Otaku USA Magazine
Japanese Fans Rank The Anime They’d Like To Show Their Children

What anime would you like to show your children?

That’s the question posed by anime polling site Charapedia, who asked their readers, took those results and baked them into a top 20 stew fit for all children. Maybe.

Without delay, the results:

20. Puella Magi Madoka Magica
19. Pokémon
18. Little Busters!

17. A Certain series
16. Love Live!
15. Natsume’s Book of Friends
14. Digimon Adventure
13. Slam Dunk
12. Angel Beats!
11. K-On!
10. Kuroko’s Basketball
9. Haikyu!!
8. Your Lie in April
7. Sword Art Online
6. Doraemon

And the top five…

5. Gintama
4. anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day
3. One Piece
2. Naruto
1. Clannad

Here are some reader comments for the top five:

Gintama

“It’s filled with gags, battles and serious bits all in perfect balance.”
“It teaches you what’s important in life.”

anohana

“Ah, the feels! I want my kids to watch this once they reach the same age as the heroes.”
“I want my kids to learn the importance of keeping their hearts open even when they get hurt.”

One Piece

“I want my kids to understand the importance of friendship.”
“I want them to feel the thrill of One Piece.”

Naruto

“It teaches you to hold on tight to your dreams.”
“I want them to understand the importance of friends of family.”

Clannad

“This is really a series that shows the importance of friends and family.”
“Clannad is life.”
“A show that really makes you thankful for your parents.”

A few comments from over here at Otaku USA. The first thing we noticed was a distinct lack of any films from Studio Ghibli, which definitely made us do a bit of a double-take. Our best guess: it’s such an obvious thing that Japanese kids will see Ghibli films they aren’t even worth mentioning.

As far as the reasons fans chose these particular anime, one theme keeps coming up again and again: the importance of friends and family. These are definitely all anime that carry that theme – but man, Madoka Magica is one heavy way to learn those lessons.

All right, OUSA readers: what anime would you show your kids and why?

Source: Charapedia

Matt Schley

Matt Schley (rhymes with "guy") lives in Tokyo, and has been OUSA's "man in Japan" since 2012. He's also written about anime and Japanese film for the Japan Times, Screen Daily and more.

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