What is the "Biggest" Anime of All Time?

[The Anti-Existence]

As in the most wildly popular and, if you have numbers, the most profitable.

I've heard of some show called Doraemon that has been running for like..30 years in Japan. But does that rival the multi-nation hugeness of a show like Pokemon or DBZ? I dunno.

[Thorlief]

I've read somewhere that dragon Ball is the most succesful manga ever

[Pikachu]

"One Piece" currently holds the record for the 'biggest' manga of all time. It ebbed out "Dragon Ball's" record in 2003, and it beat out Takehiko's "Slam Dunk" and "Vagabond" sales total at the end of 2004 -pushing Eiichiro Oda into the best selling manga-ka of all time. And as of this year "One Piece" becomes the longest running/best selling series to go past 46 collected volumes and manage stay number one on the sales charts. Volume #27 of "One Piece" (http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/ONE_PIECE#.E3.82.B9.E3.83.88.E3.83.BC.E3.83.AA.E3. 83.BC) has the record for highest all time selling manga in Japan for a single volume, totaling 26 million 300 thousand copies sold for that one volume (in Japan alone). Whereas volume #32 only sold a meager 25 million copies. Shueisha boasts that "One Piece" has sold an accumulative grand total of over 200 million copies world wide. Whereas "Dragon Ball" had a record approx. 80 million strong.

In terms of merchandising and sales... it would be a close battle between "One Piece" related goods and "Pokemon" goods which both saturate the market. I think "Pokemon" has the edge though due to the gimmick of collectability. But the real winner in sales goes to "Hello Kitty" which is nearly a 2 billion dollar a year industry. Of Sanrio's (http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%B5%E3%83%B3%E3%83%AA%E3%82%AA) 1.5 Billion dollar gross (2005) they attribute over half of it to "Hello Kitty" merchandise.

As for biggest ANIME series of all time... "Doraemon" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doraemon#Television_series) is the longest running (nonstop since 1979 to the present). It's about a robot cat from the future with magical powers. I watch it on Sundays, and the last "Doraemon" motion picture came out a couple months back.

But in terms of biggest gross... Hayao Miyazaki's "Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi", or "Spirited Away" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirited_Away#Distribution_and_box_office_gross)st ill holds that record in Japan for highest total theatrical gross ($250 million U.S. dollars). "Spirited Away" went on to receive the Oscar for best animated feature during the 75th annual Academy Awards ceremonies. "Howle's Moving Castle" cost the most of any anime feature to produce.

"Gundum" has spawned the most sequels and spin offs.

I hope this helps answer your question.

Pika! :eek:

[Inkthinker]

Worldwide Spirited Away grossed $275 million, but Japan was the lion's share of that (it only made $10 million in the US, though I personally feel that Disney sabotaged the theatrical release in the US by completely neglecting to market the film seriously).

[The Xenos]

Geez, if One Piece is the greatest selling manga, why do I keep seeing so many more damn Naruto fans and cosplayers at cons? Not that you have to choose, but One Piece just doesn't seem as popular. maybe it's just here in the US and the 4 kids fiasco, but even before either was released it seemed Naruto was more popular.

Mind you, I prefer once Piece. I am glad to know it is one of the giants of manga, both currently and in all time sales by what poster Pikachu said.

Of course being in Shonen Jump doesn't hurt. I belive that's one of the best selling comics in the world, even if it is an anthology as that's how they sell in Japan.

Also, isn't Deathnote a pretty popular series? I know it's finally hitting popularity in the US now with the movie and anime adding fuel.

I actually own the Japanese Shonen Jump with the first chapter, somewhat on a whim. I was in a Japanese market in the Boston area and saw the new Shonen Jump. It has Deathnote on the cover and I wanted to check out what was on sale in Japan so I bought it. I couldn't understand the text, but it looked interesting. Years later it's one of my favorite comics, Japanese or otherwise.

Same with One Piece. In the same market I saw One Piece candy with figures. I asked my friend about it. He looked into it and got into One Piece and got me hooked into it. Though he's clearly the bigger fan and even cosplayed as Luffy and now Soge King.

Meanwhile, I'm into more cultish stuff like Blame! or Berserk or Alita. They have a following, but it's not too huge in sales. Plus they're more mature.

Now getting back to cosplay, again, I keep seeing Naruto as being more popular at cons. Meanwhile, DBZ covered this popularity years ago. Though as poster Pikachu says, it seems One Piece's sales are the king.

As for American series, I want to give a shout out to Evangelion. I think for my generation and age group, that was a big one that got people into anime. I know it personally got me into anime. Also I think Ghost in the Shell got a good US audience.

Meanwhile you have some shows like Big O or Witch Hunter Robin that seem to have done better in the US than in Japan.

[Inkthinker]

Naruto has been slightly better treated in US localisation. 4Kids really butchered the hell out of One Piece.

I think more US fans are influenced by anime than by manga... both manga are about 10X better than their anime spinoffs, but One Piece is much longer and I think it's a lot more fun in tone.

[Pikachu]

'Naruto' is definitely more popular in America because of better marketing by Viz and a respectable sub/dub. There's also the 'art' factor to contend with. 'One Peace' manga is highly stylized in terms of design and art... and this directly affects the anime... thus the quirky style sometimes puts people off.

The first several volumes of the manga seem a little 'Disney-ish' in tone, but 'One Piece' becomes more gritty along the way accumulating with the amazing 'SkyPia' arc, and the art gets busier too. Oda really comes into his own, artistically speaking, with the 'Alabasta' arc (imho).

Originally Posted by Inkthinker but One Piece is much longer and I think it's a lot more fun in tone.

I agree. 'One Piece' is a much better written narrative. This is due to the amazing story telling ability of Oda, and his skill at weaving the multiple story threads into one grand story line is unrivaled in manga. People have done it before, but not to his caliber.

When I ask Japanese people if they read manga, most of them are in the affirmative, although those few who reply "No" always follow up with "but, I do read ONE PIECE." They say it as almost if they don't consider it cheap entertainment. There's not a mention of any other title... just "One Piece." And I think this says a lot about the title. The story telling is so well respected here that people gladly read it, whether they are fans of manga or not. And these are Japanese people I'm talking about. When I follow up with a question about what they like best about "ONE PIECE" they reply, "the humor. It's very funny."

Although with "Pirates of the Caribbean" films being such a hot property I'm surprised "ONE PIECE" isn't getting a marketing campaign of some kind to help promote awareness and sales. After all, if Pirates are all the rage, you think VIZ would jump on the opportunity to promote a really good book. But yet again, we see "ONE PIECE" fall by the wayside of the American market with a sort of neglect, sadly enough, not so uncommon to the comic book medium.
:(

Pika!

[666MasterOfPuppets]

Well, I read somewhere a list of the "top 100 anime". It's incredibly sad to say that Mazinger Z is NOT on that list. Nor any of Go Nagai's other creations, for that matter.

When I find that link, I'll get back to you.

[666MasterOfPuppets]

Japan's favorite TV Anime (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2006-10-13/japan's-favorite-tv-anime)

EDIT: There are other "top 100" lists, of course. I just chose this one.

[Alex L]

Geez, if One Piece is the greatest selling manga, why do I keep seeing so many more damn Naruto fans and cosplayers at cons? Not that you have to choose, but One Piece just doesn't seem as popular. maybe it's just here in the US and the 4 kids fiasco, but even before either was released it seemed Naruto was more popular.

Naruto is more popular here, stateside.
Partly because it's about ninjas, something foreign to us.

One Piece is more popular in Japan.
Partly because it's about pirates, something foreign to them.

Japan's favorite TV Anime (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2006-10-13/japan's-favorite-tv-anime)

EDIT: There are other "top 100" lists, of course. I just chose this one.

The thing about those Top 100 lists are that they tend to be "Top anime series of the moment," not "Greatest 100 Ever." Polls like that tend to reflect what's popular at the moment, especially with Japanese manga/anime where once a series is done, it's usually DONE. No sequels, no reminder it ever existed.

So in a sense, it's a testament to the staying power of Evangelion and Ranma and whatnot, that they still make a popularity poll after all this time.

[666MasterOfPuppets]

The thing about those Top 100 lists are that they tend to be "Top anime series of the moment," not "Greatest 100 Ever." Polls like that tend to reflect what's popular at the moment, especially with Japanese manga/anime where once a series is done, it's usually DONE. No sequels, no reminder it ever existed.

So in a sense, it's a testament to the staying power of Evangelion and Ranma and whatnot, that they still make a popularity poll after all this time.

I'd agree with you, if it weren't for the presence of series like Gundam, Saint Seiya, Dragonball, Macross, Lupin III, City Hunter and Sailor Moon, which are quite old. Besides, Mazinger Z, although not appearing in that first list, appears in the list made by japanese celebrities, along with Candy Candy (ugh), Gatchaman, Astroboy and Devilman.

So either it's what you mention or it's something among the lines of what the japanese think are the top 100 ever.

[Alex L]

I don't think it's a Top 100 Ever list.

From the wording, it's an unofficial Web site poll -- which already limits respondents to those who visit TV Asahi's page.

In the second place, the variation between that poll and one compiled just one year earlier are HUGE.

2006's List (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2006-10-13/japan's-favorite-tv-anime)
2005's List (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2005-09-23/tv-asahi-top-100-anime)

The Top 10 are almost completely different.
Doraemon slipped from #5 to #31.
Evangelion jumped from #20 to #2.

I'd take it for what it is -- a fun little spur-of-the-moment type poll, but not binding to...well, anything, really.

[666MasterOfPuppets]

I see. You can't trust those guys. :D

EDIT: Damn, I agree. The differences between the two lists are actually impressive.