How often do Japanese high school kids watch anime, and do boys and girls watch the same series?

Survey compiles lists of top 10 anime male and female high school students are following.

“Anime isn’t for little kids” is one of the first ways the medium gets described to newcomers, but it’s not squarely aimed at full-on adults either. Part of the reason so many anime have teenage protagonists is because high school-age viewers are a core demographic for the medium, and messaging app Line recently conducted a survey to gauge just how often Japanese high school students are watching anime.

Responses were gathered from 1,041 Line-using high school students (520 boys and 521 girls) who were asked, “How often do you watch anime?” When the results were tallied, the majority, 54 percent, said they watch anime at least once a week, and nearly one in four said they watch anime at least four times a week.

How often do you watch anime?
● Almost every day: 15 percent
● 4-5 times a week: 7 percent
● 2-3 times a week: 17 percent
● 1 time a week: 15 percent
● 2-3 times a month: 10 percent
● 1 time a month or less: 18 percent
● I don’t watch anime at all: 10 percent

Answers were almost identical for boys and girls, with the largest gaps being just 4 percent for “2-3 times a week” (9 percent for boys vs. 5 percent for girls) and 3 percent for “I don’t watch anime at all” (21 percent for girls vs. 18 percent for boys).

▼ The survey says there’s a better-than-even chance that these kids watched some anime within the past seven days.

There were also a lot of similarities among which anime the boys and girls were fans of. When asked what series they were passionately following, the top response for both male and female respondents, not surprisingly, was Kimetsu no Yaiba: Demon Slayer. The guys’ number-two choice, My Hero Academia, ranked in at number four for the girls, and the girls’ second-place pick, Jujutsu Kaisen, was third among boys,

What series are you into now? (boys’ responses)
1. Kimetsu no Yaiba: Demon Slayer (27.3 percent of respondents)
2. My Hero Academia (25.9 percent)
3. Jujutsu Kaisen (25.7 percent)
4. That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime (22.9 percent)
5. One Piece (18. 9 percent)
6. Tokyo Revengers (18.5 percent)
7. World Trigger (17. 1 percent)
8. Detective Conan (15.4 percent)
9. Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation (14. 6 percent)
10. The Promised Neverland (14. 3 percent)

The names on the top-10 lists weren’t complete duplicates, though. Despite making it all the way to third place for girls, earnest-teenage-boys-playing-volleyball saga Haikyu!! was completely absent from the guys’ list, as were fellow female selections Life Lessons with Uramichi Oniisan and Doraemon. Over on the other side, the boys’ top-10 fondness for One Piece, World Trigger, and Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation didn’t carry over to similar support among girls.

What series are you into now? (girls’ responses)
1. Kimetsu no Yaiba: Demon Slayer (36.8 percent of respondents)
2. Jujutsu Kaisen (32.7 percent)
3. Haikyu!! (26.9 percent)
4 (tie). My Hero Academia (23.5 percent)
4 (tie). Tokyo Revengers (23,5 percent)
6. Detective Conan (22.5 percent)
7. The Promised Neverland (21.3 percent)
8. Life Lessons with Uramichi Oniisan (20.8 percent)
9. Doraemon (14 percent)
10. That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime (13.8 percent)

Regarding the top 10 results, it should be noted that the survey was conducted between October 29 and November 11, which explains the absence of more recently premiered hits like the newest arc of the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure anime. 18.7 percent of the boys and 12.1 percent of the girls also selected “not on the list/none in particular,” suggesting that they were presented with a pre-prepared list of series. That could mean that the highest-ranking series aren’t necessarily the ones with the most ardent fandoms so much as the broadest appeals, and the significantly larger number of boys who selected “other” might imply that they’re more likely than the girls to be to interested in niche series, or perhaps that they’re just in-general anime fans, as opposed to devotees of any particular series.

▼ So don’t worry, there’s still a chance that 18.7 percent of high school boys and 12.1 percent of high school girls have such highly refined artistic sensibilities that Slayers is what they’re into.

All that said, though, it looks like Japanese high school students really are watching a lot of anime, and that there’s a lot of common ground between what boys and girls want to watch.

Source: Line Research via Otakomu
Top image: Pakutaso (1, 2) (edited by SoraNews24)
Insert images: Pakutaso, SoraNews24
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