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Answerman - Is Donghua Becoming Popular in the West?




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Sariachan



Joined: 09 May 2005
Posts: 1530
Location: Italy
PostPosted: Mon Apr 20, 2026 10:59 am Reply with quote
I watch lots of donghua! I recommend watching them in their original language: it can be a bit hard at first, but you'll soon get used to it and start to appreciate Mandarin Chinese (the language used in most donghua). ^^
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anime-prime



Joined: 17 Mar 2020
Posts: 81
PostPosted: Mon Apr 20, 2026 11:46 am Reply with quote
The Legend of Hei has a distributor. Shout Factory released it in 2021 with a dub. It's also currently streaming on Tubi. GKIDS is releasing the dubbed sequel on digital next month.
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Zendervai



Joined: 06 Apr 2012
Posts: 263
PostPosted: Mon Apr 20, 2026 1:16 pm Reply with quote
Oh yeah, Big Fish and Begonia.

Beautiful movie, genuinely gorgeous. The pacing is terrible and yeah, the characters are extremely difficult to connect to. There's characters who make huge sacrifices for no apparent reason because the movie doesn't put the effort in.
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AnswerJerome



Joined: 17 Mar 2025
Posts: 32
PostPosted: Mon Apr 20, 2026 2:56 pm Reply with quote
anime-prime wrote:
The Legend of Hei has a distributor. Shout Factory released it in 2021 with a dub. It's also currently streaming on Tubi. GKIDS is releasing the dubbed sequel on digital next month.


My bad. I will correct the record. Thank you.
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mdo7



Joined: 23 May 2007
Posts: 8218
Location: Katy, Texas, USA
PostPosted: Mon Apr 20, 2026 4:09 pm Reply with quote
Judging by the way from some how international Donghua fans that had no experience with watching anime or Japanese animation accidentally mislabeled some anime titles like The Apothecary Diaries and Raven of the Inner Palace because of their Chinese or Chinese-like setting and because the animation in those 2 titles I mentioned can look or resemble a bit close to donghua titles (I've seen several donghua animation that looks very close to Japanese animation, I almost can mistake those animation to be Japanese anime), and you factor in anime-donghua co-production like Haoliners back in 2017/2018, they can blur the line between anime or donghua. So it could be helping donghua getting more international audiences. So that's your reason for donghua gaining more international audiences alongside anime and Korean animation, and speaking of Korean animation...

I've also been in the K-pop fandom for 10+ years (15+ given my previous experience watching K-dramas before K-pop), and yes I can confirmed because of K-pop, Webtoons, and K-dramas, K-animation/Aeni or Korean animation have seen a jump in international audiences. So Korean animation thanks to K-pop and K-drama and Webtoons are giving anime a run for their international money/profit. And speaking of K-pop...

I want to add that I don't see Chinese and Japanese animation helping their music getting the international audiences that K-pop has gotten thanks to K-dramas.
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whiskeyii



Joined: 29 May 2013
Posts: 2458
PostPosted: Tue Apr 21, 2026 12:31 am Reply with quote
mdo7 wrote:

I want to add that I don't see Chinese and Japanese animation helping their music getting the international audiences that K-pop has gotten thanks to K-dramas.


I would tentatively suggest that in J-Pop's case, that may be because the heyday of J-Pop may have already passed, back when J-Pop was flooding the airwaves in the early to mid 2000s (even the very conservative central Texan morning radio station I listened to as I was shuffled off to school had a request come in for Utada Hikaru, of all people), and you could find a handful of J-Pop CDs in Borders and/or Barnes and Nobles back then. We nerds were all singing our favorite OPs and EDs in school talent shows and con stage shows back then too; not so much nowadays.

EDIT: Also, many thanks for that list, I will be using it as my North star for "Donghua for Dummies" even tho I've already watched To Be Hero X purely by happenstance thanks to ANN's coverage (and continue to foist it on my friends at every available opportunity.)
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mdo7



Joined: 23 May 2007
Posts: 8218
Location: Katy, Texas, USA
PostPosted: Tue Apr 21, 2026 9:31 am Reply with quote
I previously wrote:
and you factor in anime-donghua co-production like Haoliners back in 2017/2018, they can blur the line between anime or donghua. So it could be helping donghua getting more international audiences. So that's your reason for donghua gaining more international audiences alongside anime


And if you're wondering if there have been cases of anime fans mistakenly mis-identify a donghua for anime? Yes, it has happened but it usually an anime fan that just became a new fan or had low information/knowledge to anime or even a casual anime fan (not a nerdy, anime scholar-type person). So yeah it does happen from time to time and I expect this anime-donghua misidentification will continue to rise amongst the newer and entry-level anime fan and donghua fan (the one that don't have any experience with anime) because of the way donghua's animation can be drawn to resemble anime.
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Zendervai



Joined: 06 Apr 2012
Posts: 263
PostPosted: Tue Apr 21, 2026 10:44 am Reply with quote
At least some of the deal with J-Pop is likely that the Japanese record labels, on average, either didn't really understand the point of expanding internationally or were actively hostile to the idea of it happening in any context but exactly the one they wanted (hi Johnny's). Johnny's actually put a lot of effort in to trying to get American attention, but most of it flopped because they were sort of attempting to go around the only avenue that existed, so the result was random singers under their label putting out an all Japanese album in American stores with very little advertising and, sometimes, the link with whatever anime they sang a song for being actively buried.
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