Japanese mobile phone giant NTT Docomo has announced the results of its seasonal anime popularity poll. Every season, the firm asks users of its dAnime Store service to take part in two polls. The first asks which shows the users are excited about and then, in the middle of the season, it asks users to vote on which anime is their favorite. The week-long poll attracted 151,791 votes and the results, which were published by Crunchyroll, are actually pretty surprising, with several shows seeing impressive drops or growth in popularity.
The battle at the top was surprisingly close. Jujutsu Kaisen took the top spot, edging out The Irregular at Magic High School: Visitor Arc by a mere 293 votes. The fifth most anticipated anime of the season, Jujutsu Kaisen, seems to have won over both fans of the manga and those new to the franchise. The story follows young Yūji Itadori, who, after consuming a strange finger, becomes host to an evil Curse. Yūji is then taken to Tokyo Metropolitan Magic Technical College, where the heads of the hidden magical community force him to hunt down the other fingers. It isn't surprising that Jujutsu Kaisen took the top spot.
The show is one of the best new examples of the monster-slaying genre and has dominated the pages of Weekly Shōnen Jump for the last few years. While some of its concepts have been done before, Jujutsu Kaisen puts an interesting twist on all of them and presents them in a way that is both engaging and gripping.
The biggest fall of the season is Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai. The 20th most popular anime, the series dropped 10 places between the anticipation poll and this one. The Dragon Quest franchise started in 1986 and this series is an adaptation of the manga that was first released in 1989. This is actually the second adaptation of this manga, as Toei Animation produced one in the early 1990s. While the new series is getting praised for its fluid animation, it feels stale next to the more original and inventive shows that are airing right now.
Three different anime share the title of biggest position jump, with Iwa Kakeru! -Sport Climbing Girls- (27th), King's Raid: Successors Of The Will (30th) and Magatsu Wahrheit -Zuerst- (36th) all going up by 16 places. It is interesting to note that both King's Raid: Successors Of The Will and Magatsu Wahrheit -Zuerst- are based on mobile games. This suggests that the worlds created for these games have large crossover appeal and that there is potential for more mobile games to get fully-fledged anime adaptations... Or that non-players had simply heard little about the games' setting and story until the anime introduced them to it.
Iwa Kakeru! -Sport Climbing Girls- is based on the manga by Ryūdai Ishizaka. Sports anime focused on more obscure sports are not new, so it was only a matter of time before someone made an anime about rock climbing. Thanks to a combination of light antics, cute characters and fan service, the show has developed a dedicated fanbase, especially among those who like their sports anime silly rather than serious.
One of the biggest jumps in the top half of the poll is Sleepy Princess In The Demon Castle. It took the 15th position in the anticipation poll but rose to seventh place in this one, cementing it as this season's sleeper hit (no pun intended.) Based on a manga that started in 2016, the series follows Princess Syalis, who, after being captured by the Demon King and taken to his castle, tries to find a way to get a nice nap. The show is funny and charming and parodies a lot of classic fantasy and RPG tropes, and while on the surface, the concept seems a little dull, word of mouth has helped attract new viewers. The idea of trying to get some rest while being stuck inside seems to resonate with viewers -- likely because COVID-19 is keeping us inside more than usual. The show's light comedy is just the thing the world needs right now.
Wandering Witch: The Journey of Elaina has also done really well for itself. While it was the ninth most anticipated anime, it is the third most popular in this poll. It follows the witch Elaina as she travels around a fantasy world and the show mines a lot of variety from this premise. The fact it isn't shying away from the darker aspects of its world has also won over people looking for a more realistic take on the genre.
Another sleeper hit is Talentless Nana. This show was ranked 23rd in the anticipation poll but reached the tenth position in this poll. This increase of 13 places makes it the biggest increase in the top 20. It isn't hard to see why it has done so well, either: while it is based on a manga that started in 2016, the basic synopsis makes the show sound like a rather generic superhero school show in the vein of My Hero Academia. But as it starts, Talentless Nana reveals itself to actually be a dark and twisted thrill ride that will keep you guessing with its perfectly paced intrigue and strange characters.
Overall, the NTT Docomo poll has shown some interesting trends. Fantasy seems to dominate the top 10, with five of those 10 featuring fantasy or magical worlds. This suggests that viewers are looking for some escapism right now. But there is still plenty of variety to be found among the top 20, with everything from sports to comedy represented. The massive jumps for shows like Talentless Nana and Sleepy Princess In The Demon Castle show that even series without massive hype behind them can easily find an audience via word of mouth.
It also demonstrates that a lot of series are rejoicing in subverting expectations. Something that seems to be one thing may quickly become something else, attracting an audience that wasn't interested in the original synopsis.
