Interest

According to Poll, Japanese Kids Admire Tanjirō More Than Their Parents

So much for the "roof over your head, clothes on your back" defense; elementary-aged school children in Japan admire Demon Slayer hero Tanjirō more than their own parents, according to a survey conducted by education and publishing company Benesse.

The survey asked 7,661 third to sixth grade kids (5,170 girls and 2,491 boys) enrolled in the company's Shinkenzemi Elementary School Course to the things they liked best year, including their most admired people. Approximately 30% of students chose Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba as their favorite thing from 2020. It stands to reason that Tanjirō would also rank highly, beating out moms with 618 votes. Moms were able to rally enough love to get second place, just ahead of another Demon Slayer character, Shinobu Kocho.

Dad's get the short end of the stick at #5, one rank below the children's' teachers and above Giyū Tomioka, also of Demon Slayer. In fact, the rest of the top 10 are Demon Slayer characters.

1. Tanjirō Kamado
2. My Mom
3. Shinobu Kocho
4. My Teacher
5. My Dad
6. Giyū Tomioka
7. Nezuko Kamado
8. Kyōjuro Rengoku
9. Zenitsu Agatsuma
10. Muichiro Tokito

The children's other favorite things from 2020 were video games, anime, and Animal Crossing. Interestingly, Benesse's school program also includes Demon Slayer-themed coursework, including kanji drills.

The Demon Slayer franchise was the first since 2008 to dominate both Oricon's annual general book ranking and annual manga ranking in the same year. The manga sold an estimated 82,345,447 copies from November 18, 2019 to November 22, 2020. The 23rd and final volume sold 2.855 million copies from November 30 to December 6. It was also the first franchise to take the top 22 slots on the annual manga ranking chart by volume. In addition, the limited editions of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba volume 20 and 21 claimed the #27 and #28 spots, so the series occupied 24 of the top 30. When regular and limited editions are combined, each of its first 22 volumes sold over three million copies in these past 12 months.

TOHO reported on Wednesday that the Demon Slayer – Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train anime helped its November box office revenues jump 1,063% over the same month last year. Demon Slayer – Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train began screening in 38 IMAX theaters in Japan on October 16. The film had the highest opening weekend globally for the October 16-18 weekend and sold 3,424,930 tickets to earn 4,623,117,450 yen (about US$43.85 million) in Japan in its first three days. The film sold 910,507 tickets and earned over 1,268,724,700 yen (about US$12.03 million) on its opening day alone, making it the highest weekday opening day in Japan ever.

Source: Mainichi Shimbun's Mantan Web