Chinese Otaku Anime Situation] April New Anime Popularity in China, April was an exciting season in many ways.

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

This time, I would like to introduce the popularity of the new Japanese anime for April distributed on Chinese video sites and the surrounding situation.

Popular and talked-about April new releases

There were many hit works in the Chinese otaku community in April, and the topics related to the works were active, and the growth in the number of views also seemed to be active in general.

Among them, the two works discussed in the previous article, "Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu" and "Sakamoto Desu ka? have maintained their initial popularity and are becoming more and more popular while providing topics for discussion.

Re:Zero kara Hajimeru no Isekai Seikatsu" is a work about a trip to another world that is easy to understand in the current Chinese sense and has become a promised story in the local market. This also seems to contribute to its popularity and popularity in China.

There are many Japanese works that have influenced the trip genre, which is known as "kanketsu" in China. Some representative examples include "Dragon and Wolf Legend" in the old days and "Zero no Tsukaima" in the early days of otaku in China, and even the generation that came into contact with the trip genre through Internet novels, which have seen significant development in China in recent years, can understand the "promise" of Japanese trip works without problems.

As for the popularity of "Sakamoto desu desu ka? is a work that can be viewed with a "tsuchi-ta" (tsuchi-momi), which is becoming mainstream in the Chinese otaku community today, and that once a comedy series hits the Chinese Internet, it becomes a topic of conversation in a very wide range of areas, and its popularity snowballs and expands.

In recent years, many popular comedic anime in China have become "unexpectedly popular even in China," but "Sakamoto Deshi? was highly acclaimed in China even before it began airing, and its popularity has not betrayed expectations.

In this regard, "Sakamoto Desu Desu? is, in a sense, a rare "comedy anime that has turned out as expected" in the Japanese anime market in China.

In terms of popularity and buzz, "Did you think your netoge wife is not a girl? also seems to be quite popular.

In China today, the Internet is the center of entertainment, and young Chinese have a basic knowledge of online interaction and netoge experiences. Perhaps because of this background, they are able to enjoy the gap between the Internet and real life, including the bad direction of the stories depicted in the book, while sympathizing and making comments.

In addition, the fact that the heroine approaches the protagonist with the intention of "becoming a housewife who will be supported by the protagonist" has been a shock to the readers as an unusual heroine that is unexpected in the Chinese sense and not found in previous harem-type works.

Another work that has been popular among the general public is "Yin-Yang Master of the Double Star.

This work does not seem to be very active in terms of topics related to the work, but it is steadily increasing the number of views on each video site where it is distributed. It is interesting to note that the video seems to be more popular on video sites with a large number of general or light viewers than on sites with a large number of otaku viewers.

It is said that the popularity of "Onmyoji of the Double Star" among the general public is due to the fact that it is a Japanese-style biographical fable, a popular genre among Chinese viewers of Japanese anime, and does not require much knowledge of otaku-related assumptions and promises, as well as the character design, which is easily accepted by the general public. In addition to the above works, there are also many other works that have been produced in the current period.

In addition to the above-mentioned works, "Hundred" has been quietly gaining views on multiple video sites this season, showing the strength of its combination of "promised elements" and "sexy service scenes," and "Kumamiko" has become quite popular as an unexpectedly interesting everyday series despite being distributed exclusively for a fee. There is no doubt that this has been a "hit" season for Chinese otaku.

New Trends in Paid Distribution

In recent years, Chinese video sites have become more and more active in seeking new revenue models other than free distribution and advertising revenue.

For some time now, "tudou" has been distributing some of the hottest new Japanese anime titles only to paying subscribers, and recently "PPTV" announced a new service to distribute exclusive new anime titles only to paying subscribers in advance.

In China these days, the awareness that it is right and good to watch anime through regular distribution is spreading, but there is still a strong perception that "anime is something that can be watched for free and should be made available for free," and there is not a small amount of opposition to paid services. However, each video site seems to be promoting paid services targeting the otaku demographic in various ways.

Chinese video sites are already offering paid distribution or limited distribution to paying members for genres such as dramas, movies, and sports, but paid services for animation are also becoming more prominent.

Although it is still unclear how animation-related paid services on Chinese video sites will develop in the future, it is likely that more and more new Japanese animations will be used as paid content on Chinese video sites.

Kabaneri of the Iron Castle," a hot topic in the shadows

Finally, I would like to briefly introduce the situation surrounding "Kabaneri of the Iron Castle," which in some ways has become the most talked-about work this season.

As I wrote in my previous article, the distribution of "Kabaneri of the Iron Castle" was suspended at the end of April, and although the distribution resumed on some video sites in mid-May, it was suspended again within a few hours, and a series of announcements regarding its resurrection also disappeared.

After that, the situation remained unclear, with some of the video sites that had been distributing the video making statements about resuming distribution, and then in mid-June, distribution was suddenly resumed again, and the confusion still continues.

In addition to this, there is a strong belief that the suspension of distribution may have been due to pressure from higher-ups, and there is a trend of illegal uploading of "Kabaneri of the Iron Castle" on the Chinese Internet, with ill-advised fake titles such as "Railroad Yugitai".

Kabaneri of the Iron Castle" has attracted a lot of attention from the beginning, but the restrictions have spread the topic widely, and it can be viewed as a ...... where fuel is dropped regularly to keep the topic alive.

However, the fact that the official distribution of the work was cancelled at the time when it was expected to be the most exciting despite the aggressive promotion in China, and that the excitement was generated outside of the official distribution, has made the Chinese otaku industry realize once again the risks involved in the development of new anime in China. This has made the Chinese otaku industry realize once again the risks involved in developing new anime in China.

The Chinese otaku community was quite excited in April due to the release of a number of popular works, but due to regulatory developments, there is also a sense of a strange excitement in areas other than the main anime.

In addition to this, changes in the business model of Chinese video websites are also visible in new Japanese anime, making it difficult to judge the direction of the upsurge and the magnitude of the risks involved.

(Text by Hyakumoto Kagoyo)
(C) Tatsuhei Nagatsuki, KADOKAWA Inc. / Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu Production Committee