Parrot Analytics Genre Trend reports reveal which genres and subgenres appealed to a market's audiences the most during the quarter.

The key questions investigated in this report include:

1. Which genres are most in-demand for Japanese audiences this quarter?

2. How do genre trends in Japan compare to global trends for the quarter?

3. Which subgenres are most in-demand for Japanese audiences this quarter?

4. For only digital original series, what genres are most demanded by Japanese audiences this quarter and how is this different to the overall shares?

For all titles, which genres are Japanese audiences demanding most?

• In 2019 Q4, Japanese audiences expressed the most total demand for series in the drama genre, with a 35.7% share of demand. The most demanded Japanese drama this quarter is TV Tokyo’s The Solitary Gourmet.

• Animation has a very high demand share of 19.3% in this market, making it the second most demanded genre. Japan’s most in-demand animation of the quarter is My Hero Academia from MBS.

• In most markets the No. 2 genre is comedy. However, because of the strong demand for animation in Japan comedy is third with a demand share of 11.7%.

How do Genre Demand Shares in Japan compare to global trends?

• Compared to global averages, Japanese audiences express 12.9% more demand for animation series.

• Variety series are also favored in Japan. The variety genre has 1.0% more demand share in this market than the genre does on average around the world.

• However, the demand share for action and adventure and children’s series is lower than the global share. Comedy is lowest of all, with 4.2% less demand share in Japan than globally.

For all titles, which subgenres are Japanese audiences demanding most?

• Looking at the ten most in-demand subgenres in Japan reveals where the animation demand is coming from. Japanese animation (anime) is by far the most demanded subgenre in this quarter. It accounts for 16.4% demand share of the Japanese market alone, leaving less than 1% of animation demand for all other animation subgenres.

• This is not a surprising result as anime is usually one of the top subgenres in other markets. Additionally, Japan both originated the subgenre and is by far the largest producer of anime series. The quarter’s most demanded anime is My Hero Academia.

• Japanese audiences express high demand for medical dramas. This is the 8th most demanded subgenre here, but is not one of the top ten subgenres globally for the quarter. The most in-demand Japanese medical drama for 2019 Q4 is Code Blue.

For digital original titles, which genres are Japanese audiences demanding most?

• The 2019 Q4 genre shares for digital original series show that the Japanese taste for animations is not yet being fully supplied by SVODs. Animation only has an 8.6% demand share of digital originals, compared to 19.3% for all titles in Japan.

• Conversely, action and adventure digital originals have 11.7% more demand share than the genre does overall in the market. It is also the second largest digital original genre after drama. The quarter’s most demanded digital original action and adventure series is YouTube Premium’s Fischers And The Lost Treasure.

• As well as animation, reality and variety are both under-served genres for digital originals in Japan. Both genres have significantly lower digital original demand shares than they do overall in the market.

This report is intended as a high-level overview of genre trends in this market. To access more granular genre demand trends for specific platforms, types of titles, timeframes and more, contact your Parrot Analytics representative to discuss the Analyse tier.