Anime series or movies that are better received overseas

S

Sparrowsabre7

Za Warudo
By which I mean outside of Japan. I know that in many cases, the big series in Japan are big here too (Bleach, Death Note, Dragonball) but I was wondering if there are any series where the opposite is true?
 
Do you mean anime or the whole media mix franchises, it makes a big difference.

Bleach after season 6(if you actualy mean anime, it has neither high TV ratings or DVD sales)
Axis Powers Hetalia
nearly every fanservice show ever (esp ones with big breasts)
Samurai champloo

Cases where it's the oposite are much easier to find, as Japanese sales data is easier to get than western & you can tell when something flopped.
 
I'm fairly sure Ghost in the Shell is more popular outside Japan, though I can't be certain. Manga Entertainment co-produced the first movie and both TV series, so they were definitely made with foreign audiences in mind.
 
fabricatedlunatic said:
I'm fairly sure Ghost in the Shell is more popular outside Japan, though I can't be certain. Manga Entertainment co-produced the first movie and both TV series, so they were definitely made with foreign audiences in mind.
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lol no
19641 13 攻殻機動隊 S.A.C. 2nd GIG
16004 13 攻殻機動隊 STAND ALONE COMPLEX

source
http://yunakiti.blog79.fc2.com/blog-entry-6475.html

Those sales are huge, unless you're Sunrise, KyoAni or SHAFT. Even then they're fairly good.

Akira might be bigger here though.
 
I don't think Fabby was suggesting that it was unpopular in Japan, just that it has relatively insane mainstream penetration in the West.

And Hetalia, really? Because that's a big seller in Japan, too, so you're kind of contradicting yourself in terms of which angle you're arguing from.

Akira is definitely bigger in the West, there level of meh-ness towards it from people in Japan (even ones who "know" about anime) was one of the biggest things that surprised me, as it was one of the few titles I was familiar with before going over there.

I guess Cowboy Bebop is another one? Even if its failure in Japan is usually overstated, the level of success in the US was pretty incredible.

I'd be willing to guess that Rin is doing better over here.

Hellsing? I care little enough about this to not know how it did in Japan.
 
Reaper gI said:
fabricatedlunatic said:
I'm fairly sure Ghost in the Shell is more popular outside Japan, though I can't be certain. Manga Entertainment co-produced the first movie and both TV series, so they were definitely made with foreign audiences in mind.
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lol no
19641 13 攻殻機動隊 S.A.C. 2nd GIG
16004 13 攻殻機動隊 STAND ALONE COMPLEX

source
http://yunakiti.blog79.fc2.com/blog-entry-6475.html

Those sales are huge, unless you're Sunrise, KyoAni or SHAFT. Even then they're fairly good.

Akira might be bigger here though.
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That seems likely, it is the defining anime movie for western audiences, and one of the first to bring it to a UK audience for sure.

Hetalia I can kind of understand too, but fanservice? I'm surprised they're received better here to be honest, especially considering the whole h-game genre and similar, and to answer your original question, either anime specifically or mixed media, basically "anime-related stuff that did better outside of Japan" really =P. How about Cowboy Bebop and Trigun, I know both are really popular with westerners (well maybe not Trigun so much, but Bebop certainly).

I also seem to recall reading Satoshi Kon wasn't as well-accepted in Japan as internationally, perhaps because of things like Tokyo Godfathers cutting close to the bone?
 
ilmaestro said:
And Hetalia, really? Because that's a big seller in Japan, too, so you're kind of contradicting yourself in terms of which angle you're arguing from.

I guess Cowboy Bebop is another one? Even if its failure in Japan is usually overstated, the level of success in the US was pretty incredible.

Hellsing? I care little enough about this to not know how it did in Japan.
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It's not on the sales list for some reason. Apologies for the error.

Still realy realy huge in the US, to the point it was turing up on regular dvd charts.

Helsing looks to have done fairly well in Japan.

Vampire Knight I'd thnk was another I'd think may be bigger in the west.
 
I would still say Hetalia is bigger in Japan, personally. Though it is successful elsewhere as well (except possibly here; haven't heard much buzz from UKers and the DVDs didn't seem to set the world on fire).

R
 
Sparrowsabre7 said:
Hetalia I can kind of understand too, but fanservice? I'm surprised they're received better here to be honest, especially considering the whole h-game genre and similar
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Big brand (i.e the ones that get anime) eroge tend not to have that much fanservice (outside the actual h-scenes, which will be removed totaly).
The only succesful anime based on one that are heavy on the fanservice are Shuffle! and Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha (which was a spinoff anyway).


The fanservice series are normaly based on manga, and in one extreme case as pen and paper roleplaying game(queens blade)

Sparrowsabre7 said:
to answer your original question, either anime specifically or mixed media, basically "anime-related stuff that did better outside of Japan" really
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Much less flops in Japan if you count the tie-ins/original work as well.

Media mix = stuff like Angel Beats or Fractale where you have TV anime, game, light novel, and or manga all running concurently.

i.e the franchise as a whole is succesful there, just the TV anime component flopped (or only did okay).
Like my example, Bleach, which does realy well as a manga and in video games, but not brilliantly as an anime (or at least not as big as in the west)
 
Yeah, a few of the ones I thought of I didn't mention because Reaper had covered them with "fanservice", tbf.

Not too surprised that Hellsing did well in Japan, I suppose, they do like their stuff that is set in "England".
 
ilmaestro said:
I don't think Fabby was suggesting that it was unpopular in Japan, just that it has relatively insane mainstream penetration in the West.
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Correct, although I must confess to being a bit surprised by those numbers.

According to some sales figures I've been able to find, Samurai Champloo and Chrono Crusade had mediocre sales (2-3000 per volume) in Japan but are fan favourites in the West. The Geneon rep on ANNcast said Champloo outsold Naruto in its first year.
 
I think bebop and GITS have already been mentioned. I would say Outlaw Star and Big O probably got much more love overseas.

According to a a podcast I heard ( was either ANNCast or Anime World Order) Satoshi Kon films did better overseas.
 
Reaper gI said:
ilmaestro said:
And Hetalia, really? Because that's a big seller in Japan, too, so you're kind of contradicting yourself in terms of which angle you're arguing from.

I guess Cowboy Bebop is another one? Even if its failure in Japan is usually overstated, the level of success in the US was pretty incredible.

Hellsing? I care little enough about this to not know how it did in Japan.
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It's not on the sales list for some reason. Apologies for the error.

Still realy realy huge in the US, to the point it was turing up on regular dvd charts.

Helsing looks to have done fairly well in Japan.

Vampire Knight I'd thnk was another I'd think may be bigger in the west.
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I wouldn't be suprsied if Vampire Knight was bigger overseas, it might have something to do with the Twilight craze at the moment, I can barely go to any vampire anime nowdays without someone comparing it to that pathetic excuse for a series of novels
 
I know that Pokemon is big over here and in America, but I'm not convinced that it outdid the success it had in Japan, I would love to see some figures to prove me otherwise
 
I can easily assume Pokemon as a franchise did better outside of Japan than the totals it did in Japan. Normalized for population sizes, though, I doubt it.
 
ilmaestro said:
I can easily assume Pokemon as a franchise did better outside of Japan than the totals it did in Japan. Normalized for population sizes, though, I doubt it.
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Hrnn, I see the difficulties of the question I posed heh. Naturally some things will be more successful outside just for having bigger countries I suppose, but I was getting more at stuff the japanese really didn't give much of a **** about, but other countries go ape**** for.

I'm not even sure WHY I'm asking I just thought it would be interesting to see the kind of genres etc. that trip over the cultural divide. How about stuff like Appleseed?
 
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