its better in japan, because its essentially a netflix exclusive, where usually other anime is watched via their local networks. it's induced popularity through exclusivity.
It’s a Netflix exclusive everywhere, but it still worked better in Japan. It was undeniably a success, and I think that’s enough to qualify it as a product made (also) for the Japanese market.
Keep in mind, at everywhere else, they also have to compete against netflixs definition of anime (which is a step below japans definition of it) which also has marketing tied to it.
Prime video in japan is more popular than Netflix (which is BY FAR not thr case in the west for the most part)
Sorry, I didn’t really understand the first paragraph (I just woke up so that might be a factor), what’s Netflix’s definition of anime and why does it matter for marketing?
Also yes, Prime Video is more popular than Netflix in Japan, but that’s also the case in the US, which has around a third of the streaming service userbase, so it’s not really that much of an outlier.
Netflix definition of anime includes shows like Castlevania, which some people do not consider anime. Its only a step back from japans definiton as it doesnt include all other kinds of animated work as to a japanese, Spongebob for example would be considered anime.
How people consume media on said platform and all platform affects rankings. The average japanes person watches anime off local network like ATX, Tokyo MX and such, which devalues some anime on atreaming aites in japan, unless they are exclusive. This is not the case for other regions where having a channel with a lot of anime options is not really a thing, so everyone is primarily watching it via streaming. This then gives more viewership to mainstream anime because the tv option is no longer/was never viable, thus mainstrean anime float up rankings in outside media. But sink in japan because theyre watching it elsewhere.
But none of the series in the US top 10 for those three weeks were anime (or animated at all).
Meanwhile in Japan, LycoReco and Spy x Family still went well on streaming services even if they already passed on TV (even there, a lot of people prefer watching stuff on streaming to having to schedule your day in order to watch tv programs at a specific hour).
In particular with Spy x Family, it had a broader appeal, and was not limited to just anime fans. Its of the few shows that were watched universally by japanese audiences. So habits of watching it on tv werent necessarily done by those users. Very very few shows reach that benchmark
That’s true… but I still don’t get how this would support the fact that Edgerunners didn’t do well in Japan. Because it did, even in relation to other, more Japanese-tailored Netflix exclusives like Kotaro lives Alone or Romantic Killer.
Its not that edrunners didnt do well in japan, its just that the shows target audience wasnt initially japanese or pitched in a way that they were expecting a lot of japanese people to watch it. Having japanese is something tagged on due to the game supporting several languages, and it being worked on by studio trigger, who already has a history of working with western companies who do projects like these.
Studio trigger on its own brings a lot of specific people to watch their show, regardless of target audience. Its of the few studios to get people who "hate mecha, but actually has almost never gave mecha a shot in the first place" to watch mecha (via indirectly with TTGL, or Directly via Darling in the Franx, or Promare). Its this audience on why they had also included japanese dub because some of that audience has some pretty strong opinions on dub vs sub, even though realistically speaking, japanese dub would only make sense if all the characters were from the Westbrook district of Night City.