The Anime Situation of Chinese Otaku] New Winter Anime That Became a Hot Topic in China (Mania Edition) Difficulties in Anime Distribution and Sequel Productions in China

My name is Baoyuan Kagoyamo, and I'm here to introduce you to all things related to the otaku situation in China.

Following on from the previous article, this time I would like to introduce some of the winter anime distributed in China that have become popular among local enthusiasts, as well as the situation in the Chinese otaku community regarding the popularity of the sequels that were strong in the winter anime series.

Works that are becoming popular mainly among enthusiasts

There are several anime that became a topic of conversation among Chinese otaku enthusiasts this season, and among them, "Saenai Kanojo no Nuturekata" seems to be the one that is attracting attention and becoming a topic of conversation from a relatively wide range.

In the Chinese otaku community, anime based on novels (especially those from well-known labels in the Chinese otaku community) have the support of the novel-reading community and tend to be more popular than other original anime or anime based on novels from the introduction of the work before the anime distribution starts. is also gaining support from people other than the Lanobek-reading audience.

In the Chinese otaku community, the PC game "WHITE ALBUM2" by Fumiaki Marudo, the author of the original work, has received extremely high acclaim, and even before the anime was distributed, it was attracting attention from enthusiasts other than Lanobé readers. Once it started, in addition to the solid development of the work, the story about Japanese doujin related contents (especially doujin game production) seemed to be perceived as "fresh information about the otaku situation in Japan".

In China, otaku-related events have recently been held in various cities, and doujinshi production is no longer a rare occurrence, but doujin games are still not as clearly imagined as doujinshi. Although Japanese works are included, there is little information on how they are handled and produced in Japan, so in some aspects, this work is welcomed as a way to learn about otaku knowledge about doujin games.

It is also a positive factor that the various otaku topics in the work, such as anime and galgee, are at a reasonable level for today's Chinese otaku enthusiasts, and "Raising a Saenai Kanojo" has become a work that can be "talked about" and "made into a story" in the Chinese otaku community. The Chinese community is also "able to talk about" and "make a story out of" the work.

Difficulties in distributing anime and sequels in China

In the winter anime season, sequel works such as "Tokyo Ghoul √A", "Kuroko no Basket", and "Aldnoah Zero" have been popular, as in the previous light-weight version. This is a somewhat unusual result for anime distribution on Chinese video sites.

In China, students and younger generations return to their homes during the Chinese New Year vacations, and the number of exchanges among the same age group declines significantly, so in terms of winter anime, both last year and the year before, the number of people actively discovering and pursuing new works decreased, and they tended to go for "works that are not likely to be out of place" that are considered standard or have a certain style. This year's Spring Festival was slower than usual. Since this year's Chinese New Year was later than usual, not only the focus on winter anime, but also event-related activities remained in the air in the Chinese New Year mode for a long time, and there seemed to be a prolonged period of slow movement.

Perhaps because of this background, sequels have been noticeably popular in winter anime, but this does not mean that sequels are the only way to become popular. For example, "Durarara! ×2 Sequel", for example, has been surprisingly struggling in terms of its popularity among Chinese otaku.

Durarara! The original light novel and the first season of the anime broadcast in 2010 became very popular and formed a huge genre, and this work had a great impact on the otaku community in China. However, once it started, the number of accesses to ...... did not increase as much as expected.
Still, "Durarara! is still relatively good, and it is not uncommon for sequels to be even more disappointing in the past.

Some people think that the sequels that became popular in the winter anime season were popular not only because they were interesting, but also because there was a special situation during the Chinese New Year, and not much time had passed since the first season, so there was still enough freshness in the memories of fans, community enthusiasm, and topics.

I agree with this view. In the past, sequel works that did not gain as much popularity as expected and were buried in the past, the previous fans have moved on to other works at the start of the sequel due to the time gap between the previous work and the sequel. Some were seen as if they were treated as works of the past for the Chinese otaku demographic.

Although the amount of information and content coming from Japan through the Internet has increased rapidly compared to the past, there is still a big difference between Japan and China in terms of the otaku-related environment (development in books, various events, radio programs, and other daily contact with otaku) other than anime distribution.

Many of the works that become popular in China do so via anime, which means that without anime distribution, the opportunities for exposure to these works would be drastically reduced.
Of course, in this day and age, it is no longer impossible to follow works at a level close to that of Japan if you spend the time and money, but that is only for the enthusiasts. For the lighter demographic, anime that can be viewed on the Internet and the topics of the works are still the main focus.

Because of this environment, the enthusiasm of the light segment in China for works during periods when there is no anime distribution has cooled off much more rapidly than in Japan.

And since the current Chinese viewers on video sites are mostly lightweight, it is not uncommon for sequel animations with "long gaps" to struggle in terms of access numbers on Chinese video sites, such as ......, even though the popularity of the work is strong. It is not uncommon for "long-lost" sequels to struggle for access numbers on Chinese video sites, even though the popularity of the work is strong.

The increase in the regular distribution of anime has greatly changed the way works spread and gain popularity in China. In the Chinese otaku community, there seems to be a recognition that "popularity" of works should be differentiated to some extent, based on the type of audience, and whether it is connected to the distribution business on video sites or popularity on video sites (......). It seems that some people are aware of these issues.


(Text by Hyakumen Kagoyamu)