The Most Influential Anime of Your Childhood
Japanese asked which anime and manga had the greatest influence over them as children, shaping their lives and aspirations, gave a surprisingly uniform set of answers, with titles such as Gundam and Fist of the North Star evidently doing much to shape the minds of entire generations…
The overall results are as follows:
What has most influenced your life and aspirations?
23.9% TV (exc. anime & manga )
19.7% Anime & manga
19.5% Schoolteacher
18.9% Books
18.7% Father
18.0% Mother
Anime and manga are apparently considered more influential than one’s own parents, at least individually…
What anime and manga have most influenced your life and aspirations?
From the seventies:
For men, 39% listed Gundam as the most influential, followed by Space Battleship Yamato (34.4%), Galaxy Express 999 (32.8%) and Lupin III (32%).
Women admitted to being besotted with Candy Candy (44.6%), Alps no Shoujo Heidi (35.2%) and Manga Nippon Mukashibanashi (31.8%).
Manga Nippon Mukashibanashi was the overall top with 27.3%, thanks to the drastically different tastes exhibited by the sexes.
From the eighties:
For men, Fist of the North Star was top with 34.4%, followed by Touch (30%) and Dragonball (28.8%).
For women, the most influential was Touch (34%) followed by Dr. Slump (24.8%) and Nausicaa (24.2%).
Touch came overall top with 32%, a hit with both genders it seems.
Gundam and Candy Candy have a lot to answer for, it seems…
