While the year 2022 has just started on the starting blocks with the release of part 2 of season 4 of The attack of the Titans, a little throwback to the most watched anime in Japan in 2021.
The most loved series in Japan
A true phenomenon, Japanese animation continues to conquer the hearts of fans around the world. Whereas 2022 looks particularly promising, with, among other things, the adaptation of Chainsaw Man by Tatsuki Fujimoto by the MAPPA studio or the film Dragon Ball Super : Super Hero, it is always interesting to see what the major trends in Japanese animation have been with the Japanese public.
The ranking below has been compiled by GEM Partners for our American colleagues from ComicBook, taking into account the number of hours of viewing of the various animation series. Without further ado, here are the top 10!
- Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba (ufotable)
- Jujutsu Kaisen (MAPPA)
- Tokyo Revengers (Liden Films)
- Attack on Titan (MAPPA)
- Detective Conan (TMS)
- Me, when I’m reincarnated as Slime (8-bit)
- My Hero Academia (Bones)
- Evangelion
- One Piece (Toei Animation)
- Kingdom (Pierrot)
We therefore notice that Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, whose second season is currently being broadcast, is the biggest success of the year 2021. We remind you that if the first season 1 was entirely broadcast in 2019, the anime has seen a resurgence of interest thanks to the release of the film Demon Slayer: The Infinity Train, released in Japan in October 2020, which became the biggest hit in Japanese box office history, surpassing Spirited away by Hayao Miyazaki. We also recall that in 2020, License Demon Slayer brought in revenue the equivalent of Togo’s GDP…
We find in the ranking several titles are naturally shonen among the best-selling in terms of manga in 2021 in Japan (whose ranking can be found here). We think in particular of Jujutsu Kaisen, the best-selling manga in Japan in 2021, and which occupies second place in the anime rankings, or even Tokyo Revengers, which takes third place in both rankings.
And One Piece still occupies first place among the best-selling manga in the world, with 490 million volumes sold last August, Eiichiro Oda’s manga and anime adaptation rank sixth and ninth respectively in the two rankings. A still impressive score, given the longevity of the manga. Besides, it’s One Piece which has benefited from the honors of a Japanese city, which has just inaugurated this magnificent statue of Zoro Roronoa, in homage to Eiichiro Oda.