Western cartoons that did well in Japan?

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happygolucky13920

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Just wondering if there are Western cartoons and even live action stuff that did well in Japan.

On top of my head, Tom and Jerry is quite known there (being the only cartoon to be placed in a Japanese magazine poll), TMNT 03 had decent reception (and I guess it's the reason why I'm seeing various nicovideo memes with them in it), and I heard Power Rangers Lost Galaxy beat Gingaman. Judging by Yatterman 2008, it seems that 24 also got good reception in Japan.
 
I remember reading that there was a list of most popular animes in Japan and Tom and Jerry was one of the most popular.
 
Transformers? It was a Japanese toy turned American cartoon (but partially animated in Japan) and exported back to Japan so they could dub over the American version for Japanese audiences. Hahaha...man, that's confusing.

I think Simpsons does OK there too. Don't forget Powerpuff Girls.
 
They're cooler looking than the American animation though. Good god, the 90s X-Men was a horrible looking show (in design, animation, colour, etc) even by the standards of the time. I watched every episode of it when I was a teen but it hasn't aged any better over the years from a visual standpoint.
 
I believe Batman The Animated Series was popular there. Not very surprising since it was animated in Japan, but it was handrawn in the US so I'm counting it as "western animation".

Batman Beyond was even more popular I believe though.
 
Powerpuff Girls had a popular run in Japan that is what lead to the creation of PPGZ. it was not a replacement like some people claim but a cash in to something already popular in Japan.
 
I can vouch that Tom and Jerry is popular in Japan. You can find DVDs everywhere its sold at.

"Wacky Races" has a cult following there, too, believe it or not. And certain Looney Tunes characters, especially Tweety, is popular.

I remember seeing alot of T-shirts with Betty Boop, even though I don't think many people have actually seen the cartoons.

And "Peanuts". Definitely popular there, especially Snoopy. Same can be said for Disney characters.
 
Disney is HUGE in Japan.


So far what I have seen, PPG and Ben 10 is growing pretty big.

And, there's some doujin/doujinshi out already for these cartoons.
ben10manga_01.jpg


Here's the site where I found it: http://ppgcom.blog12.fc2.com/
 
I believe some of Pixar films do pretty darn well over there. According to Box Office Mojo, WALL-E was in the #1 spot three of the four weeks in December '08 and the first two weeks in January. Monsters Inc. held the #1 spot in 2002 for six weeks in a row. And Finding Nemo held the #1 spot the last few weeks of December '03 as well as the first week of Jan. '04. Not too shabby.

(Though unless I missed it, I didn't find The Incredibles or Ratatouille in the #1 spot at all- maybe Japan hates Brad Bird? :p )
 
South Park is huge in Japan, England, and Australia. I heard at one point in the late 90's, its popularity in Japan rivaled its popularity in America.
 
Tiny Toons did really well in Japan and played almost the entire series (or, whatever was completed at the time). Infact, that is probably the main reason we got a number of games back on the NES, SNES, and Megadrive days. Not to mention, Tiny Toons was used to promote some Hitachi products way back when. As far as we can tell, it appears TMS did the animated footage in the commercial, the same company that was outsourced to do a number of episodes, including the intro sequence.

Unfortunately, it's sad to say that Animaniacs didn't do as well and got pulled after 13 episodes. I'm unsure if it was ratings related or it could have been simply filler to fill the time. Regardless, only 13 or so episodes were dubbed in Japanese as a result. Pinky and the Brain was dubbed and did air, but I'm unsure as to what network and how well it did.
 
The original comic books go beyond sound logic. I rather the lack of logic go more towards looking awesome than muddling the story with bad science that the writers ignore anyway.

Also, I remember that Oswald seems to have gotten a surge of merchendise in Japan recently, though I'm not 100% sure what that's about. There was also once a Felix the Cat anime called Baby Felix, though I don't know too much about it.
 
Iv'e heard that when the Baby Felix anime began airing in Japan (i think it was in 2004 or so) Felix the Cat in general became enormously popular and Felix merchandise sold like hotcakes. To bad the anime never aired in the west, Felix certainly could use some exposure to todays generation of western kids as well.
 
IIRC, it has something to do with that Japan has a thing for retro-looking stuff (I think the original-design Mickey is also pretty popular over there), and the fact that he's a cute animal just increases his appeal.

This also explains why Felix is so dang popular, because he also fits the retro and cute animal appeals.
 
Years later the rest of the Animaniacs did get released through Cartoon Network Japan.

Pinky and the Brain also aired on CN Japan, but I don't know if it was available before that.
 
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