Most popular characters in Japan?

jochickabee · Post by **jochickabee** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 11:48 am

Here was my train of thought today: I just came back from a trip to Tokyo Disney, and I noticed that the popular characters in Japan seem very different from those in the US. E.g. Donald Duck is for sure a U.S favorite, but he has little representation over here. One of the cats from Aristocrats (do people even still know about this movie?) is pretty well featured. Dunno if this is the way it's been marketed in Japan or if it's reflective of something cultural.

And back to DBZ, I've been surfing on Japanese pages, and ran across what seems a popular webring directory. http://navi.capsule-corp.tv/

By number of tags, the most popular characters seem to be:
#1 Goku (370)
#2 Vegita (349)
#3 Trunks (246)
#4 Gohan (244)
#5 Goten (143)
#6 Piccolo (133)
#7 Bulma (129)
#8 Chichi (102)
#9 Freeza (50)
#10/11 Videl (36) tied Pan (36)
#12 Juhachigou (35)
#13 Cell etc...

Anyone know if there is an actual poll on the most popular characters in Japan vs US?

I think that the top half of the poll seems like it would be quite similar, but the bottom half seemed "off" to me.

FYI, wikipedia has results of a Japanese poll for One Piece characters vs 4kids poll. Obviously many differences are likely because of the audience for 4kids, but suprisingly quite similar.

JAPAN: #1 Luffy #2 Zoro #3 Sanji #4 Chopper #5 Nico #6 Usopp #7 Nami
4kids: #1 Zoro #2 Luffy #3 Sanji #4 Nami #5 Chopper #6 Usopp (Nico not listed)

I think it would be interesting to analyze any differences or similarities. What makes a character fundamentally likable? If this discussion is old, I apologize.

Android18 · Post by **Android18** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 1:51 pm

Just another site for you to use
http://dbnetwork.info/

sailorspazz · Post by **sailorspazz** » Fri Feb 23, 2007 6:39 am

LOL at the couples listing on that second site. VegettoxGogeta? Oh, the Japanese and their disregard for whether pairings are even physically possible (though I guess with time travel....OK, I don't want to think about this anymore!)

As for what accounts for the differences between character preferences....I don't know, from what I've seen the Japanese seem more likely to name the main character as their favorite, while American preferences branch off a bit more (though the main character is still usually pretty high on the list). The "cool" characters (i.e., Trunks) seem to be popular in both cultures.

I think the fact that Bulma and Chichi are so high on the Japanese list is because Japanese fans started out watching Dragonball and saw those two characters before they faded into the background in DBZ (though Chichi didn't do a whole lot in Dragonball, either....maybe the voters have "kyoiku mama" like her and weren't so put off by the character

)

shannarafan · Post by **shannarafan** » Fri Feb 23, 2007 7:37 am

Needs more Krillin and Roshi.

Jord · Post by **Jord** » Fri Feb 23, 2007 8:11 am

I liked the Aristocats. It had a duet between Baloo the bear and Autobot Jazz, what's not to like?

Magica · Post by **Magica** » Fri Feb 23, 2007 12:03 pm

I believe I've seen a list similar to this on one of the American Shonen Jumps, but I don't have the issues anymore so I can't check.

Tanooki Kuribo · Post by **Tanooki Kuribo** » Fri Feb 23, 2007 12:24 pm

How the Hell is Pan more popular then Cell? ...Oh well.

Kanzenshuu

Most popular characters in Japan?

Most popular characters in Japan?

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