Germans Love David Hasselhoff / Anime & Manga

Sometimes, Japanese-produced animation is more popular overseas than in its native land. Here are some examples of this phenomenon.

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Franchises with their own pages:

• Pokémon

Real Life Examples

In General

• The relative popularity of anime vs. manga in different language regions can qualify:
  • In English-speaking countries, anime is more popular than manga, to the point that franchises such as Naruto, Attack on Titan, and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure got tons more exposure when they were released as anime series. The Chainsaw Man anime, which got a lukewarm reception in Japan, only helped the popularity of the series in the West. The United States has the largest number of anime watchers of any country, and the second-highest percentage by population behind Japan.
  • In French-speaking regions, manga is more popular than anime, to the point that both are colloquially referred to as "mangas". This is especially the case in Quebec, where French-language manga is readily available but French dubs and subs of anime were very hard to come by prior to the rise of streaming, apart from a few nostalgic series such as Captain Harlock (known there as Albator) and Cardcaptor Sakura. Naruto aired for a while there on the French Teletoon, in both censored and uncut versions (just like in Europe), but other anime failed to follow suit. Manga and anime in general are hugely popular in France since the Club Dorothée days, to the point that they have their own festivals dedicated to manga/anime, notably Japan Expo, almost half of comic books printed there are manga, and there are even French artists making comic books and animated series in a similar style to anime and manga. The popularity of manga in France is especially pronounced, with it being the second-largest market outside Japan; anime, while popular in France, doesn't stand out in popularity when compared to other countries.
  • Manga and anime are also very popular in Canada. In French Canada, this is largely due to spillover from France and their own love for the media; Quebec (the French-speaking province) even hosts Otakuthon, one of the most widely-praised anime conventions in Canada. However, this also holds true in English Canada (most of the country), particularly in multicultural urban areas such as Toronto, where there is a large anime fandom presence from both the Occidental Otaku base and immigrants from East Asia; while not the sole factor, many people also grew up with the "Bionix" anime block on YTV where they got acquainted with series such as Inuyasha and Gundam Wing. Anime North, held in west Toronto, is the second-biggest anime convention in all of North America and even attracts visitors from the US and other countries.
  • While anime continues to remain more popular than manga overall, manga has been experiencing a massive boom in popularity in the USA beginning in the mid-to-late 2010s, with several manga — such as My Hero Academia and Demon Slayer — regularly popping up on best-seller charts in the US and often outselling America's domestic comic books.
• During The '90s there was a huge demand for anime in Latin America after the success of mainstream series such as Saint Seiya, Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball. There were therefore many series that received cult status in there, even when they were quite obscure in Japan or the US. These include Irresponsible Captain Tylor, B't X, Hell Teacher Nube, Ghost Sweeper Mikami, and Kishin Douji Zenki. It is especially noticeable in the case of the later show, Koni-Chan. The series is practically unheard-of in Japan, but it's big in Latin America. Try to Google "Koni-Chan", and you are more likely to find the LatAm Dub than the original version. A theory on why anime became huge is due to how similar it is to telenovelas plot- and character-wise.
• Dotto! Koni-chan: The series comes from Japan, but is much more successful in Latin America, especially in Mexico, Chile, Colombia and Argentina. Their localized dub is superlative, turning what Japan considered a rather mediocre Gag Series into a hilariously quotable fan favourite for LatAm fans. For reference, there is more information on the Spanish version of The Other Wiki about this series than on the English and Japanese wiki combined.
• Because Latin America — and Mexico in particular — mainly dealt with European or even Japanese distributors instead of American ones, many shows that where heavily edited in America arrived uncut in Latin America and received red carpet reception over there.^note  It helps that Latin American censorship rules are more lax too The List includes Cardcaptor Sakura, Digimon Adventure, Shaman King, Ojamajo Doremi, and many more.
• Anime in the Arab world has become extremely popular since Spacetoon was launched in the early 2000s, with series like Captain Tsubasa, Hunter × Hunter, and Case Closed being a massive hit with Arab audiences, along with other already successful series globally like Dragon Ball or Naruto. Also the massive amount of anime that was broadcast by Spacetoon allowed relatively obscure series to gain several Arab fans, like Mama Is a Fourth Grader or Baby and Me.
  • Since Spacetoon launched its late night block for teenagers and young adults, Space Power, animes like Black Cat or One Piece get a great reception among the Arab public.
• Many romance anime have a female romantic foil. She's always a close friend, often a Childhood Friend, to the male lead -– unlike the female lead, who enters his life out of nowhere and has a clashing personality -– and is either a tomboy or just less feminine than her rival. This type of character almost never gets the guy in anime, so they're apparently not popular in Japan. But Westerners, especially Americans, adore them, and often resent the female lead for getting in her way, or for being too feminine and/or tsundere compared to their preferred character.
  • The Pet Girl of Sakurasou: Nanami, Sorata's classmate, who's in a similar place in life and becomes his best friend. Bolstered by her many other struggles; she wants to be a voice actor but keeps failing auditions, and her parents aren't exactly supportive. This makes the fact that she doesn't get the guy seem especially unfair.
  • Toradora!: Minori, Genki Girl and softball player. This one has more to do with polarization of Taiga's personality than anything else. Doesn't get the guy, though you could probably guess that from the title.
  • Your Lie in April: Tsubaki, Arima's Childhood Friend, and aggressive member of the baseball team. Arima only ever has eyes for Kaori, but after the latter dies it's implied that Tsubaki might end up with him eventually.
  • The Facebook page dedicated to Tomo-chan Is a Girl! has 60,000 likes as of late November 2018, most of them originating from English-speaking fans; the amount of fanarts of this same manga in online galleries, which correlates with popularity in Japan, barely exceeds the single digits.
• Having a protagonist, supporting character, or even a villain who's a huge musclebound badass is practically a guaranteed ticket to massive popularity for that character or show in the United States. As a general rule, while audiences back home don't mind anime protagonists who are highly androgynous teenage boys or young men, American anime/manga fans greatly prefer their male characters (and to a lesser extent, their female characters) to be tough, hardcore, and MANLY. One need only look at the other shows on this page for examples, like Might Guy, Alex Louis Armstrong, Kamina, Stain, Kenpachi Zaraki, Guts, and pretty much the entire JoJo family line, just to name a few.
• In the 1990s, most of the Polish (younger) audience first encountered anime, namely the series Daimos, Captain Tsubasa, Dash Kappei, Tiger Mask, Majokko Meg-chan and two of the Time Bokan series (Yatterman and Yattodetaman) via Italian-based station Polonia 1. They're still recalled fondly with a trace of nostalgia.
• Argentina and some other countries of Latin America had a LOT of love for 2 Mecha shows that are obscure in Japan and non-existant elsewhere: Albegas and Daltanious. These two shows were planned to be dubbed as part of Voltron in the 80's but got dubs made in Argentina when those deals were off.
• Australia is a region that REALLY loves anime, from 60's era when The Samurai sparked a major interest in Japan, to the modern era where its one of the few regions to air the English dubs of Yu Gi Oh from start to finish. ABC 3 (And its new succesor ABC Me) airs lots of anime that would never see airtime elsewhere even on Toonami on Adult Swim in the USA, like Vampire Knight and Puella Magi Madoka Magica with very little editing for kids.

Genres

• For some reason, a number of Magical Girl shows and old-school shoujo series have done quite well in Europe and Latin America, but are nearly forgotten in their native Japan (due to being a Cyclic Trope) and just can't make it in the US (due to Moral Guardians). Examples range from Majokko Meg-chan, Tokimeki Tonight to more mainstream fare like Sailor Moon and the Pretty Cure franchise (the latter two are popular in Japan, too, though).
• It cannot be overstated how much anime fans in the west love the shōnen genre. The majority of anime popular outside of Japan (Dragon Ball Z, Naruto, One Piece, Attack on Titan, My Hero Academia, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure and so many more) are Shonen, and have more or less defined what "anime" even means to western audiences.
• Not all Europeans like those particular genres of anime and manga, especially when different countries have different morals, but Hentai and Ecchi in general are this in Europe, to point of some adult television channels there even chose to air hentai and ecchi that are raunchier than even AT-X is allowed to. Since nudity (be it sexual or artistic) and erotic literatures and plays were done in Europe since Ancient Greek and Roman times (excluding the Middle Ages), most Europeans are so familiar with nudity (to point of having actual nudist beaches) that neither hentai, nor ecchi got much scrutiny there. Quite an Irony, considering Europe, while having a sizable anime and manga fandom, isn't known for particular vocal anime or manga fandom.
• On a similar note, Seinen shows like Tokyo Ghoul and Hellsing also gained popularity with many of those same audiences due being seen as just "Shonen but edgy" by a lot of western anime fans.

Individual Creators

• Go Nagai's Super Robot anime:
  • Particularly Mazinger Z, Great Mazinger and UFO Robo Grendizer are hugely popular in Spanish-speaking countries and also in Italy. There is even a life-sized replica of Mazinger-Z in an abandoned estate near Tarragona, Spain.
  • Grendizer is also incredibly popular in French-speaking countries, where it's known as Goldorak.
  • It's also popular in Canada (particularly in Quebec and New Brunswick) and in Arabic-speaking countries, many of whom first got the bug from the French translation as they were former French colonial possessions with notable numbers of French speakers. It did get an Arabic dub as well!
  • In the same vein, Kotetsu Jeeg in Japan was just another Humongous Mecha anime created by Nagai, and it never became so popular like his other Humongous Mecha. However, when it was aired in Argentina as El Vengador, it enjoyed instant success and enduring popularity.
  • It was also popular in Italy, enough to be a vital part of a 2015 Italian film entitled They Call Me Jeeg. After Grendizer and Jeeg became hits there, distributors bought the license for every Super Robot show that they could get, resulting in the mecha genre being extremely popular in the country. Particularly popular shows included Great Mazinger (the Italian dub is considered to be Superlative Dubbing), Daitarn 3 (whose Alternative Foreign Theme Song was one of the more well-remembered theme songs there), Daltanious (it was released on DVD a few years before Japan did), Gaiking (which had an Italo-disco opening), Voltron (which was dubbed twice, once uncut as GoLion, and once with the American edits as Voltron) and even the original Mobile Suit Gundam (which was redubbed in 2004 to fix its translation). In fact, some shows with incomplete dubs (most notably Mazinger Z, Gaiking, Getter Robo and Gakeen) had their dubs finished for home video releases. Even Brave Raideen, which was never broadcast in Italy back in the day, received two dubs (one extremely faithful to the original version, and one with heavy Woosleyisms) when it was released on DVD due to it having a cult following in the country.
  • Groizer X is another notable Go Nagai big international hit that didn't get as much love in Japan, especially in South America, where it is known as O Pirata Do Espaco (Brazil) and El Justiciero (Argentina).
• France loves Leiji Matsumoto so much, he's actually a knight there! Before being knighted, he collaborated with French electronica duo Daft Punk (both of whom were fans of Captain Harlock) to create Interstella 5555.
  • The movie Harlock: Space Pirate was a worldwide box office failure, grossing only $18 million against a $30 million budget. It didn't look that way in France and Italy, where it grossed $5.8 million and $6.6 million respectively, which is not only more than in Japan ($4.4 million), but in Italy it is the highest grossing anime movie of all time.
• For a good few years, an anime's popularity in America was directly correlated to whether or not a show was aired on [adult swim], which was Toonami's Spiritual Successor (and even became the home of Toonami after its revival). YuYu Hakusho, The Big O, Eureka Seven, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Fullmetal Alchemist, Cowboy Bebop, Trigun, Paranoia Agent, FLCL, Neon Genesis Evangelion, and Wolf's Rain were major pillars of the American anime community for some time through the late 90s and 2000s. With the shift to online streaming in The New '10s, this trend has fallen off.
• Any anime series aired on Nick Jr. in the early 90s is very popular with people who remember watching them as kids.
• In Indonesia, an obscure mangaka named Ueda Masashi is very popular for his 4-koma gag mangas such as Kariage-kun and Kobo-chan.
• The work of Rumiko Takahashi became wildly popular in the Western world, especially in the United States. During The '90s and the Turn of the Millennium when anime was starting to get attention in America, her works Ranma ½ and Inuyasha were Gateway Series to anime and manga in general. Takahashi, however, has expressed surprise at how Western audiences, especially Americans, love her work so much; she admitted in interviews that she didn't expect foreign audiences to understand all the Japanese cultural references.
  • She's also adored in France and Belgium, to the point that in 2019, she was awarded the Grand Prix de la ville lifetime achievement award by the International Angoulême Comics Festival — making her the second woman and second Japanese person ever to win the almost-exclusively Franco-Belgian award. April 2023 saw her top this by being officially knighted as a chevalier of the French Order of Arts and Letters.
• In recent years, the works of Osamu Tezuka has gained a major following with European audiences (such as Spain and Italy). Most notably France, where Osamu Tezuka is really loved by French audiences due to manga becoming as popular as Franco-Belgian Comics in that country. During Spring 2021, Tezuka Productions announced a 12 volume manga series called Team Phoenix which is an Avengers-style crossover of various Tezuka characters by Spanish artist Kenny Ruiz.
  • Similar to Europe, some of Tezuka's works is also very popular in Mexico and Latin America. In Spanish-speaking countries, Astro Boy and Unico are one of Osamu Tezuka's most popular characters in the Spanish anime and manga community. Especally since the LatAm Dubs for the 1980s Astro Boy anime and Unico (known as "Unico, el pequeño unicornio") has the dub actors putting extra effort into their performances.

Specific examples

#-C

• 3000 Leagues in Search of Mother ended up being very popular in lots of countries (from The Other Wiki). The series was dubbed into several languages and became an instant success in some countries, "traumatizing" kids from many countries like Portugal, Brazil, Spain, Venezuela, Colombia, Germany, Chile, Turkey, Italy, the Arab world and Israel. In Israel it was broadcast as a marathon each and every summer holiday, managing to traumatize enough kids, that at least some of them made parodies of it when they grew up. compare the original to the parody.
• Aikatsu!:
  • Many Western fans love Sumire, to the point where most of them were devastated when she lost the Starlight Queen Cup in episode 176.
  • Aikatsu Stars! flopped in Japan because the target demographic simply couldn't get used to it over the old Aikatsu!, but it has a dedicated Western fanbase. Some of them love its' unique take on the Aikatsu! concept, while a few of them watch the show for the romance elements involving the girls dealing with their feelings for the boy idol group M4.
• The localized versions of the Ai Shite Night anime were quite successful in some European countries; especially in Italy, where it spawned a live action sequel named Love Me Licia that lasted four seasons, had some of the characters' dub actors take the roles of the characters themselves, and the singer of the Italian theme song played the main character — they made her join Bee Hive (her boyfriend's band) as a singer in the show.
• The film versions of AKIRA and Ghost in the Shell are both revered classics in the West, regarded as landmarks in the medium and among the first breakout anime titles to garner critical attention outside of the pre-existing otaku community.
• Astro Boy: Compared to the United States where Astro Boy is almost completely unknown to modern viewers of anime and manga. A large majority of the western fanbase comes from Australians, partly due to being one of the few countries outside Japan that got the 1982 series.
• Astroganger is seen as Bile Fascination in the West because it was made by the same team behind the notoriously bad anime Chargeman Ken!. However, it is one of the most beloved anime series in the Middle East where it's known as Jonker (جونكر). Voice actor Khalid Al Sayed states that Astroganger is the work he's most well-known for. It is also so beloved in Syria that Syrians cried watching the final episode.
• Azuki-chan is generally well-loved in Japan especially among '90s kids, but it also got much bigger love from Taiwan and Indonesia after it was aired in Japan.
• In the wake of Captain Tsubasa, Attacker You!, a 1984 volleyball-themed comedy-drama manga and anime, was so popular in Italy and France, the local dubs were so popular that they single-handedly increased enrollment in girls' school volleyball teams.
• Baccano!'s anime adaptation is much more popular in the States than it is on the other side of the Pacific (in Japan, it did very poorly in ratings and DVD sales). This is due to the fact that it takes place in America, and accurately depicts Depression-era New York City, including an outstanding English dub that used the proper regional accents.
• Bakugan Battle Brawlers as a whole caught on more in North America than it did in Japan, resulting in the creation of Sequel Series Bakugan: New Vestroia, which debuted in Canada and the US far earlier than in Japan.
  • Even so, its success in Belgium is quite a sight to behold. When Cartoon Network (the one that was airing the show in the Benelux went through a period of reformation) VT4 (a network that only airs in Belgium) picked it up and ended up airing it about as much as Pokemon. They have still aired Bakugan: New Vestroia on Summer 2014 (and the fact that they re-aired the show on 2015 just after their attempt to cancel it proves that it will take a long time before they cancel the show for good) and the game is still played there. Then again, seeing as anime rarely made it in Belgium at the point of airing it is not all that surprising.
• Bakuten Shoot Beyblade was so popular in North America (especially in Canada) that Metal Fight Beyblade was produced with Western audiences in mind.
  • One of maybe three Shonen anime series (the other two being Pokémon: The Series and Duel Masters) to be popular in India.
  • The franchise as a whole is HUGE in Latin America, easily on par with Yu-Gi-Oh! not just as an anime but also as a tabletop game.
• The 1979 anime Bannertail: The Adventures of Gray Squirrel was popular in Spain and Germany during the 80s and 90s.
• While it is very well-regarded in Japan, Berserk quickly found an enormous following in the West and especially American audiences. As many other examples on this page prove, Americans seem very receptive to the "darker-than-coal-on-a-moonless-night" tone and the story of a musclebound heavily scarred barbarian slaughtering his way through entire armies of men and demons alike with a sword the size of a helicopter rotor.
• The Big O did poorly in Japan and ended up only making 13 of a planned 26 episodes. However, its overseas popularity was enough that it was Un-Cancelled four years later for another 13 episodes co-produced by Sunrise, Bandai Visual, and Cartoon Network. Keiichi Sato, the show's designer, said this was exactly what he expected.
• Black Torch was only a modest success that was hardly talked about in Japan; in France however, it was one of the best-selling titles of 2018 to the point the author was invited to the 2019 Japan Expo.
• The Cyberpunk manga Blame!, despite receiving a mostly lukewarm reception in Japan, maintains a strong cult following in western countries, notably France and Germany. Tsutomu Nihei (the creator) admits to having been heavily influenced by western styles in the creation of his Manga. The series has even inspired a German Industrial/Electronica band of the same name. When the animated adaptation was released, it was pushed to the largest distribution channel for Western media: Netflix.
• Bleach is popular all over the world. Although America considers it a "Big 3" manga (along with One Piece and Naruto), it's rarely been that in Japan, although it always appears in the top half of the Japanese industry's "top 50 list" of volume sales.
  • For a character example, Toshiro Hitsugaya is regularly in the top three in Japan (a few polls put him at #1); while in North America, he's overall less popular and a sizable portion absolutely hate him. Conversely, Kenpachi Zaraki is extremely popular with many American fans, but only made it as far as 9th in the character polls. Interestingly, Kenpachi is a big, brutish, ugly badass who wins almost all the time, whereas Hitsugaya is a short, cultured, boy genius Bishōnen who jobs almost all the time. Fortunately for fans on both sides of the Pacific, both are apparently well-liked by the creator, as they're two of the most frequently appearing captains.
  • And guess which character is Mexico's favorite? Chad, half-Japanese and half-Mexican, has a big fanbase over there and some of Latin America. In fact, most of the arrancar are loved in Spanish-speaking countries as well, despite being (usually) villains.
  • In Brazil, the most popular character is possibly Kisuke Urahara. People make Urahara-themed hats to sell in the events, and boy, do they sell well.
  • In the villain category, Baraggan Luisenbarn appears to have picked up a sizable American fanbase, as noted on the Bleach character page. This may be similar to Kenpachi's popularity compared to Hitsugaya; like the two heroes, Baraggan is much more evilly bombastic and over-the-top than Aizen, king of Dull Surprise. Having a One-Winged Angel resembling the Grim Reaper and having an incredibly scary ability certainly helps.
  • Shunsui Kyoraku, who just scrapes into the top 20 in Japan, has a fanbase that possibly rivals Kenpachi in America. This is quite ironic, considering the two's personalities are about as different as night and day. Also quite appropriate, when you consider that they embody something that would look meh for Japanese fans, but totally awesome for Americans: MANLINESS.
• Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo was fairly popular in Japan, and has a cult following in most of the west, especially in America. However, Spain positively adores this series (especially the anime), and was dubbed into some local languages there.
• In Hong Kong, A few select Brave Series, as well as the Eldran Trilogy (one of them being Zettai Muteki Raijin-Oh), are fondly remembered there. In fact, most who comment about them on YouTube clips for these series are from those who watched it in Hong Kong (Dubbed in Cantonese of course). The Brave Series, especially Fighbird is fondly remembered in Korea.
• Bubblegum Crisis sold poorly in Japan, resulting it being Cut Short with only 8 of a planned 13 episodes made for OVA series, but was a hit in America.
• Candy♡Candy, an old-school shojo series, is also considered to be a classic in Japan, but in Latin America and in Europe (especially in France, where it is the first shojo to be shown there), the series' fame is enormous and it's fondly remembered by people who grew up watching the series. Same thing happens in Catalonia, everyone knows Candy Candy and everyone loved it.
  • The show also get popularity in Indonesia, even some people are don't know about this anime, but some of them are known this show. It get even has Manga and Yes, the opening and ending song that has been translated to Indonesia are considered memorable by fans.
• The anime adaptation of the Captain Future books was really loved by German (and French) viewers back in the days.
  • Heck, Captain Future is a double-example. Started out as a series of American pulp novels that basically nobody today remembers (and which cost an arm and a leg to get anymore), was adapted into an anime which was then dubbed and broadcasted in France and Germany where it became extremely popular.
  • The German version having a brandnew kickass soundtrack (due to legal issues) probably also helped the series to become so popular.
  • Also reached cult status in Latin America, due to the Mexican Superlative Dubbing and how it was exhibited in The '80s. Now man, MANY adults in their 30s or even 40s still adore it.
  • Many French speakers who grew up in the late '70s-early '80s also have fond memories of it.
• Captain Tsubasa:
  • He tend to be quite popular in Europe, especially in Spain. It helps that Tsubasa himself ends playing on one of the most successful teams in Spain's history: the FC Barcelona "Barça".
  • The anime is very popular in South America. Some professional players even cited the show as the reason why they started playing soccer in the first place.
  • The anime is very popular as well in Indonesia, the people who watched it back when it was airing, still remember the series and the opening themes to this day, as well as all the jokes about how the series can spent an entire episode just for one kick of the ball.
  • Captain Tsubasa, while massively subject to Dub Name Change (it was known there as Olive et Tom), was huge in France too.
  • Under the Dub Name Change of Captain Majid, Tsubasa was beloved throughout the Middle East. Proof? The Japanese Self-Defense Force (during their stay in Iraq), brought fire trucks decorated with Captain Tsubasa. These were left untouched by terrorists during their stay.
  • Captain Tsubasa was also extremely huge in Italy under the Dub Name Change Holly e Benji.
  • Captain Tsubasa was huge in Mexico, but during its heyday in the '90s, nobody would know it by that name. The series is still known mostly by its Dub Name Change Súper Campeones (Super Champions). Notably, the opening credits for the series were the Italian title cards, which means that Mexicans were mostly watching a Japanese series with a Spanish Dub Name Change with the Title Screen showing the Italian Dub Name Change. Ow!
  • Captain Tsubasa was also highly popular among Polish kids in the early nineties.
• Case Closed:
  • Case Closed is very popular in Germany. All movies have been dubbed into German and the anime to around 330+ episodes. The manga is one of the top-selling in the country. The only series it holds a candle to is Doraemon in Indonesia, a country where Detective Conan also happens to be quite popular.
  • The Detective Conan anime is so well-loved by older fans in Chile, that a Chilean cable TV station not only continuosly aired re-runs of the abandoned (for VERY messy reasons) first Latin American Spanish dubs, but purchased the rights to the series and, as of 2014, started to work on dubbing what's left of it...
  • Together with Doraemon and Dragon Ball, Detective Conan is consider the true "Big 3" in Vietnam. You can't go to a book store and not see piles and piles of at least two of them, often all three. This has to do with the fact that they are the first manga to reach Vietnam and thus a big part of the 90s kid childhood.
• Cat's Eye and City Hunter, two series by Tsukasa Hojo, were somewhat popular back in the day in Japan and are considered classics of the Shōnen genre. Yet, their popularity is gigantic in Europe, especially in France, Germany, and Italy. While the former is obscure in the Americas, the latter garnered some fame there, especially in Latin America thanks to it being shown in the now defunct alternative satellite channel Locomotion.
• While the Chainsaw Man manga has been well-received worldwide, its anime adaptation is a different story. It's highly controversial in its native Japan due to various factors, including its "cinematic" animation style, various changes from the manga, and the use of inexperienced voice actors. As the series was very heavily advertised, it suffered from large amounts of Hype Backlash, highly underperformed on Blu-Ray, and even spawned a petition to be completely redone. In the West, however, the Chainsaw Man anime is an absolute phenomenon and is more universally well-received, quickly becoming the "new big thing" in the Occidental Otaku fanbase generating a huge Newbie Boom for the franchise as a whole, and spawning massive numbers of homages, fanart and cosplay. Much like Bleach before it, it's considered one of the new "pillars" of Shonen Jump anime in the US while its situation in Japan is much more questionable. In particular, the "cinematic" style was a huge point of criticism among Japanese fans but is considered one of the show's selling points among Western fans.
• It's an understatement to say how much France loves Chi's Sweet Home being among the first countries to have it published where it received a dub for all seasons, an event that promoted the 2016 series and received French exclusive merchandise.
• CLANNAD was originally released in the U.S. only in a subbed version, but was popular enough for a dub of both the first series and ~After Story~ to be released. Indeed, it's far more popular than the rest of the trilogy in the English-speaking world. There are also a good number of Spanish-language CLANNAD fanfics.
• The Coffin Princess Chaika anime quickly became a cultish Sleeper Hit in America and the overseas anime fandom in general, mostly due to Chaika herself — she comes off as a cute-yet-badass foreigner, a character type that unsurprisingly appeals to non-Japanese anime fans — but also because of the quirky and often brutal fantasy setting. Meanwhile, in Japan... the second season was cut short due to abysmal sales of the first.
• Cooking Master Boy: Many Chinese love it as this manga and an anime adaptation showcase various rare Chinese cuisines. Even someone from China cooks a signature Chinese food from the Signature Scene of the anime (and the ancient recipes of course).
• Corrector Yui received cult status in Latin America, especially in Mexico and Brazil after airings on Cartoon Network. The United States was ripe to receive this show and offer this treatment; but sadly, this case is an aversion because the English DVD release was halted after only half the series was released due to poor promotion resulting in poor sales.
• Cowboy Bebop: Contrary to popular belief, the anime was well-received in its native Japan, but in the West and especially North America, it's one of the most-beloved anime of all time. It's often used as a Gateway Series for people who think all anime is big eyes and giant robots. This is mainly due to all the American movie tropes (especially from Westerns and Noir) used in the series, the acclaimed English dub (to this day often held up as the best anime dub) and the fact that the protagonist isn't a little boy, but a huge badass. It's almost as if it was made for a Western audience.
• Crayon Shin-chan:
  • It was a huge hit in Spain, especially in Catalonia. In fact, in some Spanish regions Shin Chan competed against the main news broadcasts, and won. Some of the movies were screened on cinemas, and even many of the Shin Chan videogames were localized.
  • Both the Crayon Shin-chan manga and anime were popular in Korea and Indonesia, even though in both countries the anime was heavily censored in order to allow kids to watch it. The manga, oddly enough, was not and went without age ratings until the 15 years and up tag was put on the cover several months after broadcast.
  • To an extent, as many other anime series started airing on certain Catalonian local networks, it grew in popularity and aired on several other local networks around the country until it jumped into political ground and was kicked off first from a Madrid local network and then from several other provincial stations. Eventually, the show was sold to and aired by a national network and then its popularity faded… wonder why...
  • One of the reasons for the series' very high popularity in Catalonia might have to do with the fact that the late Yoshito Usui, Shin Chan's creator, became good friends with the Catalan translator, to the point that Usui would vacation in (and have characters visit) Barcelona.
• Creamy Mami, the Magic Angel was successful in Japan for sure, but European viewers went crazy over it. In the 80s, Italian and French little girls were seized with the compulsion to take wooden sticks, lift them and yell an unintelligible incantation in hopes of becoming charismatic older girls.

D-E

• For a character example, Darker than Black's November 11 was more popular in the United States than in Japan.
• Deadman Wonderland: The anime adaptation bombed in Japan, resulting in its cancellation after 12 episodes. In America, however, Deadman Wonderland became a Sleeper Hit and rivaled Bleach as the most watched show on the early days of the revived Toonami block.
• Death Note: Both the anime and manga were well-recieved in Japan when they came out, but after the 2000's, it was mostly forgotten. This is decidedly not the case in the west, primarily in the United States and Canada, where the anime is seen as a Gateway Series into anime as a whole. Bennett the Sage theorises Death Note's international popularity to be due to the universality of its setting, the rise of the internet in everyday life and the western anime fandom, the place the western media landscape was in at the time and the disaffection felt following the 2008 Global Financial Crisis.
  • If we speak about a certain anime faction that can be found in several countries, we can say that cosplayers are in love with the very polemic Misa Amane. Misa's character design is pretty cute and it's actually not that hard to bring to real life in cosplay, so many female (and some male) cosplayers of several nationalities have embraced her. In fact, the model Francesca Dani started as a cosplayer — and one of her signature cosplays is Misa.
• In Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Inosuke has become a greater hit with overseas audiences than with the Japanese fanbase. While he does have many fans in Japan, his popularity isn't as consistently high as other characters in the series. Meanwhile, fandoms in other countries have embraced him much more wholeheartedly; a notable example is how Chileans adopted Inosuke as their mascot during the social movement against president Sebastian Pinera in 2019.
• Deltora Quest: The anime, being based on a bestselling Australian series of fantasy novels, is one of the most popular anime in Australia.
• Digimon:
  • Chiaki J Konaka's influence on the franchise, the Cosmic Horror elements in particular, are received much more favorably in the west than they were in Japan. Tamers reception was decidedly mixed in Japan, compared to its generally favorable reputation in non-Japan Asian countries and the States.
  • The franchise also has a big fandom in Latin America, where the anime is fondly remembered by 90s kids alongside more popular anime like Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball. It helps that the Latin dub was mostly accurate to the original dub and didn't have much of the Gag Dub of the English Dub (they even had the original music and songs from Kouji Wada and co in, which was a godsend for many).
  • Although Digimon is pretty much just a childhood curiosity in current Spain, there was a time at the Turn of the Millennium in which the franchise was a complete juggernaut there, thanks especially to a masterful merchandising campaign, some excellent dubs by distribution company Arait Multimedia, and an uncharacteristically smart broadcasting by RTVE (as well as the effects of The '90s' Mon fad). To illustrate better the point, and in an example of how deep even the mightiest can fall, in the old rivalry between Digimon and Pokémon, the latter was considered the underdog there. According to insiders, no Spanish TV's kids programming has ever come near the share RTVE got back then with Digimon and probably none will ever do.
  • The first season, particularly the first half, has a fairly large cult following in Finland amongst people that grew up during the late '90s and early 2000s, mostly thanks to the unintentionally hilarious dub provided by Agapio Racing Team. The second half of Adventure and first half of 02 are also notable for having a lot of care and effort put into the second Finnish dub, especially in comparison to the original dub.
  • Albeit it has diminished a lot since Frontier season ended, the franchise appears to still have enough followers in Indonesia that the country is one of very few in the world, if not the only, to have dubbed nearly all of the Digimon anime seasons, including even Appmon, which has no signs of getting an English dub. Currently the only season still lacking an Indonesian dub are the 2020 Adventure reboot and Digimon Ghost Game.
  • Digimon Adventure: (2020) didnt impress Japan and was not a hit in USA but was a major sucess in India where it aired on Cartoon Network.
• The Dirty Pair series is very popular in the United States, to point where the movie version become ranked #1 of Animerica's America's top seller charts of July 1994 and was even referenced in some American media such as Star Trek: The Next Generation. They're also got almost all the animated installments dubbed into English (the only other language besides Japanese in most OVAs), albeit they weren't able to get the TV series dubbed until 2021 via Kickstarter campaign due to M&E tracks being somehow misplaced. In that campaign, it was funded after a few days but was able to reach all its stretch goals hours before backing ended.
• Doraemon:
  • While obscure in some Western countries (with its low popularity in the USA and Canada contributing heavily to its lack of presence on American-dominated websites such as TV Tropes), Doraemon is very popular in Portugal, as it has been running for more than a decade non-stop and in the beginning of the 2000s was actually voted the most popular show of the network where it first aired. What may surprise people living outside of Doraemon influential sphere is that it beat stuff that is mainstream in other areas (such as North America), like Sailor Moon. A few of the movies have also been released over there.
  • In fact, it's also one of the most popular anime in Spain. It's been broadcast continuously since the early nineties, sometimes on two or three channels at the same time. In fact, it's usually the most watched show on Boing, Turner's free-TV kids channel.
  • Doraemon was also well-liked in Italy, which was the first western country to adapt the anime. It was one of the few countries where the original 1973 anime was exported.
  • It's also ABSURDLY popular in Indonesia, for starters, it's one of few anime series that is still aired in Indonesia, with Crayon Shin-chan and Dragon Ball also counted for. During school and national holidays, Doraemon movies and anime are always aired regularly alongside newer western animated movies. Lots of merchandise is named after the series. This makes it rather popular amongst old and young children alike, even those that are born long after the initial run.
  • The series is also treated with godlike stature among kids in Indonesia's neighbor Malaysia. And the local TV stations that air the show give the same treatment to the series as the Indonesian TV station does, and that's saying a lot: Said TV station, RTM 1, screws other popular cartoons regularly and Doraemon is one of the channel's long runners. And when the TV station finally dropped the show, it was immediately picked up by the other TV station who likes to screw other popular cartoons regularly, NTV 7, and managed to remain to become one of the channel's long runners as well.^note  This channel aired both the 1979 series and the 2005 reboot. Popular opinion that the show has the best Malay dub in said country ^note Fans of anime (or any animated works in general) in Malaysia tend to lament sub-par dubbing and long-running ones tend to get screwed regularly due to Executive Meddling. Animation Age Ghetto is strong in Malaysia unless it is 3D shows how influential it is there.
  • Doraemon has been hugely popular in Taiwan in the four decades since his introduction, to the point where the titular cat was an unofficial mascot of the country. The first Doraemon theme park was also opened in Taiwan in Taoyuan back in 2010, and he's a mascot for everything from portable electric fans to motor scooters, is a regular sight in the country's famous and widespread convenience stores, and popularized dorayaki (his favorite snack) as a street food.
  • Doraemon is also quite popular in India, where dub is the highest-rated children's show in the country.
  • Sophia from Doraemon: Nobita's Mermaid Legend movie is ironically popular in the West, likely due to many fans comparing her to Ariel from The Little Mermaid (1989).
  • Doraemon is so popular in Malayasia and Singapore that when an English release of Stand by Me Doraemon 2 was announced for those regions by ODEX, Doraemon was one of the top trending tags on Twitter worldwide that day.
• Dragon Ball:
  • In North America, Dragon Ball didn't become popular until the late '90s, and its heyday was in the early 2000s. However, it was mostly Dragon Ball Z that made it big there. The show gave Cartoon Network some of its best ratings ever (with the show playing on the channel for almost 10 years), and spawned a huge merchandising sensation with T-shirts, action figures, gummies, activity books, trading card games, stickers, board games, video games, birthday party supplies, Halloween costumes, home videos, and more, all in mainstream stores, a feat not accomplished by any other anime not named Pokemon. Its popularity continues to this day with its DVD boxsets still on Wal Mart and Target store shelves years after they came out, which is rare for even mainstream American shows, much less a kids' anime. The show's enduring popularity with older teenage/young-adult audiences also helps this (and not just for nostalgia either), to the point that they became the primary American demographic for Dragon Ball down the line and uncensored dubs of the various series are considered "default" and "standard".
  • Dragon Ball GT is also just as popular in the U.S., since it was marketed very carefully, saving the first 15 (unpopular) episodes until the end (with a 20-minute summary covering the story). FUNimation's DBGT DVDs were their #2 selling DVDs in 2013, and a few episodes of the show was even released to Game Boy Player. It also had its own merchandise!
  • The original Dragon Ball's success in the U.S. mostly rides on DBZ's, but it was still a modest hit, got good ratings when it was on, and its DVDs are still among FUNi's most popular.
  • Dragon Ball's popularity in the West is the main reason Dragonball Evolution got made, and the reason that Dragon Ball Z Kai is continuing into the Buu Saga.
  • Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods received a limited theatrical release in the U.S. at about 700 screens, where it had sold-out showings and made $2.5 million at the box office, making it the highest grossing anime movie in the U.S. not released by a major studio.^note 20thCenturyFox's brand and logo were on the film, but it was technically FUNimation and Screen Vision that handled US distribution. It also made $2.4 million in its first week of home video sales. Because of its success, the new DBZ movie could receive an even bigger release.
  • It might be the best selling manga of all time when global sales are added up, but possibly nowhere was it bigger than in Portugal. It was one of the first well-done anime to reach Portuguese television. Every nineties kid watched it (and for some years after too), and at its peak it transcended age and gender. Universities would stop classes because all students would be watching Dragon Ball. Even old ladies would watch it like if it was a soap opera. It should be noted that the Portuguese dub was very special. Many might have called it unprofessional or unfaithful. Most would praise its humor, personality, and randomness.
  • Nobody doubts Dragon Ball Z's popularity in North America… unless you grew up in Latin America, where the popularity and exposure of the LatAm dub absolutely dwarfed the comparatively tiny American fandom (and DBZ is still North America's most popular anime!). In recognition of this, Funimation actually sells the Spanish dub in specialty shops that cater to LatAm immigrants or their kids.
  • Notably, Dragon Ball started showing sometime around 1995-96, quickly growing huge during its run. By the late '90s, most teens in Latin America already knew about Dragon Ball Z but it wouldn't be until 1999 that DBZ would finally air in Latin America. Many kids ended up watching the unsubbed/undubbed OVA and movies in Japanese even if they couldn't understand a thing!
  • Dragon Ball is insanely popular in pretty much all of South America. But special mention must be made of the absurd popularity the franchise has specifically in Mexico, where anything Dragon Ball related is absolutely adored... yes, even Dragon Ball GT. To put into perspective how big the Latino fanbase for Dragon Ball is, just look at how much money Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods makes in South American countries. Keep in mind that Battle of Gods is a short anime movie and had limited screening and it still debuted in some countries as the #1 movie in the box office, and even beat out movies like Flight and Captain Phillips! Needless to say, Dragon Ball has a Latino fanbase so large that only Saint Seiya and maybe Sailor Moon can be brought up in terms of what anime can be considered as to having the largest Latino fandom.
  • Don't forget the rest of Europe, particularly, France, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom. There are surprisingly large fanbases for Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z in those countries still to this day. Mainly due to the fact that Dragon Ball and/or Dragon Ball Z are seen as a Gateway Series for many people in Europe.
  • Dragon Ball is the most notable anime franchise to achieve relevance among general audiences in Hungary. Its initial cancellation sparked a large outcry, and it remained popular despite being off the air in the following decade. Even after the anime market had crashed during the 2010s, certain TV networks decided to reach back to the franchise, producing dubs for Dragon Ball GT and Dragon Ball Super and re-airing Dragon Ball Z because they knew people would watch them. The fact that the franchise is broadcast at all in a media environment that otherwise doesn't see much potential in Asian animated productions is a testament to its popularity.
  • On a character level, Cell. In Japan, he's considered the weakest of the major DBZ villains (behind Frieza and Majin Buu, and not counting Vegeta). In the West, he's easily the most popular. On that same note, the Cell Saga is the most popular story arc in the West, whereas Japanese fans consider it the weakest saga due to Goku being benched through most of it, all the Western media-inspired elements, and perhaps above all how unrelentingly dark in tone it is.^note With that said, that doesn't mean it's not liked, since Japanese fans still like Cell even if not as much as Frieza and Buu, they appreciate some developments like Vegeta becoming a Super Saiyan and Gohan achieving Super Saiyan 2 form, Android 17 and 18 are well-regarded as characters, and Trunks is VERY popular, getting his own TV special, his normal timeline self membership in the main cast of GT, story arc in Super, and prominence in the Xenoverse games.
  • In Mexico, the Dragon Ball Z dub is insanely popular, and the original cast is revered to this day, whatever they said being considered gospel. To put an example, when Dragon Ball Kai was dubbed by a new cast, the ratings plummeted and it was quickly pulled out of circulation, being replaced by Dragon Ball Z re-runs. Much fan outcry lead to the announcement that the WHOLE series (in order to tie-in with the dubbing of the Buu saga) was going to be done by the original cast. Much fan rejoicing happened afterwards. When rumors began to circulate that there was NOT going to be a Dragon Ball Super Latin American dub (or worse, that it was going to be dubbed by the Kai cast) the outcry was so massive that it forced Goku's voice actor, Mario Castañeda, to record a video stating that the original cast was indeed going to dub it. Take into account the anime was not even complete when the dub was announced.
  • And since it bears repeating a final time: In the Super Smash Bros. fandom, demanding the addition of Goku (usually alongside Shrek of all characters) is a common meme parodying frivolous or obscure character requests — since, you know, he's not actually a video game character and therefore has no chance of ever getting in the roster. But when polls were taken of various countries for most-desired newcomers, the winner of the ballot in Latin America was — you guessed it — Goku, and by a pretty big margin, too, having as many votes as #2 and #3 put together. Once again: what qualifies as a stupid troll response in any other country, even its home one, was the most popular response by far in Mexico.
  • On a level within a country, Dragon Ball Z is also known for having an especially large fanbase among black men and teenage boys within the US, with characters from the show often name-dropped in rap songs. A number of black DBZ fans have compared its story, in which an underdog hero rises up to make something of himself after learning about his long-forgotten, super-powered heritage, to the working-class black experience, while also loving it for its over-the-top action and for its emotional earnestness, with frank discussion and exploration of emotion often seen as taboo among young black men.
  • In November 2018, there was the crowning achievement for Dragon Ball in North America: A giant Goku balloon made its appearance in the 92nd Annual Thanksgiving Day Parade, making history as the first anime/manga character to ever appear in a major American holiday celebration! Since 2018, the Goku balloon has been brought back yearly for Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. As many comments have noted, Dragon Ball has officially transcended fandom and made it into mainstream American Pop Culture.
  • While Copy-Vegeta in Dragon Ball Super is considered an uninteresting and lame villain in Japanese version due to being just a Vegeta clone, he is much better received in the English dubbed version due being cast by Brian Drummond, the original voice of Vegeta as a form of Casting Gag, causing a hilarious in-universe example of two Vegeta voices clashing against each other.
• Dragon Half's anime adaptation wasn't very well-received in Japan (the reason only two OVA episodes were made), but its combination of being a quirky take on typical fantasy anime tropes, a total lack of seriousness, and a beloved Good Bad Translation resulted in it becoming a beloved classic in North America. When Seven Seas announced that they licensed the manga, alongside Discotek Media licensing the OVA for a re-release, North American fans were absolutely ecstatic.
• Eat-Man: While it was somewhat popular in Japan, both series got a HUGE fanbase in Argentina, where even the somewhat rare manga got a release, due to both shows running several times on the alternative satellite channel Locomotion. When Locomotion reached Mexico it also got quite popular, although never at the same levels as in Argentina.
• Elfen Lied:
  • The series was so bloody and full of nudity that in Japan it was only allowed to air on midnights on satellite TV, to the point that ratings-wise its only purpose was to advertise the DVD release. In America, the show turned out to be so shocking and spectacular it spread through pure word of mouth from anime club to anime club, which led so many people to buy ADV's DVD release it ended up as one of ADV's top selling series of 2005.
  • It also left a strong impact on Hungarian anime fans, coming out on top of a fan dub poll in the late 2010s, which lead to the production of an unofficial but professionally made, fan-funded dub for a 2020 online release. Notably, it beat Neon Genesis Evangelion among other titles in the poll.

F-G

• Fist of the North Star has a huge following in Italy, where it is known as Ken il guerriero ("Ken the Warrior"). Not only did they get the entire manga translated, it is also the only country in Europe where they got all 152 episodes of the anime TV series dubbed in their language (the French dub only got to Episode 90, and that was mainly a Gag Dub). Due to the franchise's popularity there, the Italian release of Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage has actually gotten plenty of pre-release hype, with a press conference held hosted by Tetsuo Hara (via a video message), an exclusive new cover art (different from the other European releases) and the same pre-order bonuses that were given out in Japan.
• Even the biggest Japanese anime fan probably hasn't seen FLCL and has no idea what the phrase even means. However, thanks to the executives at [adult swim] absolutely adoring the anime, this strange and obscure OVA became a well-acclaimed and beloved staple of the anime community in the West, with the six-episode series going on to heavily influence shows such as Teen Titans (2003) and Avatar: The Last Airbender. The production of two additional seasons almost two decades later is a direct result of the OVAs continued popularity outside its home country, with [adult swim] financing the episodes in a similar manner to the aforementioned The Big O.
• Fullmetal Alchemist:
  • The Fullmetal Alchemist (2003) Pragmatic Adaptation of Fullmetal Alchemist has enjoyed enormous success in the West, serving as one of Funimation's main titles and acting as a Gateway Series for many, many anime viewers. It was successful in Japan as well, but the manga upon which it is based outperformed it considerably. The manga is popular in the West, but only with people who actually read manga, which is already a niche market. And while the more direct manga adaptation Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood was a smash hit with Western anime fans — to the point that the 2003 adaptation has become passe in some fan circles — it never matched the ratings or popularity that its predecessor received with the general public.
  • For a character example we have Maes Hughes, the overprotective doting father who is generally adored in the West, despite his relatively small role compared to other military characters. His death is probably the most iconic tragic end in all of anime, but only to Westerners. His increased amount of scenes in the 2003 anime likely contributed to this.
  • Characters who are renowned most for their badassery, such as King Bradley, Scar or Olivier Mira Armstrong, are naturally appreciated more in the West. Alex Louis Armstrong is loved for being a pile of muscle who's also among the friendliest characters and the largest of hams.
  • Western FMA fans love Greed. Already an impressive Ensemble Dark Horse in the 2003 anime where he has little screentime, he became the most popular homunculus by a wide margin in the manga/Brotherhood fandom and often scores as the most popular character outside the Elrics, Roy and Riza. No surprise as he's a rebellious, hammy, snarky hunky Jerk with a Heart of Gold who becomes an Anti-Hero, and a creative unconventional take on the "deadly sin." While he's a fan-favorite worldwide, he doesn't rank as high in the Eastern fandom where Ling gets more attention of the Greedling duo and Envy is the most popular homunculus.
• Future Boy Conan:
  • It was very popular in the Arab world and still is today. The dubbing was performed by Arab Audio and Video Center, which was based in Kuwait. The cast included a number of Kuwaiti TV stars such as Jassim Al-Nabhan, Ali Al-Mufidi, and others. Conan's name was changed to Adnan, Lana's was changed to Leena, and Jimsy's was changed to Abbsi so that they could have names similar to Arabic names. Unlike most Arabic dubs of anime, Future Boy Conan ​has retained most of its plot details without any altering.
  • It was popular in South Korea and became the favorite anime for South Koreans who attented elementary schools in the early 1980s, especially with the help of the localized opening theme song that has a military band vibe.
• Future GPX Cyber Formula:
  • The anime has gained massive popularity in East Asian countries, such as Hong Kong and Taiwan, in which many fans still fondly remember watching this as children and it led some viewers to watch F1 races themselves when the series first aired in Taiwan.
  • It also gained popularity in Italy, mainly because it is based on Formula One racing where the sport is very popular here, due to racing teams like the legendary Ferrari team.
• Ganbare, Kickers! in Japan was canceled after 26 episodes due to low ratings, because it was simulcast with the more popular Captain Tsubasa, which had a similar plot. However, when it was exported to Europe, the series was a HIT in Germany and Austria, becoming the most popular sports anime in those countries eclipsing Captain Tsubasa.
  • It was also a Major Success in Spain where it is still a beloved series.
• G-Force: Guardians of Space is very much seen as the lesser of the 2 Sandy Frank's Dueling Dubs of Science Ninja Team Gatchaman pretty much everywhere... except Latin America where it got a great dub and is seen as THE version of Gatchaman in the region. By contrast, the more popular Battle of the Planets is very much forgotten and almost lost media in Latin America.
• Genocyber is both infamous and beloved by Brazilians who saw it broadcoast unedited on the "U.S. Manga" block on the TV Manchete network during the 90s/2000s. Children watching got to see one of the most gory, violent anime in history and ended up fascinated, traumatized or both.
• As strange as it may seem, Ghost Stories has real fans in Latin America (where it was known as "Historias de Fantasmas") who enjoy anime in a non-ironic way. Unlike the English Gag Dub, the Latin Spanish dub made in Argentina remained faithful to the original script, but with genuinely good voice acting. Along with that, the series was broadcast on Cartoon Network from 2005 to 2007, becoming part of the childhood of many Latin American kids (and why not say it, traumatizing several with its creepy episodes). It's definitely considered a cult classic.
• Chileans really, really adore Ghost Sweeper Mikami. It was exhibited in the mid-'90s and was so popular that the word "Yokoshima" (alluding to local Butt-Monkey Tadao Yokoshima) made its way in mid-'90s Chilean slang.
• A major example in Japanese animation is Ginga: Nagareboshi Gin (known also as Silver Fang, which may be considered a sort of unofficial English title), which was released in most Nordic countries and Hungary in the 1980s. While this release was dubbed and heavily edited, the series gained notable popularity at least in Finland (and probably at least in Norway, Denmark, and Sweden as well). Eventually the popularity resulted in uncut DVD releases in Finland and Sweden in 2003 and in Denmark and Norway in 2006. In addition to this, the animated adaption of the sequel, Ginga Densetsu Weed was released in both Finland and Sweden in 2006 just months after the series had reached its conclusion in Japan. While both series have been fansubbed in English, neither of them has had any official English release. Finland even went as far as to publish the original manga series translated into Finnish, despite it meaning they had to go through major issues to get the materials for the release and reportedly, some color pages needed to be collected with help of fans.
• Girl Friends (2006) is one of the best known Yuri Genre manga outside of Japan, much loved and praised by fans for being one of the most realistic potrayals of a budding lesbian romance in the genre. Its digital version keeps popping up in the Best Sellers list of J-manga even long after it was first released internationally, and both volumes of its Omnibus collection debuted in the top 10 of the New York Times Best Sellers list for manga. Due to this, it may be surprising to learn that the manga only has a fraction of its international popularity in Japan.
• Anybody remember Goal FH? You might know it as Goleadores instead. It was pretty popular in Latin America around the time of the 1994 FIFA World Cup... perhaps not as popular as Captain Tsubasa, but it's well-remembered. However, outside of Latin America not many people know it. The number of times it is mentioned in this wiki can be counted on one hand and you'd probably still have about four fingers left when you're done counting. It doesn't even have an article (not even a stub) at the English The Other Wiki. Goes way beyond "obscure," more like almost non-existent'', really...
• Gundam:
  • Definitely Mobile Suit Gundam Wing. While certainly not unpopular in Japan, it was the first Gundam work to get any real exposure to the rest of the world, and the combination of action and Bishōnen leads helped it become an international smash hit. Gundam as a franchise eventually dwindled in the overseas markets for varying reasons, which is rather unfortunate since it wasn't until 15 years after the show ended that Sunrise decided to acknowledge Wing's popularity with more sequels and merchandise.
  • After War Gundam X suffered from atrocious ratings in its initial run in Japan, which led to the series getting canned after only thirty-nine episodes, thus making it the shortest Gundam series to be shown on TV (even Mobile Suit Gundam, the only other Gundam series to get the plug pulled from under it, went on for forty-three episodes). However, Western mecha fans very quickly fell in love with the series, despite the lack of a Western localization, and is generally considered a classic in the genre. In fact, this attention, coupled with its appearances in the Super Robot Wars franchise and spinoff manga Under the Moonlight, has led to a reexamination and subsequent vindication by history of the series in Japan.
    • Some of this can be attributed to the Merchandise-Driven nature of the meta-series. Before Bandai America started releasing their own re-branded-for-America kits, most fans who entered into the franchise with Gundam Wing usually found a number of Gundam X models among the wares at import stores. Many young fans had kits like the X Divider and Ashtaron models without ever seeing the show and then sought it out later on.
  • According to the director of Mobile Suit Gundam SEED, he fully anticipated this response to the character Flay Allster and even intended her as the kind that would specifically appeal to Western audiences. Unfortunately for him, something went horribly wrong and she achieved the exact opposite response, becoming very popular with many fans domestically but an object of loathing for many overseas ones.
  • Proportionally speaking, the Master Grade line of Gundam model kits sells incredibly well in Australia.
• The first season of Gunslinger Girl was a modest commercial success and cult hit in the US, even landing a brief stint on cable via the Independent Film Channel. In Japan, where the manga is more popular, the first season was sold as a pack-in bonus for the licensed games.
• Haikara-san ga Tooru: The anime gained popularity in France, Italy and Arabic-speaking countries while it's being largely forgotten in its native country.
• Hamtaro was really popular in Canada, even having exclusive merchandise there such as clothing and a pasta line by Heinz.
• Hana no Ko Lunlun was successful enough in Japan, but its success in France, Latin America, and especially Russia far surpasses that.
• Hajime no Ippo (renamed Knockout) was very popular among Filipinos due to their obsession with boxing which is brought the by international popularity of Manny Pacquiao. Like Slam Dunk, it always get a rerun on GMA.
• The manga series Happy Happy Clover (known as Happy Clover in France) has gained a cult following in France sometime in the mid 2010s. The French translation company "Nobi Nobi" has also made a few posts on the company's Facebook page featuring the characters. The series also has become well-liked by French readers and parents due to the setting and how great the characters are.
• Haruhi Suzumiya: Mikuru comes last in popularity behind the other two girls in Japan. In Spain, this is reversed; Mikuru is either the most popular, or near enough.
• Heidi, Girl of the Alps was aired for first time in Spain in 1975 (renamed Heidi). Nearly forty years later it still enjoys the occasional rerun, and it is still one of the few anime shows (together with Mazinger Z, 3000 Leagues in Search of Mother — a.k.a. Marco — Science Ninja Team Gatchaman, Dragon Ball, Saint Seiya and Captain Tsubasa) that everyone in Spain knows about and recognize by name, even people who are not anime geeks. And "Rottenmeier" has become synonymous with "uptight, straight-laced hag". It is also one of the most popular anime ever in Italy, as it had a huge following between the 70s and early 90s and most Italians who were children at the time remember watching it.
  • Its popularity also reaches to Latin America, where it's similarly loved like Spain, Germany (where it got audioplays and all), Turkey, Greece and even South Africa, where it was a huge hit in the Eighties and its imported Alternative Foreign Theme Song is quite popular with covers.
  • The series is also beloved in Belgium where it gained a CGI reboot by Studio 100, and an entire land in Plopsaland De Panne including a dedicated roller coaster. Heidi and Peter are even meetable characters at Plopsaland and other Plopsa Parks across Belgium.
• Hello! Sandybell:
  • The anime was very popular in France.
  • It was very popular in Sweden, as it was one of the first anime to ever be licensed and dubbed there. It helped shape an entire generation's view of the medium.
  • The anime is also so popular in Hungary that googling it will often lead you to Hungarian-language sites.
  • It aired in Mexico and Cuba during the 80s and is beloved there for nostalgia reasons.
  • Thanks to Superlative Dubbing, the anime was beloved in Arab countries, particularly Syria. Most Syrian children who grew up in The '80s are familiar with the Arabic-dub theme song. The anime is such a significant part of Syrian culture that even The Pianist From Syria mentions◊ it.
  • It is also adored in Romania. It aired there during The '90s, and the French dub was used. Dragon Ball Z, Sailor Moon and Hello! Sandybell were the three major Gateway Series for young Romanians into anime.
• The Hellsing TV series was so popular in America that they're the primary reason Geneon produced the Hellsing Ultimate OVAs, a more faithful adaptation of the Hellsing manga.
• Hetalia: Axis Powers:
  • Combined some with Mexicans Love Speedy Gonzales due to its use of National Stereotypes, if a fan is from a country represented by a nation-tan character in canon, chances are very good that nation-tan will be said fan's favorite character — hence why America and Canada are much more popular in Western fandom than in Japanese fandom. The popularity of some pairings also tend to fluctuate from fandom to fandom; Prussia/Canada is almost nonexistent in Japanese fandom but very popular in Western fandom, and vice versa with most Japan pairings. Additionally, France/England appears to be more popular among fans from the UK than America/England, the most popular pairing in both American fandom and just behind England/Japan in the Japanese fandom, and Russia/China is hugely popular with, you guessed it, the Russians and Chinese.
  • The Hetalia fandom, it its heyday, was the anime fandom amongst female Western anime fans, particularly those in the slash and cosplay scenes. It received insane amounts of fanworks and was one of the biggest cosplay subjects at conventions for years.
• Hi Fi Cluster struggled in the rankings in Weekly Shonen Jump in Japan. In the English-speaking world, however, it received enough votes to make it a permanent part of the English Shonen Jump. Unfortunately, this didn't save the manga from being Cut Short after only 21 chapters.
• A downplayed example: in France, High School! Kimengumi is sometimes mentioned in the same breath as other 1990's anime series like Dragon Ball Z or Sailor Moon, thanks to its Club Dorothée adaptation during that era (locally, it was known as Le collège fou fou fou). If you're English-speaking, chances are that you never ever heard of it, except possibly as a bit of trivia, or if you're a hardcore fan of old-school anime with No Export for You.
• Hikari no Densetsu is a popular Shōjo manga about rhythmic gymnastics in Japan during the mid 1980s. Despite its high production values (being produced by Tatsunoko Production, the same anime studio that produced Speed Racer, mentioned below), the anime adaptation was a huge flop in its native country and was Cut Short after only 19 episodes. But in Italy, where the series was renamed Hilary, the anime was extremely popular and still is to this day; they even released the manga there. The anime series also gained popularity in France, Spain and Germany.
• His and Her Circumstances became a popular school drama anime in Korea as the Japanese high school environment in the story was received pretty well for the Korean audience despite the general ban of Japanese pop culture in the late 1990s.^note This was the time when Japanese anime automatically meant hentai among Korean adults. Its popularity in Korea became noticeable as a teen anime with quality localization without any erotic context. The Korean cable TV channel for cartoons, Tooniverse, created a whole new opening theme song that became the milestone achievement for Korean anime fans, while KBS adapted the original opening and ending theme songs with faithful Korean translations.
• Hunter × Hunter: Whether the 1999 or 2011 anime adaptation is more well-known varies by region. To compare: In Japan, the 1999 anime's popularity is modest compared to the 2011 anime:
  • The '99 anime is very popular in Latin America (where it aired on the channel Locomotion in the 2000s) and Arabia (where it aired on Spacetoon), to the point that YouTube searches often bring up the Latino or Arabic dubs and many comments on HxH related videos being from Latin users. It is also considered one of the most memorable anime in Indonesia. Particularly for its well dubbed opening. Some even consider the new openings still can't hold a candle to it.
  • Filipinos also remember the 1999 anime very well. It might not be a surprise, considering how Yoshihiro Togashi's other major work, YuYu Hakusho, is beloved there as well.
  • In the United States, however, the 2011 series has become a darling of anime fans and reviewers alike, being praised for its writing, characters, animation, and pacing. So popular is it, that Toonami is currently airing the English dub.
• Honoo no Toukyuuji: Dodge Danpei is popular in Korea, where it's known as Dodgeball King Tongki (피구왕 통키).

H-M

• Honoo no Alpen Rose: The series was very popular in Italy and the Middle East, as opposed to its lack of success in Japan.
  • It even received a second dub in Italy as the first one was heavily bowdlerised, removing all references to World War II as well as some....intimate scenes between Jeudi and Lundi.
  • In France, the anime received mild success because it was part of many childhoods during The '80s.
  • In the Arab world, it was one of the first Shōjo anime ever shown (the other being Lady!!), and the theme of Jeudi reuniting with the Brandels and saving them from the Toulonchamps particularly resonated with a lot of Arabs, since in their culture family is highly respected. It's so popular that many Arab fan-sub groups work to keep it's legacy alive.
• Huckleberry Finn Monogatari is mostly obscure in its native country of Japan, but in Italy, it has found some success under the title Il mio amico Huck. In fact, in Italy, the series aired a full two years before it aired in Japan.
• Idol Densetsu Eriko is a lot more well known in the Arab World since it was aired on Space Toon, and also hired well known Arabic singers to dub over Eriko and Rei's idol songs. Outside of Japan^note Where the anime was so successful it warranted a sequel series, the Middle East is the only place where it's remembered fondly.
• The obscure ninja-themed comedic anime Igano Kabamaru is basically forgotten, but it gained cult status in Greece and Arabic countries, of all places.
• Inuyasha:
  • Both the manga and the anime became very popular in North America during the early to mid 2000s; the series' Estrogen Brigade in North America is also much larger than its intended audience of teenage boys, and it was once considered the most popular girls' anime, matched only by Sailor Moon. The anime is particularly popular in Canada, as it and Gundam Wing helped kick off the airing of teen-oriented anime on the YTV network, and it helps that both shows were dubbed in English by The Ocean Group, which is a Canadian company based in Vancouver.
  • Is absurdly popular in Latin America, people of all ages enjoyed it, marking the childhood or adolescence of many and it is one of the main references when it comes to talking about anime, apart from being a mandatory cosplay at any convention and being an immense source of fanfics. This is not surprising, considering that another previous work by Rumiko Takahashi also became extremely popular there.
  • The anime is very popular in Vietnam as chances you would see comments from Vietnamese speakers are high in the internet, and to the point the OST is also used in Vietnamese media and films (though it probably doesn't include credit and permission however).
• Jeanie With The Light Brown Hair, an anime based on the life and music of Stephen Foster, was a genuine failure in Japan, yet the reality is reversed in Italy. OH BOY this anime was a big success with Italians (though not at the level of some anime). It was also popular in the Arab world for a while, too.
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
  • While mostly overshadowed by the later parts of the series in Japan due to being before Stands and featuring a completely non-Japanese main character at a time when such was viewed as anathema, Part 2 is widely considered to be one of the best by JoJo fans outside Japan, who enjoy its protagonist's absurd levels of Hot-Blooded and Crazy Is Cool. In fact, Joseph being regarded as the best main character is one of the few things that the English-speaking fandom can come close to a consensus on. Some Stupid Sexy Flanders may or may not also be involved with Part 2's popularity, what with all the memetic degree of Macho Camp and Ho Yay / LGBT Fanbase resulting from having the testosterone-enriched equivalent of a Cast Full of Pretty Boys, plus all the hilariously oversexualized male designs and fabulous posing involved. A major part of this is that the anime adaptations of Parts 1 and 2 were made with an awareness that they were relatively less popular, and so the creators set out to improve them—the shaky and frequently Off-Model early artwork was replaced with high-quality animation, the pacing was significantly tightened, with more extraneous scenes being cut or altered, and so on—while also wrapping up their combined plots in a scant 24 episodes. Conversely, later Parts tended to stick as close to the manga as possible, which was especially visible in the adaptation of Part 3 (traditionally the most popular Part), and led to them often absorbing the flaws of their original stories.
  • Until the 2012 anime adaptation, Italy was the only western country where it attained significant popularity. The series has a strong cult following around the world though. 1/5 of the cast is Italian and one of the 8 parts takes place in Italy. Italians love JoJo, and JoJo returns the favor.
  • Meanwhile, the French are big fans of the series as a whole, despite the first translation being by editor J'ai Lu (who was notoriously bad with its manga imprint, not only having usually borderline blind idiot translations, but also using extremely cheap paper and ink). Araki was even invited to do a fine arts exhibition in 2009 at the Louvre (which houses the Mona Lisa as well as countless other priceless works of art).
  • The 2010s adaptations have caught on like wildfire among anime fans in the US and UK, partially due to being set in a World of Ham and the massive amount of Narm Charm that comes with it. In fact, this sudden burst of popularity not only led to many new memes being created ("It was I, Dio!" and parodies of the "To Be Continued" format are among the more popular ones), but the show being aired on Toonami.
  • In the era of Stands, Diamond is Unbreakable is considered to be the series' border Dork Age in Japan following the beloved Stardust Crusaders, but in the west this is reversed, with Jotaro being considered a '90s Anti-Hero compared to the more sympathetic Josuke.
  • Of course, in Japan the most popular arc is the Italian tour that is Golden Wind. Most of the western fans never grew fond of this arc before the anime in 2018, partly because of the Japanese-to-Chinese-to-English fan translation of the manga that plagued the internet for years, which is more well known for being the "Duwang" scans of Diamond is Unbreakable.
• Although Junjou Romantica is by no means lacking in popularity, there is a significant amount of Western fans who enjoy the Egoist storyline and avidly dislike the rest of the manga.
• Karakuri Circus was not too shabby in Japan, but when its French publisher stopped it, French manga fans on the Internet went utterly bonkers.
• Kaze no Shōjo Emily is very popular amongst Arabs, received a fan made Arab-language Compilation Movie and was many Arab children's introduction to Emily of New Moon.
• Kimagure Orange Road has a huge fanbase in Spain, it is one of the famous "Telecinco anime" that aired during the golden age of anime in Spain and it has two dubs, both are very well done but it had to be redubbed because the old dub used name changes from the Italian dub where it was also very popular.
• Kill la Kill, which has been given tons of attention in the US and the UK, partly because Mr. Hiroyuki Imaishi himself supervised it. Let's just say that after the smashing success of Gurren Lagann and Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt, Imaishi is revered to godlike levels in the States.
  • Character wise, there's Kaneo Takarada, a one-off antagonist who pretty much owns Osaka and literally fights with cash. He became quite popular with Western audiences, some of whom proclaimed him to be the "King of Dosh" or the "Lord of Capitalism" or other such epithets. Studio Trigger admitted to being very confused by this.
• Despite controversy, with Kimba fans accusing Disney's The Lion King for ripping it off. Kimba the White Lion has gained a large following with Americans audiences, due to being one of the very first anime to hit the western market. Alongside being one of the earliest English dubs of Japanese anime alongside Astro Boy and Speed Racer.
• The anime of Kinnikuman Nisei in North America, where it was called Ultimate Muscle, so much so that 4Kids bought two additional seasons. In Japan, the series flopped due to a controversy over the recasting of Kinnikuman.
  • The original Kinnikuman had a cult following in Catalonia, where all 137 episodes were dubbed in Catalan. This was the only country that finished their Kinnikuman dub. (France bailed out around 57 due to Brocken Jr.)
• Kocchi Muite Miiko is incredibly popular in Indonesia under the title Hai, Miiko!, to the point where in 2013, Ono Eriko herself went to Jakarta for a meet-and-greet event — even she is astonished at how well-received the series is in Indonesia.
• While Kodocha was popular in Japan, Italy went nuts for this anime. It is named Rossana there ^note In Italy, they used to rename characters with western names to make them more appealing to the audience as Japanese culture was still new for the common viewer and its popularity was enormous! On Wikipedia, the Italian page is twice as long as the English or Japanese ones and even the main characters have their own separate pages, and the Italian dub is one of the very few to have all the episodes dubbed in Italian. It was also one of Italia 1's most popular anime.
• Komi Can't Communicate popularity in Mexico reached such a level that appeared in official school books.
• Lady!!:
  • Lady Lady! and its sequel Hello Lady Lynn are very popular in European countries, especially in France and Spain. Yoko Hanabusa even appears at cons in France.
  • The anime is also so popular in Italy that in May 2023, 35 years after it aired in the country for the first time, Italia 1 broadcasted a remastered version of the Italian dub. It even recieved an Italian comic independent of the manga.
  • The Gulf States/Middle East's favourite shojo anime to this day. It was especially popular in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Egypt, and is still well known there years after it's initial airing. As a Fandom Nod, Yōko Hanabusa introduced an original Arab character in the sequel manga.
• La Seine No Hoshi: The anime is well-loved in Italy's Shōjo fandom. It aired during a time where most Shōjo shows were Schoolgirl Series and Slice of Life, so an action-packed Superheroine Story was a breath of fresh air and received warmly.
  • The anime was so popular that it in February 1984, it received an Italian◊ comic◊ adaptation◊ (different from the Japanese one) in Corriere dei Piccoli.
  • Even the most popular YouTube videos of the anime are in Italian or use its Italian name, La Leggenda della Stella della Senna.
• Legend of Heavenly Sphere Shurato is a fairly obscure series in Japan, owing to the fact that it was basically Saint Seiya with a Hindu Mythology spin. In Brazil, however, it became a Cult Classic as it was shown in the country during the 90s anime boom there — and on the same channel that aired Saint Seiya, no less!
• Little Pollon: Olympus no Polon was a comedic manga that spoofed Classical Mythology, which spawned in the early Eighties an anime series, "Ochamegami Monogatari Kolokolo Polon". "Pollon" is obscure in its home country and almost everywhere else, but in Italy was renamed C'era una volta... Pollon ("Once Upon A Time... Pollon'') and gained a strong following that more or less goes on to this day: it is considered a prominent example of kids' programmes in the '80s, and they even got to publish an Italian version of the decades-old original manga!
• Studio TRIGGER hit this trope again with Little Witch Academia. This OVA's American-styled coming-of-age adventure story, thematic similarity to Harry Potter, and high-quality animation made it an instant hit in the US when it streamed on Crunchyroll. A Kickstarter campaign to fund a sequel made over 4 times its $150,000 goal, from almost entirely English-speaking fans. Trigger really needed that money, because the Japanese fans hadn't given them much.
• The anime Lucy-May of the Southern Rainbow is obscure in most parts of the world. But people in Iran LOVE this anime where it was known as "The Immigrants" (مهاجران). It's the reason many Iranians know about Australia, since it's about a British family that arrives there through ship.
• Lupin III:
  • No one doubts the franchise is popular in its native Japan –- after all, it's been around for over 50 years -– but its popularity in Italy is downright legendary. For more concrete examples…
    • Italy was the only country other than Japan to see a legal release of the original series prior to 2013. They've also put out more of the annual specials than any other country.
    • There's a way of holding a cigarette in one's mouth at an angle that Italian slang calls "Jigen-style".
    • Italy aired Lupin III: The Italian Adventure before it aired in Japan due to its large fanbase, and yes, it's set in Italy.
  • In the Philippines, it was such a mainstream crossover hit with normally non-anime-watching demographics that it was even remade as a short-lived licensed live-action primetime series. It's one of the only places to see a release of the Japanese live-action movie Strange Psychokinetic Strategy.
• MD Geist:
  • In an interview, Hironobu Kageyama said this:
    Kageyama: Last year, I realized that the show’s preferences between American fans and Japanese fans are different. I realized this during a panel at Otakon. An American fan asked us a question about “MD Geist” which I sang a song for. That was a show that couldn’t draw any attention from Japanese fans at all. [laughs]
  • Of course, American fans' love may not be for the reasons he thinks... Or maybe it is.
• Macross II, as the only entry in the Macross franchise not to have significant involvement from the original creative team, has been mostly shuffled aside and ignored in Japan. In North America, however, it happens to be one of only two Macross sequels to avoid No Export for You status^note  (the other one was Macross Plus) and it was popular enough to get a series of RPG books and an English-language manga sequel.
• The rather obscure super robot anime Mado King Granzort was a staple of many childhoods during the 90s in Serbia, of all places. It turned out to be a welcome answer to the mecha itch started by the American versions of mecha anime like Robotech, Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs and Voltron, even airing in the original Japanese with subtitles. More mecha anime followed on the channel that originally broadcast Granzort, 3K - the third channel of the public broadcaster RTS (including some pretty well known OVA cult classics like Gall Force) but none of them were as well remembered as Granzort was.
• Magical Doremi is big in Taiwan, to the point where the show still airs to this day on various kids' channels alongside newer kids' productions. Merchandise of the show was also being sold as late as 2012.
  • The show is extremely popular in the Middle East, which dubbed three out of the four seasons. The opening theme (Which is the ending theme in the Japanese version) is one of the most iconic Arabic Anime openings.
  • Spain also loved the show a lot, dubbing all the seasons except the Naisho OVA and having a very faithful and well done dub.
• The anime adaptation of Major was first noticed in the West in 2013 in the wake of the 2012 World Series victory of the San Francisco Giants in Major League Baseball (the series being a baseball-themed anime), wherein an anime fan who loves the Giants created a custom series opening using one of the series' theme songs (it would be repeated in 2015, following the World Series win of the Giants the year before). But it's in the Philippines — predominately a basketball-obsessed country — that has one of the biggest fan bases, with Facebook fan groups discussing not just the series and its characters but also baseball in general, since it was picked up as one of the anime series shown on digital TV channel Yey! as part of its anime programming block. If one checks each of the online fan groups, chances are one might notice the pictures of some or many of those who have watched it who are now part of community youth and school baseball teams as a result of watching this series, a catalyst of an ongoing national revival of this sport, the first to be introduced to the country by the Americans, after years of inactivity.
• Mama Is a Fourth Grader is huge in Arabic countries despite the changes they made in their dub (for example, Mirai being Natsumi's sister from another planet instead of her future daughter). It's more popular in the Middle East than the rest of the world.
• Maple Town:
  • While the series is forgotten in some parts of Europe and the United States, the series is very popular and beloved in Spain (known as La aldea del Arce). Spain is also one of the few countries that has been able to gain a home video release of the series on both DVD and VHS◊. In Spain, the anime gained a complete DVD set, unlike other countries. Some Patty and Bobby figurines were also exclusively made in Spain◊.
  • Maple Town is also beloved in France, the Netherlands, Germany, and Belgium.
• Maya the Bee:
  • The series is very popular in both Germany (its native country) and Latin America. It's also quite well-loved in Chile and Belgium (which currently holds the rights to the franchise).
  • And Spain became very popular. Actually it is one of the few series (together with Heidi, Girl of the Alps, Mazinger Z, 3000 Leagues in Search of Mother — a. k. a. Marco — Science Ninja Team Gatchaman, Dragon Ball, Saint Seiya and Captain Tsubasa) that everybody knows of, including non-anime geeks.
  • The series is HUGE in Poland to the point that Maya's polish actress (Ewa Złotowska) made cover songs (Mostly polish children's songs) sang by Maya herself in 2013. Studio 100's newest indoor theme park was even called "Majaland Kownaty" which opened on September 29, 2018 in Poland. Polish singing group "Akcent" made a song called "Pszczółka Maja" which became very popular at teen/adult clubs, while Polish music group Amadeo made a remix of the show's theme song. The franchise also has a very dedicated adult fanbase in the country.
  • The series has been enjoying popularity in Greece since the early 2000s when Modern Times bought the distribution rights to it, getting many books and DVDs, the theme song being featured in "Children's TV Favorites" CDs (as well as an instrumental karaoke version) and being one of the company's biggest franchises in general.
• Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch: The Anime adaptation has a surprising number of fans in the West, which begs the question why no TV station wants to air the show.
• Mitsudomoe flopped miserably in Japan (to the point that its 2nd season was cut down to 8 episodes) but managed to gain an impressive following in the US where it's considered a great comedy.
• Mizuiro Jidai was kind of a failure in Japan but the anime was quite popular in Italy, where it was broadcast once in early 2000s. Around 75% of videos of the anime on the net are in Italian. The main reason is, probably, the media uproar that went out after an episode about the main character having her first period was heavily edited so her issue was a nightmare she had last night, with subsequent complaining from a lot of people.
• Fujiko F. Fujio's Mojacko is somewhat average in Japan and is obscure in the West, but is very popular in the Philippines when it was aired in the late nineties that it was regularly rerun. The most likely explanation is the slapstick hijinks and adopting Filipino pop-culture references to the dub. This caused people to think that Doraemon which was aired shortly after as a ripoff of Mojacko, but it did help paving the way for Doraemon's own fanbase in the Philippines, also large in its own right.
• Monster Musume is a modest success in Japan, but in the US it climbed 13 times the New York Times' manga best seller lists, going head-to-head with such juggernauts as One Piece, Naruto and Attack on Titan and sometimes coming on top! Not bad for a raunchy harem comedy starring monster girls made by some dude from Pixiv who was a former hentai artist.
• Moomin (1990) is quite popular in the Nordic countries and Poland. It's still airing in Finland as of March 2024, albeit on a different network. It also aired in Norway from 1993 to at least May 2014.
  • Granted that the Moomins are a Finnish creation and have always been popular there, starting from the very first comics. As for Poland, they actually had their own stop-motion series back in the day.
  • It was also very popular in the former Yugoslav countries, where the series is far more likely to be recalled if one were to ask about "Mumijevi" (the name for the dub, which had to be changed from the more obvious "Muminovi" to avoid negative connotations surrounding Muslims in the aftermath of the Yugoslav War when the dub was recorded) than the novels.
• While it's had plenty of success in Japan, American fans embraced My Hero Academia even more, with the series becoming a staple of American anime fandom more or less as soon as the anime made its debut. It's also much more of a critical darling in America. While it's seen as a fairly ordinary shonen series in Japan, western critics see it as a fresh and unconventional take on superheroes. It probably helps that the series is a distinctly Japanese take on a distinctly American premise.

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• Naruto:
  • Since the English translation of the manga debuted in 2005, it has pretty consistently been the most popular Japanese comic in America, necessitating American fans to coin the term "Big Three" to refer to it, Bleach, and One Piece^† (this one wasn't actually very popular with the American buying public at the time due to a backlash against the 4Kids dub of the anime, as well as the manga's ill-advised decision to change a major character's name to fit that dub's continuity, but it was THE most popular one in scanslation circles; once 4Kids lost the anime to Funimation, sales of the manga picked up noticeably). Only nine years later, as the series neared its end, did any other series^note  (specifically, Attack on Titan) come close to consistently knocking it from the top of the New York Times Bestseller List. In Japan, while the series is far from obscure, it's never sold anywhere near as well as One Piece.
  • Character Examples:
    • Sasuke Uchiha is a Base-Breaking Character in the Western fandom with a tendency to be outright hated more than loved, but the Japanese are quite fond of him (more with female fans — due to shipping and enjoying his dark yet handsome concept — than male fans, who ironically share the same level of contempt for Sasuke as the West). The situation is completely reversed with Sai, who fares as a significantly less liked character in Japan than in the Western fandom.
    • Kabuto and Orochimaru are also more well liked in the West (where they're generally regarded as more interesting villains than the actual Big Bad) than they are in Japan.
    • Might Guy (or "Maito Gai") is mostly ignored by the Japanese fanbase, whereas in America he's become one of the most popular characters in the series. This is likely due to him being very manly, which appeals much more to the western fanbase than back home.
• While Negima! Magister Negi Magi is fairly popular in Japan, it's also one of the best-selling manga in America and one of the few that can put a dent in Naruto's numbers.
• Among the female pilots of Neon Genesis Evangelion, fiery, outspoken, and aggressive Asuka Langley Soryu has traditionally been embraced by Western fans far more than the taciturn, quiet, and repressed Rei Ayanami... whereas in Japan the opposite is true (though Rei is still quite popular in the US and Asuka very popular in Japan, too; it's just a case of one edging out the other). If it ever came down to female protagonists in general for a western audience, the winner would go to Misato Katsuragi, especially for her being portrayed as an adult working woman with relatable quirks, including things such as an active romantic life and a love for alcohol. The characters' difference in reception between regions has been so significant that even Word of God has commented on it.
• The 1980s version of New Tetsujin-28 is immensely popular with Arabs, which is evident from all the videos on YouTube having comments in Arabic.
• The Fujiko Fujio series, Ninja Hattori-kun was successful back in the day in Japan, but once it ended, it faded into obscurity. But in India, the show is so popular that it led to the reboot of this series as a joint venture between India and Japan — namely for the Indian feed of Nickelodeon.
• Ninja Senshi Tobikage: In its English dub format, Ninja Robots, was briefly very popular in India, and has its share of fans in Australia. In its Spanish dub format, Robots Ninja, was also briefly popular in Mexico thanks to it being shown right before Dragon Ball Z for a couple of months. However, it has remained a bit obscure ever since, its only attempted rerun ending in disaster, being cut short after only three episodes.
• Nintama Rantarou is quite popular in Spain (one of the few countries outside of Asia to broadcast the series) and has been dubbed into various regional languages such as Catalan, Basque, Galician, Valencian and Balearic.
• Nobody's Girl Remi was a huge failure in Japan and was credited to have nearly killed the World Masterpiece Theater series, but found success in Latin America, where it received a superlative Mexican dub and is remembered quite fondly there. It is also very familiar to French speakers. It enjoyed a modicum of success in Indonesia, partially due to (or perhaps despite) its 3D feature.
  • The original Ie Naki Ko Remi anime, unrelated to the WMT (though sometimes mistaken as a part of it) and aired in 1977-1978, was and still is adored in Latin America. Among certain older demographics, the most climactic events of the story (such as the death of Mr. Vitalis, as well as his animals, and Remi meeting his mother are so well-known, quoted, and referenced, they are downright memetic. Singing the ED theme ("Tun-tun-tun-tun, caminar, tun-tun-tun-tun a correr!") is basically a shibboleth among Mexican Gen-Xers.
• No Matter How I Look at It, It's You Guys' Fault I'm Not Popular!, a 2011 obscure web-published manga about a socially-awkward girl cluelessly trying to become more sociable and popular. /a/ was single-handedly responsible for making it popular outside of Japan. It has led to an interesting phenomenon where many people went to Japan and bought the paper copies of the 1st volume (without knowing the language) just to support the author.^note  The manga is first published in a free-access web anthology. Even in the cover the overseas fanbase is acknowledged, talking about its popularity on "the English-speaking 2ch". In fact the authors has stated it was no other than 4chan that saved the entire series from being Cut Short due to poor sales.
• Omamori Himari is obscure in Japan, reaching average rankings on the Oricon charts, it was a huge Sleeper Hit in North America, with some volumes being featured on The New York Times Manga Best Seller List on their first week of sales. Volume 0 took this trope up to eleven when it toppled Long Runner One Piece and close-to-long-runner Fairy Tail on its first week! The numbers don't lie! It was even one ranking short of toppling Sailor Moon!
• One-Punch Man is already quite popular back in Japan, however its popularity in the west has outright exploded, especially with the release of the anime, due to a combination of both Hot-Blooded themes and satire on over-the-top Shonen Manga, yet still being an Affectionate Parody, being anticipated to be one of the biggest hits since Attack on Titan. The amazing animated anime adaptation has helped the Western fandom grow even further. The second season's switch from Madhouse to J.C. Staff has stunted its popularity a bit, however; and the fact that this studio swap occurred gives some evidence of its large gap in popularity between the west and Japan.
• One Stormy Night: The film has gained a cult following with the LGBT community in western countries, especially in the US. The film gained very positive reactions and reviews with the gay community in the western anime community. Some really admired how charming the relationship between Mei and Gabu was in the film, along with the fact that Arashi No Yoru Ni is as close as an animated children's film can get to having a positive depiction of a gay relationship between two male protagonists.
• Japanese fans (and the creators) have pretty much forgotten about Outlaw Star and while it's not as popular as its fellow Space Westerns Cowboy Bebop and Trigun, it is still well-known in the United States, airing on [adult swim], and getting multiple re-releases right up until the 2012 death of Bandai's American branch. One theory why it's so popular is that the premise is basically the anime version of Firefly (which came later; the similarities are so great that fans have repeatedly asked Joss Whedon about it). Having a kickass intro doesn't hurt, either. Here's a more detailed analysis.
• Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt was a flop in its native country of Japan, but North America gave it plenty of attention. Americans found Panty's and Stocking's rude, crude, and openly-sexual behavior refreshing in comparison to what had been perceived as a deluge in overly cutesy moe protagonists, loved having a Magical Girl anime that adult males could proudly say they're a fan of, and its sadistic, vulgar sense of humor was a positively received love letter to Western animated shock comedies like The Ren & Stimpy Show and South Park - matter of fact, Gainax themselves said that Drawn Together was the main inspiration for the show. An unanimously acclaimed English dub also helped its case; to this day, Jamie Marchi and Monica Rial's performances as the two titular heroines are regarded as some of the finest in their careers. No surprise, when Studio TRIGGER announced a second season 12 years after the infamous Gainax Ending, the American anime community went into mass hysteria.
• The anime adaptation of Parasyte received a mixed reception in Japan due to the changes made from the original manga, which is considered a classic. Reception from American anime fans was overwhelmingly positive by contrast, much to the surprise of the Japanese. Creator Hitoshi Iwaki certainly didn't seem to mind.
• Back when Paravision (a Paraguayan TV network) was first founded, they grabbed the rights to many of Viz Media's anime (Naruto, Zatch Bell! and Blue Dragon) along with Doraemon and other old anime and aired them on prime time... to total apathy. Thus, it was decided they would air their cartoons on weekday mornings to comply with their contracts (A dubious move, since the Saturday-Morning Cartoon was a thing of the past by then) because they had flopped so hard...only to find out said cartoons shot up to the sky in ratings. Now Paravision is the go-to place for your anime fix. Their success also caused Telefuturo to bring back Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball Super.
• Perfect Blue garnered similar critical acclaim to Akira and Ghost in the Shell, above, in the West on initial release. Unlike those, however, it took a bit longer for Perfect Blue to earn its status as a classic in the medium in the West. Several factors contributed - Manga Entertainment’s license expiring, Darren Aronofsky buying the film rights (and directing a film with very similar themes), the death of Satoshi Kon and renewed interest in his work after the smashing success of Paranoia Agent (above) and Paprika, the #MeToo movement making its themes all the more timely. But when the film underwent lavish rereleases from the likes of GKIDS, Anime Limited, and Madman in the Anglosphere, and Seven Seas finally licensed Yoshikazu Takeuchi’s original novel for English translation, it finally earned its keep. All this and Perfect Blue still remains fairly obscure in Japan (the same cannot be said for Takeuchi’s novel, however).
• Piccolino no Bouken was quite popular in Israel since many young Israelis grew up with it.
• Pretty Cure:
  • While the English dub of Futari wa Pretty Cure wasn't quite a success in Canada, it was the number one show for Pop Girl in the UK. You can still find fans that grew up with the dub even years after its last broadcast.
    • The series was also huge in Taiwan and Hong Kong as the result of Twins' cover of the theme song becoming a Breakaway Pop Hit.
  • Fresh Pretty Cure! is big in Italy, to the point where there are more videos of the Italian dub of the show than there are of the original Japanese version of the show.
  • Smile PreCure!: While Cure March was decently popular in Japan, she is the most popular character among kids who watched the Glitter Force dub.
  • Doki Doki! PreCure: Cure Ace was hated by many viewers in Japan after she was revealed to be a new character named Aguri and not Regina as most people predicted, which caused so much backlash that merchandise sales for the franchise dropped. Among viewers of Glitter Force Doki Doki, she is the most popular member. Cure Diamond also seems to be pretty with viewers of that dub as well, to the point where her Cure Doll is Amazon's top pick for Glitter Force.
    • Doki Doki is also the most popular series in Taiwan, to the point where the top-selling Pretty Cure items on Taobao (China's answer to eBay or Amazon) are all from that series.
  • HappinessCharge Pretty Cure! was one of the least popular seasons in Japan because of viewers being confused by the mix-and-match themes of the show, the show having a Romantic Plot Tumor and because of Yo Kai Watch taking away a big chunk of Pretty Cure viewers, as it was the new hit anime at the time. In Western countries, it's more well-received by older fans, to the point where some clips subbed in English of the series on YouTube have almost a million views.
  • While Go! Princess Pretty Cure was the second worst-performing season in Japan ^note  the only one to do poorer was Futari wa Pretty Cure Splash★Star, it's one of the most popular seasons among Western fans (second to only Heart Catch Pretty Cure in popularity) because of its good writing and interesting premise.
  • HuGtto! Pretty Cure: Emiru Aisaki and Ruru Amour were two of the show's most popular characters in Japan, but they weren't as popular as Hana Nono was. In western countries, Emiru and Ruru are the most popular characters from this particular incarnation of the franchise among older viewers, with many Western fanfictions and fanarts based on Hugtto being about these two.
  • Star★Twinkle Pretty Cure:
    • The series didn't perform as well as its predecessor Hugtto! did in Japan, but among Western fans of Pretty Cure, this series is well-loved, with many Westerners calling it their favorite Pretty Cure series.
    • Cure Cosmo is popular in Japan, but she's even more popular outside of Japan, with many Western fans saying that she's their favorite cure from this incarnation. Also, during Yuni's first official birthday celebration, many Western fans gave birthday messages in English to her and drew fanart using the Japanese hashtag for her birthday. In addition, one of the first results for Pretty Cure on Google is "Pretty Cure Yuni".
  • When the new All Stars F movie was announced, there were showings announced for most countries on this list, most notably Italy. The movie got shown on Lucca Comics And Games 2023 along with the return of the franchise after stopping dubs at Heartcatch due to Saban getting the rights.
• Princess Sarah and Little Prince Cedie were so incredibly popular among Filipinos that the network that distributed the show in the Philippines created a live action movie for both series and a TV Series for the former specifically based on the anime to cash in on it. In fact, the former got reaired again on Philippine Television (on the same network it aired years ago), thanks to some local memes involving the characters.
  • Princess Sarah was also popular in Saudi Arabia, where it was called Sally.
• PriPara is huge in South Korea, with merchandise sold everywhere and the anime getting higher ratings than it did in Japan. And while Dorothy is the most popular character in Japan, Aroma is the most popular character in South Korea, when she debuted on the arcade game in the country, very long lines that lasted hours long were formed to play the game, which lead to fights among fans, which went on for weeks after the update.
• The manga Psyren mostly had subpar ratings during its run at Shonen Jump and only mediocre volume sales, but it still got licensed very early on by Western publishers because it showed promise. It also seems to be immensely popular with Western readers of scanlations as it ranks 1st to 25th place on major scanlation sites (which include virtually every manga ever made), a far higher position than almost every other series from WSJ. This has not quite translated into sales, however.
• Puella Magi Madoka Magica: While the magical girls are all extremely popular in Japan, there's a noticable divide between Madoka and Homura and the other three in terms of popularity. In the west, however, Mami and especially Kyoko (Sayaka suffers a bit from Americans Hate Tingle) are just as popular as Madoka, if not more, while Homura's popularity is cranked up to eleven.

Q-S

• While it's considered more or less niche in Japan, Queen's Blade has a considerable fandom in Spain and Latin America, despise neither the series nor related material was released there.
• Ranma ½:
  • Akane Tendo (or, "Adeline") is one of the most popular characters in France.
  • As far as the series goes, it was quite popular in France and the USA. In the latter country its popularity was especially prominent during the heyday of early to late 90s anime fandom, being a Gateway Series for many American anime fans during that period.
  • As popular as it already is among older demographics in the USA, it is particularly prominent among millennials in the Spanish-speaking markets—particularly since it ran on open-air TV channels throughout many Latin American countries, where the romantic entanglements proved as fun as the action, if not more, and a large segment of the audience considers it a childhood favorite.
• Reborn! (2004) is one of Japan's most popular anime and it shows at conventions but compared to is MASSIVE fanbase in Latin America (especially Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina), its native land just can't hold a candle. Oh God, where to start? A good 20% of doujins of the series are in Spanish and on there are more than 3,300 fanfics of the show in a Latin language on Fanfiction.Net. Many forums and Facebook groups are in Spanish. If you go to an anime convention in Mexico or Brazil, there will be Reborn! cosplayers! The anime is also a big hit in Spain and definitely France. While nowhere near as big as in the Latin countries, it's still not obscure in the US because it was one of the most popular shows on Crunchyroll. Latin America eventually got a dub which is notable because the show has not been dubbed in USA.
• Red Baron is a 1994 anime of TMS Entertainment that was not very successful in Japan and is practically non-existent in the rest of the world. Except in Latin America, where it is considered a cult show and has many fans to this day. In particular, Latin American fans love its opening theme.
• While The Rose of Versailles was a smash hit in Japan, its fame in Europe is a sight to behold. Especially in France and Italy, with the author Riyoko Ikeda formally honored.
• Rurouni Kenshin:
  • One of the manga's greatest virtues is how easily managed to surpass cultural barriers to become popular all over the world, specially Latin America and Western Europe. But probably the most iconic example is Spain: The anime arrived there in the summer of 1998 under the name "El guerrero samurái" ("The Samurai Warrior") and became the most watched program of the TV channel it was in. It became an instant classic for Spaniard anime geeks, which is specially surprising when you consider it aired on Saturday mornings (luckily, with no censorship). The manga came one year later and the rights were acquired by the Spanish branch of Glénat, a French publisher. Glénat Spain was at the brink of bankruptcy when they started to publish it, but the success of the manga was so big that practically single-handedly made them the biggest manga publisher in Spain. Thanks to that success, Glénat could acquire other big hits like Love Hina, Naruto, Bleach, One Piece, and many more. Plus, in 2010, they published a special reprint (the same one started in Japan that same year) and still managed to top the manga charts in Spain. Wow! Spaniards Love The Samurai Warrior indeed!
  • The English TV dub is also apparently a popular source for MADs in Japan, many featured on Nico Nico Douga. FUTAE NO KIWAMI AAAAAAAAH!!!!, indeed. Also, the controversial second OVA was in fact funded partly by ADV Films, due to the popularity of the TV series and first OVA series in America.
• While the anime fandom in the USA has lost most of their love for it, Robo Tech is extremely popular in Latin America and seen as one of the best shows of all time. It was a key Gateway Series in the region.
• Saber Marionette J is a cult hit at best outside its native country... except in Latin America. Most of the episodes found online are from the Spanish dub.
• Sailor Moon:
  • While Sailor Moon was popular in its heyday in Japan, the show is just one of a series of many within a demographic with many other popular Magical Girl shows that became popular. In the West, and especially in North America, its one of the most influential girl shows in history even after thirty years, and the Sailor Moon character herself is one of the most recognizable and iconic superheroines to Western audiences. The original English dub theme became a staple of 90's mainstream pop culture, and Americans even tried to create their own version of the show at one point.
  • The anime was one of the first anime series ever distributed in Russia, and while its current status has been relegated to cult classic today , it spawned a whole generation of Russian otakus back then. To the point that many current committed otakus and even casual anime fans in Russia today are not only in their thirties and forties, often crediting Sailor Moon as their gateway series, but a significant portion of otakus in the country are still Moonies despite the series being relegated to cult popularity today. Even many of younger generation of otakus often seek out the series and in turn become devout Moonies in turn and the series is famous enough even Russians unaware of anime can recognize the titular protagonist.
    • The Dark Kingdom, a group of villains from the first season of Sailor Moon, is impressively popular among Russian fans (female fans, at least), so much that it often overshadows the show's actual protagonists in fanfiction. This is likely related to the fact that many fans discovered yaoi thanks to Zoisite and Kunzite.
  • The show was also a massive hit in North America, to the point that even people who have never seen a single episode of the show can recognize the main character on sight. However, its popularity differed on either side of the border –- in America, the show first ran in syndication (meaning viewing times varied), so it didn't build up much of an audience until Cartoon Network aired it with a consistent schedule on the Toonami block, but Canada aired it from the get-go on major network YTV where it was a smashing success. YTV got to air the 17 "lost" episodes that concluded the R series some two years before America did. In fact, when the series was rescued and redubbed by Viz Media, they made sure to mention YTV on Twitter.
    • Sailor Moon's popularity in Canada deserves special mention, as by the late 1990s it had become a full-on pop culture phenomenon over there that was getting dues in other media - the most famous example the Barenaked Ladies song "One Week".^note "Gotta tune to Sailor Moon/It's got the "boom" anime babes that make me think the wrong thing." Most of the original toys and merchandise wound up in the Great White North as a result, with Canadians even getting some merch that Americans didn't. In fact, its popularity in Canada is a major reason why Cartoon Network salvaged Sailor Moon and put it back on air despite its previous failure in syndication; they figured the series had to have potential in the states if it's managed to become so incredibly popular in Canada. Thus the multiple No Export for You situations Canadian Moonies have been stuck with over the part few years are particularly stinging.
    • Back in the US, Viz admitted that pre-orders for their uncut DVDs were the absolute highest in the company's history. Now what was that you said about shows for girls not selling well?.
  • Among fans whose first experience with Sailor Moon was the DiC dub, the Ail and Ann episodes in Sailor Moon R are much more popular than they are elsewhere. This is probably due to the fact that those episodes had much more faithful translations than any other storyline (no one is quite sure why, though). They also didn't have the annoying pop-culture references that the English dubs of S and SuperS were deluged in. The entire storyline was released in a VHS boxed set in the late nineties, something which was unheard of at the time.
  • The series was also huge in Italy. The first season and Sailor Moon R, airing back-to-back in 1995, were so successful that when S and SuperS were brought over in 1996 they were aired in a primetime block, and in 1997 Sailor Stars aired mere weeks after finishing in Japan. Unfortunately the series, already suffering from a questionable adaptation, was also the target of Moral Guardians which caused in turn even more censorship, up to a disastrous butchering of the finale; reportedly, it's one of the reasons author Naoko Takeuchi decided to retire the rights for many years afterwards. Despite the long hiatus the popularity has endured, to the point Italy was chosen to be the first country for an international relaunch of the series in 2010, and an Italian artist has drawn a lot of the official art for international merchandise since.
  • The series also gathered huge popularity in Indonesia, to the point where if you ask any Indonesian about "Japanese female superhero", the first thing in their mind is usually Sailor Moon.
  • Sailor Moon was also very popular in Malaysia, to the point where it is the only anime with a dub whose quality rivals that of Doraemon. The anime even got a Malay cover of Moonlight Densetsu. Sailor Moon had the distinction of being the first anime in Malaysia to have it's theme song covered in Malay (an even now, it holds the distinction of being one of the very few animes whose theme song has a Malay cover)^note However, because the song was performed by an Indonesian because every Malaysian TV station had an Indonesian TV station partner as part of a friendship program launched by both the Malaysian and Indonesian government back in the day, after Malaysia ended the program Indonesians tried to lay claim to the cover, leading to a Fandom Rivalry of a ridiculous kind.
  • The series is also quite popular in Latin America, possibly being one of the Big 3 of the golden age of anime in Latin America along with Dragon Ball and Saint Seiya. You just have to walk down a street in Mexico City or Santiago de Chile and you may find a guy selling merchandise from the series in a street stall. Part of this is due to its wide dissemination (it was broadcast in almost all Latin American countries during the late 90s and early 2000s) and its excellent dubbing, with a memorable voice cast and without any censorship or editing, apart from broadcast all seasons. The voice cast was so iconic that the vast majority of them returned for the Sailor Moon Crystal dub.
• Saint Seiya:
  • Both the manga and the anime were well received in Japan, and they're quite the Cult Classic. But it achieved its greatest success in Europe and Latin America, where it's really, really big, thanks to the excellent dubbing.
  • Ask a Latin American fan in their twenties or thirties (and if you're lucky, maybe even in their early fourties) about it, and it's highly likely that they will mimic their favorite attacks and correctly give you their dubbed names. And that's just the start... (the Brazilian cast said the show was marked the start of fans seeking who were the dubbers, and that their voices still get emotional responses when recognized as being from Saint Seiya)
  • The same thing can be asked to an Indonesian or Spaniard fan, with similar result.
  • Basically ask any male (and quite a few female) Chinese anime/manga fan of ages 20-30, they can at least quote 2 lines from the show. Pegasus Meteor Punch and Cosmos were so popular it had meme status in China even before memes were classified. Just watch this affectionate parody of one Chinese comedy show about a bunch of guys doing an online profile for their Japanese manga artist friend living in Shanghai. See it here.
  • The same thing happened in Portugal. While its potential success was compromised by Dragon Ball and completely random network reschedulings, if you ask someone in their 20s to 30s about the show (you have to use the name Os Cavaleiros do Zodíaco, meaning "The Zodiac Knights"), they'll totally remember the campy and narmy dubbing. It also saw a revival in the late '00s.
  • In Italy the series is very popular, especially thanks to his dub (See Woolseyism). While Japanese audiences don't like the filler Asgard arc, it has been well received in Italy.
  • In France as well the series was exceedingly popular. To the point that the first NES game got a release only in Japan and France.
  • Taurus Aldebaran (who is Brazilian) is the Butt-Monkey of Saint Seiya's Brazilian fandom. He is almost universally regarded as the weakest Gold Saint and a boring character, but fans just love to make fun of him, to the point that no one hates him truly, just loves to pretend they do.
• Sakigake!! Otokojuku is popular in Thailand, Taiwan and China, of all places. Even the former President of Taiwan Lee Teng-Hui cosplayed as Heihachi Edajima.
• When Samurai Pizza Cats was dubbed, rumor has it that the studio dubbing it did not receive any scripts or audio, so Saban Entertainment took it upon themselves to write a completely new script, inserting countless clever pop culture references and jokes that weren't present in the original, creating a Gag Dub that was so well-received that even the show's original producers agree that it's superior to the original animation. The show remains far more popular in North and Latin America than it does in its native Japan.
• The Secret Garden (dubbed under the name الحديقة السرية) remained popular years after it first aired in many Arab countries, including Algeria, Syria and the UAE, for being part of many children's childhoods. Just look at the reception it got on the official Spacetoon channel. The theme song is also extremely memorable amongst them and merely looking up the Arabic title on YouTube will lead you to Arab YouTubers performing their own covers of it.
• Secret of Cerulean Sand is quite a obscure anime in most of the world, but has a huge fanbase in Norway, mainly because it had a Norwegian dub that was shown as a Saturday morning cartoon. The license has gone out, though, and trying to find copies (even in Japanese) is an absolute pain.
• World Events Productions actually pulled this off twice; nobody remembers Sei Juushi Bismarck in Japan, but most kids of the 80s will at least remember the name Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs, and probably have a few nice memories of the show (not to mention having that damn theme song stuck in their head). Due to some Gag Dubbing, Saber Rider is fondly remembered in Germany and some other European countries as well.
• Seraph of the End is popular in Spain to the extent the Spanish dubbed manga was released before the English one, and it gets a lot of fanart and AMVs from there as well
• Serial Experiments Lain was a flop in Japan, but became a cult classic in the western anime fandom that still evokes discussion to this day.
  • In particular, if you join a Lain fan group in social media, you will notice how 1/4 of the fandom is Brazilian, 1/4 is Mexican and 1/4 is Argentinian. This was because Lain got a Portuguese and a Latin American Spanish dub that was aired on satellite TV in that region.
• Sgt. Frog was at one point incredibly popular in France and Italy.
  • According to commentary in the Sgt. Frog manga, Kululu was very unpopular in Japan due to being a Jerkass, a Mad Scientist who kept tricking people into being test subjects, and being yellow. However, Western countries like America love Jerkass characters, making Kululu a lot more popular overseas. This is Lampshaded in one chapter where Keron sells merchandise of Keroro's Platoon and Kululu's merchandise goes virtually unsold.
• Shaman King is extremely popular in Russia, with it becoming a cult phenomenon among Russian kids of 2000s. When a teaser trailer of 2021 reboot was released on YouTube, the whole comment section was filled with Russian comments. The opening of this anime became a well-known meme on the Russian Internet.
• In Korea, Shugo Chara!, which was known as Charac Charac Change! in the country, became a major Cash Cow Franchise that spawned many merchandise tie-ins. There were also many exclusive Korean songs written for the dub of the show.
• For English-speaking fans of the Sketchbook anime, the popularity of Kate completely eclipses that of every other character — so much so that people who have never even seen it know who she is. This may have something to do with Self-Deprecation.
• Slam Dunk as well among Filipinos, as the Philippines is infamous for being basketball-obsessed unlike any other nation on Earth. It was a bit of a slow burner though. It fizzled out because it was overshadowed by Sailor Moon only to re-emerge years later on another channel where it finally took off. It's still HUGE in Spain and Latin America, and especially in South Korea as where the The First Slam Dunk movie became the highest grossing anime film of all time in the country.
• Sonic X was much more popular in the U.S. and France than in its homeland; the third season never even aired in Japan. Given the fact that Sonic is already popular enough as it is in Western regions, this comes as no surprise.
• Space Adventure Cobra was HUGE in France to point that several French filmmakers (such as Luc Besson) were fans of the series. It does help that the character of Cobra was inspired by French actors Jean-Paul Belmondo and Alain Delon (for his appearance before his surgery).
• Appears to be Invoked for Space☆Dandy, as the anime began airing in America on [adult swim]/Toonami ahead of Japan. After Cowboy Bebop, Trigun, and Outlaw Star did so well on the network in the past, it's not surprising.
• Speed Racer is considered a pop-culture classic in America; just about everyone there has heard of it. Conversely, it is barely remembered in its native country of Japan (where it was titled Mach GoGoGo) and is only known nowadays for being popular in America. In fact, the Japanese dub of the live-action film kept the American title and names of the characters.
• Spy X Family is extremely famous in Southeast Asia. In particular, it is pretty much revered in Indonesia, and Indonesian Spy x Family videos rake in millions of views. It has gotten to the point where the Indonesian government used the characters for their campaign.
• Science Fiction Saiyuki Starzinger was a smash hit in Sweden in the late eighties, where it was known simply as Starzinger.
• In the American Strawberry Panic! fandom, there is a good deal more fanart of Shizuma Hanazono than in Japan.
• Street Fighter II V was cut short during its original run, lasting only 29 of its proposed 50-episode run. In Brazil, however, it is something of a cult classic — everyone who watched it as a kid (yes) has fond memories of it, and there are even some fans who mix up the backstories of the characters from the game series with their anime counterparts. It was one of the most popular shows on TV Network SBT's morning cartoon block.
• "Superbook" and "Flying House" were GMA Network's biggest child-friendly hits of the 90s in the Philippines - the station was owned by Protestants, but the series' English dub reached every Filipino regardless of sect as a tool for religious teaching, as well as the fact that it was itself anime but with a Christian theme, justified because the country is majority Christian. When ABS-CBN took over the rights in the 2010s - as well as added in a Filipino-dubbed version of the reboot - popularity skyrocked, to the point the the former has its own fanbase of old and new viewers alike, in addition to a Filipino cover of "The Salvation Poem" being released, to the point of the series having official endorsement of church groups. The official local Youtube page has BOTH the English and Filipino language videos of the reboot series in addition to locally made content.
• Supercar Gattiger was a short-lived anime that sank without a trace in Japan, but it became very popular in Italy.
• The anime series Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross and Genesis Climber MOSPEADA are very obscure in Japan; however, they are both far more recognized in North America due to their inclusion in Robotech. The US DVD releases of both series in their untranslated form were subsequently imported into Japan for local re-release there. Reportedly, the Japanese reaction to the Southern Cross segment of Robotech was along the lines of "How the hell did they make Southern Cross watchable?"
• Suzy's Zoo: Daisuki! Witzy, in Taiwan, somehow managed to attract a sizable following among women and resulted in the release of Periphery Demographic items like cellphone charms and even electronic picture frames and digital stickers.
• The anime for Sweet Blue Flowers was Cut Short after only one season due to poor DVD sales. The manga and its anime, however, have a lot of non-Japanese fans who enjoy its Queer Romance take on the Yuri Genre.

T-Z

• Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann was well-received in Japan, but it never lived up to the hype of its predecessor, Neon Genesis Evangelion. In the West, however, where Evangelion is highly polarizing, Gurren Lagann is seen as one of the best anime ever made, and there's a bigger divide over which show is better there. Notably, in Japan, the series had to compete with thematically-similar contemporaries in the genre, and many of its most popular themes appeared not just in Evangelion but also in the very successful GunBuster before it. In the United States in particular, many of Gurren Lagann's competitors did not air (lacking Gainax's international pedigree), and Gunbuster was relatively unknown, making its own premises seem unprecedented.
• Tiger Mask is extremely popular in Italy under the name L'Uomo Tigre, il Campione, with the anime being well known and still gathering new followers in spite of the age (it was originally aired from 1969 to 1971). Italy is also one of the few countries outside of Japan where the original manga was published from 2001 to 2007, with a new translation starting publication in 2013. The series also had a Shout-Out in the Italian dub of Case Closed, where one character (unfamiliar with wrestling), seeing the murderer being a masked wrestler, mistook him for Tiger Mask.
  • Incidentally, the Real Life wrestlers inspired by this series are practically unknown in Italy.
• Tokimeki Tonight is remembered quite fondly in Arabia. Also in Italy, in addition of having the anime aired, is the only country outside of Japan to have all 30 of the original manga volumes translated as well as the 9-volume spin-off manga.
• Tokyo Ghoul, after its volumes got localized for North America very quickly started to dominate the New York Times' Best Selling list. Ranking up there alongside Attack on Titan and One Punch Man.
• Tokyo Mew Mew, for whatever reason, turned out to be very popular in Serbia, despite how bad the dub was.
  • It was a such huge hit for Pop Girl in the UK that it occupied over 4 spots for the top 10 programmes of the week for months. When Pretty Cure came to the channel they compared it to Mew Mew Power and the rest is history.
  • It was also huge in Korea, where it was called Berry Berry Mew Mew. They got the whole series on VHS and many pieces of exclusive merchandise.
• Trigun's anime was a moderate success at best in Japan, while in America it's a top-tier anime that earned a plum spot-on [adult swim] and is regarded on the same level as Cowboy Bebop as one of the most beloved series of the early 2000s. Seeing a pattern here? Because of this, the Trigun movie, Badlands Rumble, had its world premiere at Sakuracon in Seattle, months before the Japanese premiere. The Trigun manga, however, is much more popular in Japan than in America.
• Tsurupika Hagemaru is very popular in Malaysia and India.
• While the Unico series by Osamu Tezuka isn't as well-known as Kimba the White Lion in the West. Unico has gained a very dedicated cult following in the United States and Canada, due to the film adaptations (The Fantastic Adventures of Unico and Unico in the Island of Magic) by Sanrio frequently airing on Disney Channel throughout the 1980s and a decent english dub. Western fans of the series even created a Kickstarter on getting the original manga series an official english translation which was a success. Western fans even admits that Barbara Goodson's performance as the titular foal in the english dub is superior to the original Japanese versions. There is even an American fansite called "My Unico Fans" that was launched July 2021 entirely dedicated to keeping track on any Unico related news and information. A similar blog also dedicated to Unico hosted on Tumblr known as "We Love Unico!" and "MyNameIsUnico" were also created around the same period. Both Americans blogs are very similar to the official Unico fanclub "UNICOclub" created by Tezuka Productions in 2015.
  • When Octas Inc. launched a Kickstarter on an upcoming re-imagining of the Unico series titled UNICO: AWAKENING on May 2, 2022. The kickstarter quickly reached it's goal when the project was barely a day old ^note  The project's initial goal was $50,000 but reached $63,000 and 581 backers on it's launch day. When the project closed June, 2, 2022, it reached $179,794 and 2,453 backers., with a large majority of backers being from America compared to Japan and other countries. The creators of the project (Gurihiru and Samuel Sattin) even announced the manga gaining both an English and Japanese release. As part of the campaign, American cartoonists and Japanese artists were gathered to create a series of limitied edition collectibles all part of a series known as Unico: Awakening Artifacts. One of the awards includes an 8-page American Picture Book in the style of a Little Golden Book by Maddie Copp, and an American made mini-comic by Steenz. In interviews, Samuel Sattin (an American and writer of Unico: Awakening) would discuss how ecstatic he was when Tezuka Productions quickly approved his pitch on a Unico reboot. An extremely rare opportunity that's very unheard-of in Japan and the manga industry. As a result, it became an official American-Japanese collaborated manga based on the works of Osamu Tezuka. The Kickstarter campaign was so successful that it caught the attention of Scholastic on September 20, 2023. Unico is even featured prominently on Scholastic's Graphix webpage alongside Dog Man, Wings of Fire, and Jeff Smith's Bone.
• Übel Blatt is much more popular in Europe, particularly France, than Japan. During a long Hiatus, the author stated in an interview that the series would not be cancelled due to the large European fanbase.
• Urusei Yatsura:
  • The show was huge in Italy during the 1980s and 1990s and while it's not as popular as it once was, it's still enough popular to be remembered by pretty much everybody who's in their forties and even in their early fifties, with Lum being frequently cited as being the first erotic dream from many who were teenagers back in the day.
  • Beautiful Dreamer is a base-breaking movie in Japan, and was not well-regarded when it released because of its philosophical plot and departure from the series' formula. Overseas, Beautiful Dreamer is widely considered the best movie and some of the best Urusei Yatsura content of all because of its beautiful animation and, ironically, for its departure from the Strictly Formula.
• The Vampire Knight manga is fairly popular in Japan, occasionally getting in the top 10 seller list, but it has become a heavyweight in US manga sales, consistently being in the top 5 and spending three years as the most popular Shōjo title by a significant margin.^note  Vampire Knight snagged the top shojo spot in the US when previous #1 Fruits Basket ended, and lost it when Sailor Moon returned to print. Vampire Knight is still a respectable 2nd place, though. Other manga about vampires can be expected to rank highly in the charts as well. Including Shōnen manga. The New York Times Manga Bestseller List cements this. The only shojo title in America to knock it out of the top spot has been Sailor Moon. In one week in June 2010, new volumes of Naruto, Bleach, and Vampire Knight all came out on the same day, and Vampire Knight actually sold more copies than Bleach.
• The Vision of Escaflowne:
  • The anime was quickly forgotten in Japan, but it's considered a classic in the West (especially Canada) to this day.
  • It was also hugely popular in Korea. As thanks for the Korean fans' support, in the new footage for the Compilation Movie a lot of costume designs were changed from generic medieval fantasy outfits to ones based on traditional hanbok.
• Combining Mecha series Voltes V was one of the early progenitors of the Humongous Mecha genre, but tends to be far more obscure in its homeland compared to the other early mecha anime series. However, it became an adopted cultural icon in the Philippines, and has a lasting legacy there. This is partly due to the fact that it was banned during the reign of the hated Ferdinand Marcos, allegedly due to the fact that the show's Big Bad reminded the dictator too much of himself. (Both Ferdinand's son Bongbong and one of the Filipino dub actors have claimed that it was actually parent's groups (or a Catholic women's group) that pressured Ferdinand to ban the show). Surprisingly, a remake (Voltes V: Legacy) was made there, to great success. It's popularity in the Philippines is to the point that the country was part of the titular mecha's debut stage in Super Robot Wars 30.
  • It is also popular in Indonesia, especially among Generation X people: It was distributed by using Betamax tapes in the '80s, and it also spawned many unofficial merchandises and fan creations.
  • Voltes V is so popular in Cuba that the official Cuban Embassy to Japan tweeted about it.
  • It also has a following in Italy due to the Italian dub. In fact, this very wiki features an Italian version of the anime's main page.
• Due to the aforementioned Voltes V's popularity, other Super Robot shows that came alongside and after it also did well in the Philippines; like for example, Mazinger Z and Daimos, taking its Star-Crossed Lovers ("RICHAAARD!!!!" "ERIKAAAA!!!!") premise in consideration. However, Combattler V didn't, for it felt too similar to Voltes V, even though it came first, largely because Combattler V was aired in the Philippines twenty years after Voltes, when the latter has already entrenched itself in Filipino pop culture deeply.
• In Japan, GoLion and Dairugger XV are obscure, stereotypical early 1980s Super Robot series. In America, Voltron, its heavily-edited combined counterpart, became a smash hit, and is still popular. Media Blasters, the company releasing the DVDs, mentioned it as its most popular title, by far, and the only thing currently holding back a live-action movie is a minor legal dispute between World Events Productions and Toei Animation, while World Events continues to expand the franchise via comics and whatnot. The Japanese dub of Voltron: Legendary Defender even uses the American Voltron names rather than the original GoLion names.
• Wedding Peach was so big in South Korea that it became the highest-grossing character license of all time for its' toy manufacturer in the region, Mimi World, until Pororo the Little Penguin came out seven years later.
• With the Light seems to be exceptionally popular among American fans due to the "Autism and Special Needs" theme throughout the series.
• The 1980s anime adaptation of The Wonderful Adventures of Nils debuted to great success practically all across Europe. Even in countries where Japanese animation has little to no staying power, like Hungary, it became one of the most well-loved cartoon series ever, and reruns on television to this day. Given that the source material itself hails from European literature (Swedish, to be precise) and the series doesn't have much in the way of the polarizing quirks nowadays associated with anime, this isn't so surprising. In fact, a lot of people don't even realize it's an anime because in many places, it was distributed by European companies.
• Another series that's very popular in Italy is Yatterman. Sure, Japan remembers it fondly and remade the series in 2008, but Western fans are almost all Italian and Italy is the only other country in the world where all 108 episodes of the original anime were translated and broadcasted (other countries such as Poland use the Italian dubbing as basis), and later sold on DVD. It is also the only country where the live-action movie was dubbed and shown in theatres, even if only two years later and only for a very limited period of time. In the early 2000s there were even plans for an Italo-Japanese collaboration with Tatsunoko Production to create a new Time Bokan series, but that never came to be. Italians who were lucky to watch the film noticed that the final battle is somewhere in the Southern Alps... in Italy! That's right, Italy had the only real world set of the movie.
• Despite being huge in its country of origin, Yo-kai Watch is also popular in quite a few other countries:
  • The show is huge in Taiwan, where the show airs multiple times a day, has merchandise sell out frequently and draws huge crowds to events related to the show.
  • It is also popular in Korea, to the point where the first movie based on the series made more money than Inside Out in the country.
  • Fidgephant (known as Morezou in Japanese), a Yo-Kai that causes people to really need to use the restroom, is one of the least popular characters in Japan and was complained about by many parents in the country. In North America, the character is one of the most popular Yo-Kai and is commonly used by Nintendo to promote the series. It helps that North American children really like Toilet Humor.
  • Hailey Anne is hated in Japan for bullying USApyon and acting like a spoiled brat. But in North America, she's loved a lot for having a strong passion for video games and anime, something which is relatable to most of the American fandom, as they are also pop culture geeks.
  • The series was such a success in Latin America that they got a dub of the second movie despite the fact that it wasn't dubbed in the USA or even elsewhere outside of Asia.
• The Toei animated Yu-Gi-Oh! series (not to be confused with the TV Tokyo one that has over 200 episodes) was so unpopular in its home country that it left the air after a single season. In America, that season has become one of the fandom holy grails, earning the nickname of "Season Zero" and being the centerpiece of a cavalcade of fandom rumors, usually centering around intense violence, unprecedented fidelity to the original manga, or it not coming to America because it was too much for Americans to handle. None of these things are actually true, but they helped "Season Zero" reach iconic status in the fandom, to the point that claiming to like it is essentially a badge of honor, maturity, and respectability. In Japan, it's just a curiosity piece, and even using clips for MADs is rare compared to the original, or even any one of the spinoffs.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V isn't exactly a favorite on foreign shores, but the perception of it is a lot kinder than in its native Japan, where it was universally panned.
• Yume no Crayon Oukoku was big in France, where it aired under the name Le Royaume des couleurs Reruns even aired into The New '10s!
• YuYu Hakusho is fondly remembered in the Philippines (where it is re-named Ghost Fighter) by the generation of males that came of age in the mid-1990s, as there was nothing else like it at the particular time when it first aired (this was just before cable TV, the internet, and disc-based movie/console-gaming piracy became mainstream in the Philippines in late '90s). Many other dubbed anime series had come before and would come after, which would be hits, but this particular shonen series singularly captured the imagination of an entire generation of Filipino schoolboys. The same can be said with Flame Of Recca, which came afterwards.
  • The show also earned a strong following in Brazil (airing first on the same channel as Saint Seiya), particularly for its dub full of amusing improvised quips that made the show seem very local.
• Zoids: New Century was a flop during its original run in Japan; however, it was much more successful in the West.
• Zombie Powder was a commercial failure in Japan, being Cut Short after only 26 chapters due to low volume sales and creator Tite Kubo dealing with personal issues that made it too difficult for him to work on it. However, the manga got a more enthusiastic following in North America when it was licensed in English in 2005, thanks to the appeal of its Wild West-inspired setting along with the rising popularity of Kubo's more successful manga, Bleach.

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In-Universe Examples

• Peepo Choo bases much of its plot around fictional examples of this trope. The titular Show Within a Show Peepo Choo is an anime that in Japan was an adult-oriented Mind Screw and is supposedly regarded by many as the worst anime in living memory, but it is a huge success in America after being redubbed as an ordinary kids' show and hyped as an example of Japanese eccentricity. In the opposite direction, the manga features a fictional American Hood Film called Brick Side which was a disastrous flop in the States but is worshipped by an Ax-Crazy yakuza boss who bases his whole lifestyle on it.
• Nyaruko: Crawling with Love! discusses this concept in-universe. Mahiro sees Cuuko reading a manga anthology and asks "Didn't that book only last six issues?" Nyarko explains that this trope applies on a galactic scale as well, since not only do Aliens Steal Cable, but they consider Earth's entertainment the best in space. In particular, the anthology Cuuko was reading got picked up and continued by an alien publisher after its original cancellation.
• Naofumi Iwatani the titular Shield Hero from The Rising of the Shield Hero is seen as The Antichrist by The Church of The Three Heroes, as absolutely worthless by the other Three Heroes, and as an untrustworthy figure due to malicious slander spread by King Aultcray and rape accusations spread by Myne which had left him a social Pariah with a 0% Approval Rating in the kingdom of Melromarc when he was only just summoned there a few days prior. Naofumi had to work exceptionally hard in order to clear his name and clean up the messes left by the other Three Heroes in-between Waves during his time spent in the kingdom of Melromarc. However, the trope comes into play within nations and villages who have a sizable population of Demi-Humans living in them who actually worship the Shield Hero like a God due to the fact that previous Shield Heroes were kind, compassionate, and protected the Demi-Humans during times of calamity, and helped to establish two Demi-Human Nations for them. Had Naofumi been summoned to either Siltvelt or Shieldfreeden: he would have been greatly and warmly welcomed by the Demi-Humans who would see him as their King, and give him whatever he would have asked for.
• Kuroyama Sumiji in act-age is a rather famous director with a rather obscure style who's noted to have garnered much more success overseas than in Japan (it's detailed in the prequel oneshot Asagaya Geijutsu Koukou Eizouka e Youkoso). Not that he seems to mind, as to him a director should simply say what he has to say without trying to adapt to the audience's expectations.

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