As if it were not already plain enough how much the tastes of American anime fans differ to those of the Japanese, a survey of what the Japanese think of the USA’s “Top 30 Anime Classics” confirms it in no uncertain terms, with Ghost in the Shell and Akira yet again losing out to such genre classics as Pokemon, although it seems virtually everyone can agree on the greatness of Ghibli.
The ranking, with the original American ranking positions in brackets:
1. Neon Genesis Evangelion (2nd)
2. Pokemon (17th)
3. Spirited Away (10th)
4. Princess Mononoke (6th)
5. My Neighbour Totoro (14th)
6. Nausicaa Of The Valley Of The Wind (5th)
7. Howl’s Moving Castle (21st)
8. Gundam (15th)
9. One Piece (12th)
10. Grave Of The Fireflies (25th)
11. The Castle of Cagliostro (24th)
12. Ghost In The Shell (1st)
13. Naruto (3rd)
14. Dragon Ball Z (7th)
15. Rurouni Kenshin (16th)
16. Millennium Actress (27th)
17. Bleach (29th)
18. The Super Dimension Fortress Macross (30th)
19. Akira (4th)
20. D.Gray-man (26)
21. Soul Eater (28)
22. Patlabor (19)
23. Tekkon Kinkreet (18th)
24. Ninja Scroll (8th)
25. The Vision of Escaflowne (11th)
26. Tokyo Godfathers (13th)
27. Memories (20th)
28. Sword of the Stranger (9th)
29. Street Fighter 2 (22nd)
30. Dead Leaves (23rd)
Americans may of course doubt the validity of any ranking which fails to include Cowboy Bebop…
love ghost in tha shell.
Its off this poll, Cowboy Bebop is immensely popular, Trigun also really popular in the west (even though it not nearly as such in Japan) and Outlaw Star was also pretty popular. I know a lot of people that seen champloo but not sure how widespead it is. Hellsing also got a lot of popularity.
no sword of berserk? no samurai chaploo? no shigurui death frenzy? xD where the hell they get theses ppl at in usa that answered the poll? a cave in utah?
cowboy beebop, samurai champloo, trigun, samurai seven, inuyasha …
I didn’t even know they were aware that good anime existed…