Little from Asia can compete with anime on the global entertainment stage, where fandom drives commitment and decades-old franchises based on print stories still top the list of Asian titles most in demand. ContentAsia asked data science company Parrot Analytics to look at the top 10 Asian shows around the world this year. Nine of the 10 spots go to anime. The sole non-anime title was Korea’s 2013 series, Good Doctor, which received a bump from remakes in the U.S. and Japan.

1. Dragon Ball Super

Toei Animation’s Dragon Ball Super, which ran in Japan from 2015 until earlier this year, was the giant of manga giants in 2018, outranking its nearest competitor – Attack on Titan – with 1.93 demand expressions per capita. Part of a cult franchise that goes back to the 1980s, the series opens with peace on earth threatened by powerful evil forces. Goku rises to the rescue once again. The super-powered Dragon Ball franchise shows no sign of slowing down; The 7 November trailer for the Dragon Ball Super: Broly feature film had more than 4.2 million views in its first four days on YouTube.

2. Good Doctor Korea

Five years after it premiered on KBS in Korea, single-season medical drama Good Doctor is riding high on two high-profile regional/international remakes – the first in the U.S. in 2017 and the second for Japan’s Fuji TV in 2018 – along with a window on Netflix. The original Korean series starred Joo Won as the autistic doctor whose medical skills outweigh his ability to relate to fellow hospital staffers or patients. The 20-episode original commanded top ratings spot in Korea for most of its run. The U.S. series (Sony Pictures Television/ABC Studios) stars Freddie Highmore; season two premiered in September 2018. The Japanese version, starring Kento Yamazaki, ran from July to Septthis year on Fuji TV (10pm, Thursdays).

3. My Hero Academia

Three TV seasons and a movie drove My Hero Academia – the story of a schoolboy learning how to be a superhero – into global consciousness over the past two and a half years. In Asia, My Hero Academia has found a particularly happy home in Malaysia, topping the country’s list of top 10 titles at the end of September this year, beating Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead.

4. Attack on Titan

After humanity is all but destroyed by Ti- tans, survivors live within three giant walls. Their relative peace is shattered when a 200-foot Titan breaches the outer wall. Fear and chaos ensue as the marauding Titans start devouring human life once again. The series’ hero is Eren Yeager, whotakes on a Titan form after being eaten. The original manga title appeared in print in 2009, migrated to video games, and made its way to television in 2013. Theatrical versions followed in 2014/5. Season three aired on NHK in Japan this year. Warner Bros is producing a feature film adaptation of Attack on Titan, directed by Andy Muschietti.

5. Naruto

Naruto, the coming-of-age story of an adolescent Ninja with big dreams, was first published in 1997, with a television adaptation by Studio Pierrot for TV Tokyo in 2002, and a total of 11 films. The television series ran for 220 episodes - most based on the manga but with some originals for television – until 2007. The original production has been remastered in HD.

6. One Piece

The world’s best selling manga, One Piece debuted in mid-1997, introducing Monkey D. Luffy and his quest to find the “one piece” that will make him the next pirate king. The Toei Animation series premiered on Fuji TV in Japan in 1999 and has clearly never gone away, expanding into everything from feature films and video games to theme parks. Myriad channels around the world, including Animax in Southeast Asia, have included OnePiece in their schedules over the years.

7. Naruto: Shippuden

A sequel to the original epic ninja adventure series Naruto, Naruto: Shippuden is set two and a half years later. The series ran on TV Tokyo in Japan from Feb 2007 to March 2017.

8. Dragon Ball Z

The sequel to Toei Animation’s original Dragon Ball property picks up Goku’s story in early adulthood, where, along with his two sons and various allies, he continues to fight villains and creatures. Versioning for English-speaking North American markets was plagued by criticism over integrity to the original story lines and imagery. Dragon Ball Z premiered on Fuji TV in Japan in April 1989and ran for seven years.

9. Tokyo Ghoul

A relative newcomer to the anime scene, Tokyo Ghoul debuted as a manga series in 2011, followed by a fantasy anime TV series in 2014 and a live-action feature film last year. Tokyo Ghoul is set in a city haunted by flesh-eating creatures who look human. The lead character is Ken Kaneki, a college student caught between two worlds. After an almost-deadly date with a ghoul, Kaneki wakes as half- human/half-ghoul who needsto consume human flesh to survive. The series follows his efforts to deal with his new life, including fitting into ghoul society. Netflix has picked up three seasons.

10. The Seven Deadly Sins

Fantasy manga series, The Seven Deadly Sins, is a newer addition to thelandscape. Its six-yearpedigree includes global exposure from thebeginning on Netflix. All 24episodes were made available simultaneously in November 2015, followed by part two in February 2017. The feature film, The Seven Deadly Sins the Movie: Prisoners of the Sky premiered in August this year.

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Published in Issue Seven of ContentAsia's in-print + online 2018 (December 2018)