Top 20 Most Watched TV Series in Japan This Year (So Far); Jujutsu Kaisen, Demon Slayer, and Attack on Titan in Top 3

Jujutsu Kaisen has been crowned as the Most Popular Anime in Japan on SVOD Platforms as GEM Partners reveals their Top 20 Most-Streamed TV Series of 2021 in Japan (So Far).

Jujutsu Kaisen really has taken the domestic media market by storm. The series which has over 50 million copies in circulation in Japan and has sold over 100,000 BD/DVD discs, has also been crowned as the most-streamed TV series and the most popular anime in Japan across all the streaming platforms in the country according to GEM Partners.

GEM Partners revealed their list for the Top 20 most-watched TV series in Japan on SVOD services for the first half of the year earlier this week. And Jujutsu Kaisen has clinched the first spot.

The series has continued to reach new heights of popularity ever since it premiered last October and even finished second on the Oricon half-year chart. The manga series has sold more than 25 million copies during this fiscal year so far. Jujutsu Kaisen has also become the biggest title on Shonen Jump’s current roster as it has been selling more than 2 million copies per volume.

Jujutsu Kaisen will be releasing a prequel movie this Christmas titled, Jujutsu Kaisen Volume 0. The movie will see Maki, Inumaki, and Panda during their first year at Jujutsu Tech and will be telling the story of their classmate Yuuta. Gojo and Getou will be appearing in this movie as well.

Demon Slayer still remains in second place (almost two years after the first season ended). The second season of the anime is slated to start this October with the Mugen Train arc before it will air the Entertainment District arc in December.

Attack on Titan finished as the third biggest show in Japanese streaming, which doesn’t really come as a surprise knowing the humongous hype that has surrounded the series ever since the premiere of the final season.

Both Demon Slayer and Attack on Titan will be airing new episodes during the Winter 2022 anime season.

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The biggest surprise in the list is probably The Promised Neverland, which even with all the lackluster response that it has gotten for its second season, has managed to rank among the Top 5. Although it is notable that the franchise got a live-action adaptation as well right before the anime’s second season which gave both the manga and anime’s popularity a boost.

Yuru Camp and Slime Isekai have been a consistent favorite throughout the year in Japan. And both the shows have also ranked within the Top 10. The second season of That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime will conclude in September while a movie continuation has also been announced for Fall 2022.

The biggest jump in the list was seen with My Hero Academia, which was among the Top 40 during March but saw a meteoric rise after the 5th season started and even ranked 6th in May. My Hero Academia is soon heading into its much-anticipated arc, My Villain Academia, which will likely be the conclusion of the current season.

Tokyo Revengers followed a similar trajectory as well, as it is among the Top 15 for the year already, where it was in the 36th position during April. But judging by the manga’s huge popularity as it had already sold 5.4 million copies within the first five months of the year, it’s hardly a surprise.

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Dr. Stone has been doing remarkably well too as the popular shonen anime which aired its second season during this winter has ranked 11th on the list. Dr. Stone will be getting a third season soon which could premiere as early as late 2022.

Evangelion also got a boost from its film release and ranked 14th.

And Haikyuu is the only anime in the list aside from Demon Slayer and Evangelion, which charted in the list despite having no new episodes being released this year. The last episode of Season 4 aired right before the Christmas of 2020 and saw the conclusion of the Inter-high match between Karasuno and Inarizaki. The season ended with the tease of the long-awaited fated battle at the trash heap.

As many would expect, 16 of the 20 titles in the list were anime.

Top 20 Most-Watched TV Series on Japanese SVOD services in 2021 (So Far):

1. Jujutsu Kaisen
2. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba
3. Attack on Titan
4. Case Closed
5. The Promised Neverland
6. That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime
7. Yuru Camp
8. Hitoshi Matsumoto presents Documental
9. The Walking Dead
10. My Hero Academia
11. Dr. Stone
12. One Piece
13. Crash Landing on You
14. Neon Genesis Evangelion
15. Tokyo Revengers
16. Gourmet of Solitude
17. Kingdom
18. Cells at Work
19. Aiseki Shokudo
20. Haikyuu!!

Source: GEM Partners

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GEM Partners is a Japanese marketing firm that is centered around the entertainment industry and gathers data by surveying thousands of people every week aged between 16 and 69 regarding what they watched that past week on Netflix, Hulu Japan, Disney+, docomo anime store, Amazon Prime Video, ABEMA Premium, Paravi U-NEXT, and dTV.