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Interest
Survey Asks Fans Which Showa-Era Anime They Want to Reboot

posted on by Jennifer Sherman

Both the Hollywood and the Japanese film industry have released their fair shares of remake films this summer. From Ghostbusters to Shin Godzilla, both sides of the Pacific have been able to fill their nostalgia quota by re-experiencing old favorites.

In light of this trend, the animeanime.jp website asked its readers which Showa-era (1926-1989) anime they would want a studio to remake. Their survey included both television series and films. The website used Twitter to determine a preliminary list of the top 20 anime fans wanted to remake and used this survey to narrow it down to the top ten.

The voting period was open from September 13 to September 18, and 475 readers voted for one anime each. About 70% of respondents were male. People in their teens and 20s were the top respondents with about 30% of the vote, followed by people in their 40s with about 20%.

The top ten Showa-era anime that fans want to remake are:

  1. Galaxy Express 999
  2. The Super Dimension Fortress Macross
  3. Akira
  4. Dragon Ball
  5. Sherlock Hound
  6. Captain Tsubasa
  7. Aoki Ryūsei SPT Layzner
  8. Gunbuster
  9. Space Adventure Cobra, Armored Trooper Votoms (tie)

Robot and science-fiction anime comprise seven of voters' top ten choices. animeanime.jp mused that perhaps readers wonder what those fantastical stories might look like if recreated with modern technology.

The remake boom is showing no signs of slowing down. Many of the recent remakes and reboots have proven lucrative, such as Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi's Shin Godzilla. The film opened on July 29 and earned 6,017,239,800 yen (about US$58.18 million) as of September 4. Funimation's screenings will open the film to a North American audience and further boost its total gross.

Another reboot project linked to Anno and his Studio Khara is the "Mobile Police Patlabor Reboot" short animation project. Japan Anima(tor)'s Exhibition (Japan Animator Expo), the anime shorts project from Studio Khara and the media company Dwango, will debut the work as an extra during Japan Animator Expo's one-week screening event beginning on October 15. Hopefully, with Shin Godzilla and his studio's short project out of the way, Anno will have time to finish a long-awaited remake: the final new Neon Genesis Evangelion film.

Japan itself continues to use classic pop culture references for self-promotion. Prime Minister Shinzō Abe appeared as Mario at the Olympic Closing Ceremony in Rio de Janeiro. He appeared alongside a video featuring franchises like Captain Tsubasa, Pac-Man, Doraemon, and Hello Kitty. There is little doubt that old, favorite characters and retro anime will keep resurfacing while Japan moves toward the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.


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