It’s time for another fun survey from anime informational website Charapedia!
The site recently asked 10,000 of its users to share their top picks for the top 20 manga/anime series that they would like to show to their children. If you think that the results are full of fluff and potty humor, you may be surprised at some of the more thought-provoking choices on the list.
In typical fashion, Charapedia offered the online survey for one week. According to the stats, 54.1 percent of the respondents were male and 45.9 percent were female. Additionally, 70.8 percent were in their 10s or 20s, and 29.2 percent were in their 30s or older.
Below, we’ve compiled a list in English of the top 20 series that made the cut. The “points” assigned to each ranking were calculated using Charapedia’s own formula that took into account the number of votes cast, the overall ordered ranking, and the presence or absence of comments for each series.
20. Puella Magi Madoka Magica (99 points)
19. Pokémon (122 points)
18. Little Busters! (127 points)
17. A Certain… Series (137 points)
16. Love Live! (140 points)
15. Natsume’s Book of Friends (141 points)
14. Digimon Adventure (146 points)
13. Slam Dunk (147 points)
12. Angel Beats! (151 points)
11. K-On! (156 points)
10. Kuroko’s Basketball (158 points)
9. Haikyuu! (165 points)
8. Your Lie in April (175 points)
7. Sword Art Online (181 points)
6. Doraemon (193 points)
And now, rounding off the top five:
5. Gintama (217 points)
4. Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day (221 points)
3. One Piece (227 points)
2. Naruto (261 points)
1. Clannad (370 points)
Nabbing first place was none other than Clannad, which began as a visual novel (an interactive fiction game) in 2004 and became popular enough to earn manga and anime adaptations. The first part of the story follows loafer Tomoya Okazaki during his last year of high school, during which he befriends five girls and helps them to resolve their individual problems. There’s a whole lot of drama and romance, and the series deals with complex issues relating to family, personal loss, and the path to adulthood. Furthermore, the second half of the story, known as Clannad: After Story, will reduce you into a big sobbing puddle as it heaps tragedy upon tragedy. In other words, Clannad seems like a strange choice to be winning a poll about series that people would want to show to their young children.
Japanese net users were a bit incredulous at some of the results, particularly the top spot going to Clannad:
“Clannad!? Have you people gone mad!?”
“Doraemon‘s there, but where’s Crayon Shin-chan!?”
“This feels more like a popularity ranking than anything else.”
“People who don’t have kids must have filled out this survey.”
“One Piece is about pirates! That’s not a good influence for kids ;)”
Maybe the Japanese survey respondents believed that children could handle the complex drama of some of these series, or maybe the net users just aren’t giving them enough credit. Also, perhaps Charapedia should have specified which particular children’s age group they were targeting for this survey!
Sources: Charapedia via My Game News Flash
Featured image: Irorio