naruto popularity

[oldsnail]

when a few of my friends arrived back from japan along with a few locals from there. they never heard the existance of naruto. they enjoy a good japan anime, but their findings of naruto in japan is not as popular as north america. you guys think this is true?

[gokudagreat]

hmm, no matter how unpopular it is in japan, its definitely more popular there than here, they have it on prime time tv there, we have to bittorrent it from subbing groups.

[Mut]

you friends must be from a cave in japan.

[saeadeb]

Nice sig Mut. Strength is the most important attribute one can posess the theme there? I would say Naruto's strength of will and character is far beyond most/all the rest. then again I could just be stupid and wrong. duh. Anyway I hope they license Naruto after it's over and we've seen them all. Buying English episodes (like I would *have* to do) is just too expensive.

[Assertn]

didnt someone say that naruto was rated the #2 most popular anime series right now in japan?

[Zansatsu]

Originally posted by: AssertnFailure
didnt someone say that naruto was rated the #2 most popular anime series right now in japan?

#2? What's the most popular?

[Ganesh]

hmm well i have a friend at school who is an exchange student from japan and he has heard and reads Naruto.

[Toruxxx]

Originally posted by: Mut@t@
you friends must be from a cave in japan.

lol i agree wit ya there

how can u watch japanese anime and live in japan and not know wot NARUTO! is!

[winnydapoo]

Toruxxx, what is that sig?

[Raven]

Originally posted by: Zansatsu


Originally posted by: AssertnFailure
didnt someone say that naruto was rated the #2 most popular anime series right now in japan?

#2? What's the most popular?
I'm pretty sure it's One Piece, correct me if I'm wrong.

[jonny-mt]

Originally posted by: CmDr_RavEn


Originally posted by: Zansatsu


Originally posted by: AssertnFailure
didnt someone say that naruto was rated the #2 most popular anime series right now in japan?

#2? What's the most popular?
I'm pretty sure it's One Piece, correct me if I'm wrong.

I think that's right, actually.

I'm absolutely AMAZED that your friends didn't think Naruto was popular in Japan. I'm not going to say that everyone is wearing the t-shirts and talking about it around the watercooler, but it's an incredibly popular anime with extensive merchandising to back it up. The Naruto movie has been advertised for the past two, three months or so outside of theaters. Every time you walk into a collector's/manga store, there's giant Naruto posters up. One of my favorites (the only place I've seen that can keep Naruto in stock, namely by having ten copies of every issue on hand at all times) actually has original manga panels up on their walls with giant signs that say "Not for sale", presumably because everyone and their brother kept asking.

It hasn't been completely whored out on the marketing, but it's definitely there and it's definitely strong. I think the parties responsible learned that oversaturation can kill a lot quicker than underexposure.

[Toruxxx]

Originally posted by: winnydapoo
Toruxxx, what is that sig?

its from a manga called Black Jack very good it is ^_^

[Black_Challenger08]

WHAT!!!!??!?! There are people who DON'T watch Naruto?! What is the world coming to!!!

But seriously, yeah, what's going on there.

[anime050]

Too popular for its own good. I just don't hope it doesn't turn into a DBZ =/

[Assertn]

oh....so then you hope that it DOES turn into dbz then? i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif

[Feannag]

Originally posted by: AssertnFailure
didnt someone say that naruto was rated the #2 most popular anime series right now in japan?

Curious to know what's #1 at this point, since Naruto seems pretty quality as is. Hard to think something could beat it. And I was told it's a huge hit in Japan, with merchandising out the wazoo and the mangas and anime still pretty much goind strong without any lack in interest or funding.

[DarthEnderX]

Curious to know what's #1 at this point

As has been mentioned already, its One Piece if its anything.

[oldsnail]

my friends lived in japan for 2 years as english teachers teaching people of all ages.
so i am not sure y they do not know the existance of naruto

[Mut]

Originally posted by: saeadeb
Nice sig Mut. Strength is the most important attribute one can posess the theme there? I would say Naruto's strength of will and character is far beyond most/all the rest. then again I could just be stupid and wrong. duh.

plz, my sig isn't meant to be understood by people from any other forum than the naruto manga forum.

[Drunken_Lord]

I don't find it very strange that they didn't know what Naruto was. Has anyone here been to Japan? I have, and I for one will be the first to say that the Japanese could probably care less about anime. Regardless of where it ranks on the popularity scale, not evey single Japanese person is going to know what Naruto is. Where were these "few locals" from anyway? If they are from outside of Tokyo I'd be even less surprised that they don't know what Naruto is than I am now (which is not at all). When I was in Japan back in '99 I found it difficult to find much anime related merc, out side of specialty shops that is. I also have a picture from a Japanese subway train (taken fairly recently and courtesy of my friend in Japan (whom I will ask later if he knows WTF Naruto is)), which I find to be a fairly accurated representation of what kind of advertizing you see all over Tokyo.

http://www.umich.edu/~dbritten/train.jpg

Not many advertisements about anime are there? Well, that's my two cents. For now at any rate.

[Gods_Son]

I lived in Japan, and the ads have nothing to do with it, there's no excuse for anime watchers that live there to not know Naruto.

[Ganesh]

I guess, it all comes down to if people enjoy anime or not. Presumably the people who enjoy anime/manga will know what naruto is. And I am not surprised that non-japanese people who live in japan are not common with naruto, cuz they would be more occupied on their work and income.

[Assertn]

if you live in japan and dont watch anime....then you dont really watch tv much there i/expressions/face-icon-small-tongue.gif

[Knives122]

All i can say is that its the leading anime over here in america, it was Inuyasha but it was over taking

[Assertn]

well i dont know if i'd say leading in america.....since its not licensed yet, there arent a lot of people in america that know about it as opposed to say, any series on toonami

[Vagabond]

Actually i think he's right. Im pretty sure it's the most popular anime in the states at the moment.
You'd be suprised. There are a lot of Naruto fans in the US.

[dbz_kidnaruto]

Originally posted by: Vagabond
Actually i think he's right. Im pretty sure it's the most popular anime in the states at the moment.
You'd be suprised. There are a lot of Naruto fans in the US.

Yeah every where in north america.
I got over 10 of my friends from Canada into naruto.
Now thats the only thing they can talk about lol

[kiyochi]

Actually, the very first time i knew about Naruto was in Japan back in the 2002.

If you went to Japan before, you must notice that almost every corner has a place that sells those big/thick manga. Well, I remember when I first read Naruto, it was that ep when garaa turn crazy, and his hand got buffed up.....something like that.

[Assertn]

it might SEEM like everywhere in america, from our perspective, because most of the people in our "cliques" know about it....but there are over 100 million people in the US, and the number of downloads of each naruto episode ranges in the 10s of thousands from people throughout the entire world.

Based on download statistics, I'm guessing that the % of the US population that is into naruto is less than 0.01%

[ThePope]

How long has Naruto been around? I have a friend from Japan, he tells me that in Japan they have SO much anime thatit is almost to much (it can never be to much). So i would not be suprized if he just did not know he was watch that show. Something i find interesting is that japanese ppl can keep up with all this anime, and there storys.

[Suzu]

Naruto is the second most popular anime ratings-wise in Japan it comes second to One Piece I think so if you watch any TV at all especially TV Tokyo you should see it. Its in the "golden time" or prime time on Wednesday's there. So unless you're totally not a ffan of anime or manga i don't know how you couldn't notice it. But then again i don't know about half the popular shows in the States even though there is lots of exposure to that.

[Lyzander]

actually can count Pokemon as the number one anime in japan.... i mean seriously how many children watch pokemon? especially in japan?

like every single one of them?


to that note that Naruto also airs early in the morning


check it out

Tv Tokyo Airtime (http://www.c-direct.ne.jp/tvtokyo/eng/pg_lineup/pdf/2003_april.pdf)

[DarthEnderX]

I have to agree with Assertn. While many here will say that Naruto is the best anime out there, its rediculous to say its the most popular. By simply nature of the fact that it is not on television, even the worst animes that can actually been seen on TV are watched by millions of people.

Naruto isn't seen be even remotely that number of people via programs like bittorrent.