-centric version of The Salvation War due to the absurd amount of liberties taken when it comes to glorifying Japan's militaries.
    • As with KanColle and just like any other Japanese media that glorifies the Japanese military, the series has had a very icy reception from Korean viewers, to say the least. In fact, the large majority of blogs and other outlets criticizing the show are predominantly Korean.
  • Gate 7 doesn't seem to earn many fans from the West due to the majority of the characters being reincarnations from the Sengoku Period. Unless the readers know the central figures from that era since it's heavily adapted many times (see Jidaigeki), many Western readers don't understand why these historical people are important. It doesn't help that narrative assumes the readers are knowledgeable about Japanese history.
  • Gintama was in serialization for almost sixteen years, earning positive sales and receiving three movies (two animated, one live-action) and three TV series. In North America, only the first 23 volumes of the manga were released before the series was cancelled. The anime only had its first 52 episodes released on DVD (subtitled) plus the movie (sub+dub). Granted, it's a cult hit in the west and has its fans, but it's not the mainstream hit show it is in Japan. Eventually the series was license rescued and received a brand new dub of all the episodes, and it is very highly ranked on My Anime List.
  • Hikari no Densetsu: While it's more of a Broken Base example since the anime is popular there, a good number of French anime fans hate Hikari No Densetsu (or as it's known there, Cynthia ou le Rythme de la vie), to the point Memetic Mutation is calling it "one of the most boring anime ever made" amongst older otaku (non-French fans may be most familiar with Joueur du Grenier calling it as such in his review).
  • Hozuki's Coolheadedness is very popular in Japan. But outside Japan, its reception is low considering that it throws a lot of jokes related to Japanese and Chinese folklore and pop culture (though it did throw a lot of Western pop culture too). This ANN review seemed to confirm it.
  • Idol Angel Yokoso Yoko: In Italy, it was so unpopular that Canale 5 pulled it off because of low ratings. It was then moved to Italia 1, in a time zone where not many viewers were active. After that, it never aired again.
  • The Irregular at Magic High School:
    • In Japan, the light novels and the anime are one of the highest selling anime titles. It is widely disliked among the Western fanbase due to the Brother–Sister Incest subtext, and some of the politically right-wing views and portrayal of China and United States being villains. In response to the fan backlash, Aniplex USA decided not to give this title an English dubnote .
    • The reaction among Chinese was slightly different, and by slightly different, it became a huge source of snark among them, in a way not much different with Americans and North Korean Propaganda Cartoons, due to being so vehemently anti-Chinese and Right-Wing, it becomes hard to be offended.
    • At the same time, although Miyuki is extremely popular in Japan and has always been the most popular heroine in her work at home, many Western viewers called her a stupid and annoying spoiled child, which became simply unbearable for many because of the for the frank incestuous nature of their relationship and the attempts of the show to give her a lot more attention than all the other girls put together. At the same time, although hostility to her made Mayumi the most popular heroine in this show in the West, Miyuki still has a pretty loud fan base among Brother–Sister Incest shippers.
  • Jewelpet: Labra, the cute baby polar bear who won't stop screaming, is extremely unpopular with American fans, but she beats fan favorites like Ruby, Garnet, Sapphire, Angela, and Rossa in the Pixiv popularity poll.
  • JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
    • Parts 3 and 5 are generally considered the best ones in the series in Japan. In America, they are often the ones hated the most because of their Monster of the Week format, where most chapters feature a fight against a servant of the Big Bad whose sole purpose is to slow the heroes down. It doesn't help that the parts' JoJos, Jotaro and Giorno are considered boring, flat Invincible Heroes that pull new powers out of their asses just to defeat new enemies (Giorno even gets one of the biggest Story Breaker Powers ever created). Most Americans prefer Parts 2, 4, 6 and 7, which have more focus on characters. It also doesn't help that Part 3 gets a lot of publicity. Ironically, it's near universally agreed that the Big Bad of Part 3 is the best and coolest the series has to offer. Part 5 however, was eventually Vindicated by History by the release of a fan retranslation of the manga that clarified many plot points (most notably the powers of King Crimson) that were Lost in Translation as well as restoring characterization lost in the old translation, as well as an anime adaptation that did a better job of showing Giorno's Tranquil Fury.
    • Jotaro is a particular recipient of this. In Japan, Jotaro is the most iconic protagonist by a long way, with his design being heavily homaged and copied. In America, he is considered one of the most divisive, and by some measure the most frequently hated. This largely owes to Jotaro's extreme level of power and competence, to the point that almost every enemy Stand-user in the part bar DIO himself is a Villainous Underdog to some degree, and in a case of Early-Installment Weirdness, Jotaro also has a tendency to go well beyond the typical Semantic Superpower limitations of what his Stand can do, to the point of New Powers as the Plot Demands at points. Jotaro is also defined by his gruff attitude and design, calling back to the culture of Japanese Delinquents. To Japanese audiences, particularly the twelve-year-old boys reading Weekly Shounen Jump, this makes Jotaro an Escapist Character power fantasy, the coolest guy in the world who every kid wants to be, while also carrying enough edge to still be appealing to older audiences. To the older American audiences who generally seek out this kind of story, Jotaro's competence comes off as him being a invoked Marty Stu who defeats his opponents by overpowering them rather than outwitting them, and his attitude seems less gruff-but-likeable and more flat-out dickish. Values Dissonance also comes into play, as one of Jotaro's flaws—his rudeness towards women—read very differently in 1989 Japan, when Japanese audiences were introduced to him, than it did in 2014 America, when most Americans were introduced to him.
    • In a case of this applying to a pairing rather than a character, Josuke/Rohan is the most popular pairing in Diamond is Unbreakable in Japan. In America, the pairing is considerably more controversial, as while both characters are very well-liked, Rohan is 20 while Josuke is 15. Americans tend to be more fond of Josuke/Okuyasu.
  • Joker Game is very popular in Japan considering that it got second place on Tokyo Anime Awards' Animation of the Year Fan Award (behind Yuri!!! on Ice), won the Nogizaka 46 Award (Monthly Newtype Joint Special Award), was ranked#6 in NHK's Best 100 Ranking Poll and #5 in the female voter's poll. Outside Japan, many viewers were divided with the series as some felt that it was trying to glorify Imperial Japan and were surprised with the series' popularity in Japan which made them wonder if it has to do with the Cast Full of Pretty Boys.
  • The reception of the KanColle anime has been very polarizing at best in Japan, even among fans of the game. In the Western fanbase, however, it is near-universally hated. Across from the mentioned reasons in regards to the browser game, it also doesn't help that the anime was mostly historically accurate in regards to the Pacific WWII battles up until the last episode where the ship girls win the battle of Midway in a Deus ex Machina. The fact that the anime was really Pandering to the Base when the game wasn't licensed outside of Japan also doesn't help as well. The Movie fixes these issues (not all of them though), however, mainly due to its better storytelling, near-powerful emotional tension, and bringing back a certain character who was originally written off earlier in the anime.
  • Kimba the White Lion is a hugely beloved classic in Japan, easily being one of Osamu Tezuka's most famous works. In America, however, it spent decades flying under the radar, with almost no decent exports and most people only knowing it as "that lion cartoon made by the guy who did Astro Boy", if that. But then in The New '10s, it gained recognition in the US when old rumors and internet memes started claiming The Lion King was really a shoddy rip-off of Kimba. These accusations caused people like YourMovieSucks.org to start actually looking into Kimba to see if the plagiarism claims were true, only to find that not only were they false (Kimba and Lion King have barely anything in common), but that the series itself was a great deal weirder, darker, and more dated than they had been led to believe. Opinion in America turned against Kimba almost overnight, and it is now regarded by a not-insignificant amount of people as a cheesy mess that proves even someone like Osamu Tezuka could have off-days.
  • King of Prism is ubiquitous in Japan and other parts of Asia in the Idol Genre and works consumed by adult female Otaku. The movies have all made the top 10 on opening weekends, and despite being part of Mainstream Obscurity, it is widely regarded as a Cult Classic; however, it is barely known in the West. When Shiny Seven Stars, the third film, was brought over by Crunchyroll, it was met with backlash and confusion. This is because there is no context for Westerners watching it for the first time, as the series is a Spin-Off of the Kodomomuke Pretty Series installment Pretty Rhythm: Rainbow Live and a continuation of the first two King of Prism movies, all of which never got released in the West. King of Prism is, in general, also Quirky Work that relies on Audience Participation and Idol Singer tropes, some of which are alien to Westerners.
  • Kinnikuman is absolutely massive in Japan, but is considered a cult classic at best in the West. Perhaps it has to do with Brocken Jr.? If anything it was a simple matter of timing. By the time of the anime boom in America Kinnikuman had ended nearly a decade earlier, plus its successor as THE shonen series, Dragon Ball Z had already caught on. Somewhat ironically, the sequel series Kinnikuman Nisei did better in the West than in Japan.
  • KonoSuba: Aqua is well-regarded in Japan as Konosuba's Series Mascot, but in the West, while she does have her fans, her constant crying and whining, and her jerkish attitude towards Kazuma made her a very Base-Breaking Character and more infamously a Memetic Loser in the Western Anime Community, with many taking the more mature for her age Megumin as Series Mascot instead. It doesn't help that she's The Load in Kazuma's party most of the time, which contributes to her reputation as a Memetic Loser.

    L-P 
  • La Seine No Hoshi is reviled in the West for it's unoriginality and called a The Rose of Versailles rip-off, not helped by the lack of English dub (most of its popularity is from fansubs). It didn't do well in Japan either, where it's nearly forgotten. Italy was the only country where it reached success.
  • Kotori is very popular among Japanese Love Live! fans, who appreciate her unconditional support for Honoka and think her voice is cute. Some Western fans, however, think that she just can't say "no" to people and dislike her high-pitched voice. Despite this, she does have her fans in Western regions, as various YouTube comments can attest, and is considered very adorable on either side of the Pacific. That said, the most popular character on the English server of the mobile game is Maki, owing to the West's tsundere love.
  • Lucy-May of the Southern Rainbow did very poorly in Japan, and it took Princess Sarah's success for World Masterpiece Theater to win back the crowd. It did receive the Agency for Cultural Affairs' Excellence in Children's TV Film Award in 1981, but it was nowhere near their usual successful series.
  • My Hero Academia has a few examples:
    • Mineta gets hit with this the hardest. He's managed to reach number 17 in the Japanese popularity polls (even then that's a stretch to say he's popular there, considering it was the first popularity poll, before more of very, very large cast made their debut), but a sizable amount of American fans consider him The Scrappy due to his Dirty Kid nature (which American audiences found annoying at best, creepy at worst) and his habit of being Yamcha'd in fights, to the point where there's a Fandom-Specific Plot in English fan fiction where he is expelled or otherwise removed from the class and replaced with Shinso.
    • While definitely not hated, characters with more quiet, subdued personalities like Iida and Ojiro tend to get less attention from Western fans, who seem to prefer characters with flashy powers (like Todoroki), "loud" personalities (like Bakugo), or Moe-ness (like Midoriya, Tsuyu and Ochaco). Ojiro in particular; he's well-liked in his native Japan for his honorable nature and martial arts theme, but Western fans tend to see him as "that boring guy with the tail".
  • Shizuru Fujino of My-HiME seems to be very popular (albeit with a vocal group of haters) in most fandom circles, except in Italy. While they were largely supportive of her feelings for Natsuki, the instant she Kicked the Dog by attacking Yukino and killing off Haruka, Yukino's Most Important Person, her popularity crashed and burned.
  • Nana at one point was the best-selling manga in Japan, had a 52-episode anime, and had its own live-action movie. Outside of Japan? It doesn't get discussed much. It has its fans, especially due to the Pseudo-Romantic Friendship attracting yuri fans, but is overshadowed by more popular shoujo series.
  • Naruto:
    • Sasuke Uchiha is much more divisive in America and Europe than in Japan, and was hated by large segments of the American fanbase long before his Face–Heel Turn. This is because he's seen as a one-note 'brooding' character. As a result, American and Europeans fans were absolutely not surprised by the Face–Heel Turn.
    • This also applies to Naruto himself as well, while he is the most popular Naruto character in Japan, he is something of a Base-Breaking Character in America. Both he and Sakura often get hate from Sasuke's detractors, as both of them are continuing to try to redeem Sasuke, with Sakura passing up an opportunity to kill him because she couldn't bring herself to do it and having to get rescued by Naruto moments later.
  • Nekojiru Gekijou, which is not only a violent Quirky Work with an unfittingly childish art style, but is also far too scathing and sadistic for Western audiences to enjoy. This isn't as much the case for its OVA adaptation, which downplays the sadistic tone of the original series and cranks up the weirdness.
  • Neon Genesis Evangelion:
    • Shinji Ikari is a far more polarizing character in the West than he is in Japan, often derided as a whiny weakling by casual fans.
    • While the first two movies won over crowds in the West, Evangelion 3.0 was actually rather criticized for being even more mean-spirited and being a massive Happy Ending Override, along with managing to be waaaay Darker and Edgier than even The End of Evangelion. To even most Western Evangelion fans this managed to be too much. In comparison, in Japan, not only is it the most profitable film in the franchise, it was one of the top-earning anime movies of all time (let alone the top non- Studio Ghibli or Disney animated movie for a time).
  • Nyanpire: The Animation had a very cold reception in the USA (It's one of the most underrated shows on Anime News Network). The Quirky Work nature of the show and the facts that it happened to be one of those kiddy shows with gore and explicit (by American standards, at least) are probably one of the biggest reasons.
  • In Japan, Otoboku - Maidens Are Falling For Me is one of the best selling Bishoujo Games, and was even the second best-selling at the time of release. However, the anime adaption of the game was panned mercilessly by most Western critics for having a predictable Cliché Storm and mostly bland characters.
  • One Piece:
    • Shirahoshi, the gigantic mermaid princess who won't stop crying, is extremely unpopular with the American fans. In Japan? She ranked 28th in the fifth popularity poll, and 31st in the sixth poll.
    • Rebecca, the Chainmail Bikini-clad gladiator from the Dressrosa arc is also very unpopular with American audiences, but ranked immediately below Shirahoshi in the fifth popularity poll at 29th (though she fell to 40th in the sixth poll). It also didn't help she debuted so shortly after the series had just had such a similar character in Shirahoshi, both being princesses of suffering countries saved by the heroes (something already featured by Vivi), which came across to many as irritatingly repetitive.
    • One Piece as a whole struggled for a long time to gain mainstream popularity in the US compared to its contemporaries Bleach and Naruto. Its whimsical story, Western-inspired art style, and pirate theme turned off those outside of hardcore fans of said shows as well as Dragon Ball Z. Moreover, the anime was saddled with an infamously terrible dub by 4Kids that sullied the franchise's name in the US for years. Even marketing the show to adults, who would be interested in Western-styled anime like Cowboy Bebop, and giving it a much better dub by Funimation didn't help it with mainstream audiences as it lacked the ratings to stay on Toonami and was taken off the schedule in 2017. As the years have gone by, however, it would slowly end up being Vindicated by History; the original manga has developed a huge following among western manga fans, becoming the best-selling manga in the world, and good word-of-mouth combined with positive reception to the aforementioned Funimation dub has very gradually improved the franchise's standing in the United States. It really helps that One Piece wound up outlasting Naruto and Bleach, both of which faced major Hype Backlash and Seasonal Rot towards their ends, causing many to give One Piece a second chance and be very impressed by what they found. It would even get another chance on Toonami in 2022, being given better odds by starting post-time skip and having two episodes per Saturday night.
  • ONIMAI: I'm Now Your Sister! was not well received when it first aired in 2023 in the west and gained generally negative reviews from both critics and audiences during its original release, due to its gender-bending premise combined with its ecchi elements (which are much more rampant compared the original manga, especially in the first episode) and that put off most people from watching it. However, it became the top-rated anime of its anime season in Japan and was a massive success.
  • While not the juggernaut that the authors' previous works were, Platinum End is still a pretty big seller in Japan. In the West however, despite having an official release and its own pedigree, the series has barely made anything close to a ripple, in major part due to its bleakness and infamous Audience-Alienating Ending (Shuji Nakajima becoming the new God, and then killing himself afterwards, bringing the entire universe with him) turning off potential fans. The rest of the world's anime fanbase reception to both the manga and anime are also equal to the West.
  • Pretty Cure:
    • For a time, the entire franchise was this for the West, and still is to an extent (apart from Italy, that is). To most uneducated anime fans, it was considered one of the typical kid shows always making the top 10 anime shows. That started to change when Futari wa Pretty Cure debuted in Canada with a short-lived yet mostly faithful English dub, and people took interest in a show where Magical Girl Warriors duke it out against evil with Good Old Fisticuffs; the series gained a dedicated Western fanbase when Heartcatch made its way through, due to being subbed alongside its fellow Super Hero Time cousins Kamen Rider Decade and Samurai Sentai Shinkenger. The series was praised for its animation and over-the-top fight scenes that made Shōnen anime look rather shy in comparison, and sparked a Newbie Boom as a result.
    • In the fandom, Japanese fans tend to like all or most of the seasons, but Western fans have very polarized views on two sets of seasons. A person who loves Smile for giving character development to the full cast and most likely hates Doki Doki for focusing almost solely on its lead, while someone who loves Doki Doki for its heavy plot usually hates Smile for its abnormally high amounts of filler episodes. The English-language fandom also had something of an Old Guard Versus New Blood over the Futari wa duology versus Heartcatch, due to the Newbie Boom, but this seems to have settled as the years have gone by.
    • Yes! Pretty Cure 5 is a particularly beloved season in Japan, about on the same level as the original Futari wa, due to introducing the current setup of having a full team of girls rather than a duo with Wonder Twin Powers. Within the Western fanbase, it's considered niche at most; even though it began in 2007, its subs weren't completed until 2014.
      • In terms of specific characters, Coco is the most hated character of the bunch with Western fans. While his friend Natts gets the same flak, newer Precure fans absolutely hate Coco due to the fact that he seems to have a relationship with Nozomi despite being her teacher, thus being involved in a Student/Teacher Romance. While Coco is meant to be seen an older support figure more akin to Mamoru of Sailor Moon, the fact that he's her teacher serves as an uncomfortable reminder that he’s an adult and viewers have gone so far as to stigmatize the idea of him secretly being a groomer. This hatred carried over into Power of Hope ~PreCure Full Bloom~ where these fans wanted the Nozomi/Coco pairing sank and sank hard, which turned into pure anger when the two got married at the end.
    • KiraKira★Pretty Cure à la Mode is another season-specific example of this, while it is a generally contentious season, it was commercially successful compared to Maho Girls and especially Go! Princess and has an active fanbase in Japan compared to its detractors there, the western fans, on the other hand, either were indifferent towards it at best or outright loathed it at worst, mainly due to the lackluster story and writing, poor treatment for the characters (particularly the fan-favorite ones), and especially the total lack of physical action scenes which this franchise have been famous for.
    • The anime still has a hard time reaching mainstream Western viewers. When Glitter Force was added onto Netflix, it was derided by many as a "Sailor Moon knockoff" and the show fell into the Girl-Show Ghetto. Glitter Force Doki Doki was released the following year, but other than a dub of the first season that ended on a Downer Ending no more season have been dubbed. As of late, five seasons are currently available on Crunchyroll (Futari wa, KiraKira★Pretty Cure à la Mode, and simulcasting for Healin' Good♡Pretty Cure, Tropical-Rouge! Pretty Cure and Delicious Party♡Pretty Cure) but anything else remains to be seen.
    • The franchise in general is extremely unknown in Latin America, something strange considering that Latinos love magical girl shows. This is mainly due to the terrible distribution that Toei and Televisa gave Futari wa Pretty Cure in Latin America, since the dub only dubbed the first 26 episodes, and it had originally been announced to premiere on Canal 5 on September 16, 2010 at 07:30am, but the date was postponed multiple times until it was finally released on Galavisión on November 25 at 03:30am, this without prior notice confusing viewers and ruining the ratings of the series. After this, the series ended its broadcasts abruptly on December 21, and after that date it was not broadcast again on any Latin American channel with the exception of ETC in Chile in 2013.note  After this, no other Pretty Cure series was dubbed into Latin American Spanish, with the exception of Glitter Force and Glitter Force Doki Doki, whose dubs are based on Saban Brands English dubs.
  • Puella Magi Madoka Magica:
    • Though the series itself is abnormally popular in the west for a magical girl show, mainly thanks to being a more unique take on the genre, Sayaka is a much more divisive character outside Japan. Though she has quite a few fans in the west, there are more vocal complaints about her storyline and the actions she takes in it, something not helped by her being often positioned opposite Breakout Character Homura. In Japan, she's the most popular character outside of the two main protagonists, while Americans seem to prefer Kyouko (ironically, Kyouko/Sayaka may be more popular than Homura/Madoka in the West, especially after Rebellion).
    • Sayaka's more prominent and heroic role in The Movie boosted her popularity... and Nagisa took her place as Most Hated By Westerners. The hate mainly comes from her being much younger and cutesier than the other characters, and the awkwardness of apparently canonizing the Mami/Charlotte ship with a childlike character (and the fact that she barely had any relevance in the movie proper). It was probably intended as a mother/child relationship, not an underage romance, but in either case it's perceived as Pandering to the Base. The Japanese fans seem unfazed by the cuteness overload.
    • Of the Kirara Magica spinoffs, Mami's Everyday Life was the best-selling of the bunch in Japan, to the point of often featuring on covers of collections and getting prominent placement in ads. In the West, the series is almost universally hated for its very heteronormative take on a franchise that breathes Les Yay, and any announcement relating to it gets a reaction along the lines of "oh god please no." Some torrent collections of Kirara proudly omit it.

    R-Y 
  • Remy: Nobody's Girl was so hated in Japan that the final three episodes never aired on TV and were straight to DVD instead. It has since been Vindicated by History amongst a small group of fans, and Saudi Arabia adores it, and Spacetoon frequently uses the title character as an unofficial mascot on social media because she's that popular.
  • Robotech:
    • Lynn Minmay is loathed primarily for her atrocious dub performance, especially her songs. Her Super Dimension Fortress Macross counterpart, Minmei, is somewhat of a cultural icon in Japan, and Mari Iijima, her voice actress, is a beloved personality and decently-respected singer. Americans' traditional hatred of Minmay got weird when ADV commissioned an English dub of the original Super Dimension Fortress Macross series, and Mari Iijima herself, who had been living in California for years by then, reprised her iconic role for it.note  A few fans still complained, mostly that Iijima's accent stood out among the very American cast.note 
  • Sailor Moon:
    • North American fans hated Rini/Chibi-Usa. However, in Japan, she won the annual character poll in 1993, and in 1994 and 1996 placed second ahead of 51 other characters - meaning she was more popular than almost every other main character. This was partly due to her original portrayal in the DiC English dub that most North American fans are familiar with, which made her far whinier and brattier than she was in the Japanese version. Furthermore, her original voice actress was horribly miscast, which only exacerbated her annoying nature. Notably, her acceptance by North American fans seemed to increase when her original voice actress Tracy Hoyt was replaced with the better-received Stephanie Beard after the show switched from DiC to Cloverway.
    • In contrast, Chibi-Usa is very hated in Latin America as well, despite having an excellent voice actress with a very cute and nice voice, mostly because her early brattinessnote  can't fly so easily on the local expectations of little girl conduct; and by the time her Character Development seated, it coincided with her role as Plucky Comic Relief in S and her close association with the Spotlight Stealing Character Helios in the very disliked season SuperS, which made the fandom unfairly qualify her as "useless".
    • The franchise in general is heavily under-appreciated in South Korea due to believing that it is a knock-off of Wedding Peach (while ironically, Wedding Peach never took off in America due to it being perceived as a ripoff of Sailor Moon). It also didn't help that the Korean dub made by KBS was heavily censored with a lot of changes to the original content.
    • Talking about the history of Sailor Moon in Brazil is complicated. Despite having some loyal fans, the series initially failed due to poor merchandise sales, which led to a period of licensing hell, and all attempts to relaunch it had modest results at best, apart from provoke divisions within their own fans due to the change of voices. It has fans, but it's a niche series at best and never reached the level of popularity of other animes.
    • The series never gained traction in the United Kingdom due to Fox Kids only airing the first two seasons of the first English dub, later cancelling the show outright before the later seasons aired. The anime didn't sell well on VHS and DVD either, nearly leading the distributor MVM to bankruptcy. To this day, the anime remains unlicensed in the country outside of merchandise, manga and Sailor Moon Eternal.
  • Saint Seiya is a very important anime in Japan and is extremely popular in Latin America and Europe. However, in the United States the franchise never caught on and is quite unknown to most Americans today. This is mainly due to the terrible English dub done by DIC Entertainment, where the series was known as "Knights of the Zodiac" and was censored to ridiculous levels, which added to the terrible handling that Cartoon Network gave it made the series a big business failure. Parallel to the DIC dub there was an uncensored dub made by ADV Films, but they only had a limited release on DVD. Finally, in 2019 Creator/Netflix re-dubbed the series, making the franchise a modest success in North America for the first time, but in 2021 the series was removed from the platform.
  • While Shaman King is fairly popular in Japan, its success isn't international.
  • Slayers:
  • The Sonic X character Christopher Thorndyke was well received in Japan but is loathed in North America and Europe due to his dependence on Sonic, playing roles that were given to Tails and Amy in the games, and for having more screen-time than Sonic himself.
  • Soul Eater Not!, while not much of a success in Japan either, was especially hated and given very negative reviews in the west, for being a Slice of Life Moe-pandering prequel to Soul Eater, where the original anime and manga were very popular. The fact that Soul Eater Not! was made over a potential continuation to the original only adds fuel to the fire.
  • Stitch! barely has any fans in the West thanks to the premise of Stitch abandoning Lilo and her family when she goes to college and ending up in Japan. This is seen by many as going against the concept of ʻohana established in Lilo & Stitch and its first TV adaptation. While most of this can be laid at the feet of the English dub (which is infamous for adding a line of exposition to the first episode saying that Stitch left because he was jealous of Lilo's new boyfriend, which is even more contrary to the concept of ʻohana), the concept alone likely would have earned it many haters regardless. Even Pan-Pizza can't defend it despite being a Fandom VIP.
  • Sword Art Online, after the Alicization arc was animated, its popularity noticeably plummeted in East Asia, especially Korea and China, thanks to the largely negative and inaccurate depiction of Koreans (portrayed as dependant on Japanese tech, which is blocked or restricted in universe for Koreans, while in reality the Koreans are guided to not dependant on Japanese imports, to the point of being competitive in tech hardware and software development) and Chinese (only represented as invading brutes). It didn't help that the only named Korean apart from a minor role POV character was the Hispanic-Korean Vassago "POH" Cassals, and later on the voice actress of Alice Synthesis Thirty was, not a year after airing of its last arc, caught in a controversy over visiting the Yasukuni ShrineExplanation, and having her roles scrubbed from games made in China and Korea along with fewer roles for domestically published anime moving forward.
  • While Tamagotchi was well-received in its native Japan, it hasn't made much of a cultural impact internationally. This probably has to do with its cutesy appearance, plus the fact it's aimed at girls. Despite this, it does have a cult following among the English-speaking world, mostly due to its English dub. Another reason could be that more people outside of Asia (especially those in the United States) are more familiar with the virtual pets than the anime.
  • In Tenchi Muyo!, Noike is the most hated character in the western fandom, being seen as a Replacement Scrappy for Kiyone and hated for getting to be Tenchi's fiancee despite the fact that the engagement was a cover so Noike could spy on the household. In Japan, however, her character was better-received, at least particularly due to the doujins and light novels which went deeper into her background, and unfortunately never got an American release.
  • Haruna in To Love Ru. Originally a Scrappy in the first series, she has regained fans in Japan by the time "Darkness" (TLR sequel) comes around. But she's still considered a boring character outside the home country. There, she receives hate due to being the main menace of the Harem Plan being Rito's chosen girl.
  • The intense ship-related hate toward Masaya of Tokyo Mew Mew for which Western fans are infamous doesn't seem to exist at all among Japanese girls; Nakayoshi, in fact, ran a character poll, and he ranked far above Ryou and Quiche.
  • While Tokyo Shinobi Squad was Cut Short after only four months of serialization due to lukewarm reception from Japanese readers, the manga was even less popular among foreign readers due to the main character, Jin, making a speech blaming Tokyo's rapid rise in crime on globalization before his name is even revealed. While this isn't something that would bother Japanese readers due to Japan's extremely restrictive immigration policies long being the norm, to non-Japanese readers this comes across as disturbingly nationalist and xenophobic.
  • In Japan, Toriko was probably one of the most popular Shonens at its peak, almost comparable to the famous One Piece. When it began to make its way to Western shores, many fans were proudly forecasting that it would overtake Bleach and become the next member of the Big Three. However, while few people outright hated the series, it failed to gain any real traction in the West, as by the time it had arrived on the scene, Shonen manga was at a low point in popularity, and existing fans mostly stuck to their old favorites. It has a fanbase, to be sure, but it's a cult following at best compared to a Big Three member on their worst day.
  • Training with Hinako was a genuine hit in Japan, creating two sequels, Sleeping and Bathtime, but anime fans in other countries tend to view the OVAs as creepy and generally pointless fanservice vehicles.
  • Yo Kai Watch was a disaster in the United States and Europe, especially in comparison to Japan, where at its peak it was a top-rated show that went toe-to-toe with Pokémon: The Series in popularity. For comparison, its top-rated episode only grabbed 500,000 viewers in the US, less than half of what a Japanese episode could pull. This likely stemmed from being broadcast on Disney XD, which was often found in the higher channel numbers of your TV provider's lineup (somewhere in the 200s/300s, most often) and hence somewhat obscure. The fact that a Fandom Rivalry formed with Pokémon fans didn't help, nor did the fact that many had hailed the series as a "Pokémon killer." To say that Pokémon fans were less than pleased would be putting it mildly. The series was pulled after three seasons and replaced with Inazuma Eleven: Ares in early 2019.

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