Prince of Tennis Forum

Paris' 10th annual Japan Expo, which would be the nation's equivalent to America's Anime Expo perhaps, has attracted some new guests this year: Shintarou Akiyama and Yuuichirou Hirata, also known as the Prince of Tennis Musicals' Yuushi Oshitari and Kaoru Kaidou. A third actor, whose name appears to be Ryouzou Katou but who I can't find any info on (perhaps a newbie to TeniMyu?) is also a guest.

It's always interesting to me what otaku stuff catches on in places that are neither Japan nor North America-- Prince of Tennis has never been anywhere near as big here as in Japan, obviously, but apparently it's a bit more popular in France.

Can you think of other cases like this, where a country in Europe or South America or elsewhere latched onto an anime that wasn't as popular in North America?

Hi ! I'm living in France and actually I can tell you that Prince of Tennis is not THAT popular in France, but I know that we have a lot of fangirls obsessed by all thoses japanese musicals (I met some of them at a Kokia's concert and it was scary).

BUT at Japan Expo we'll have Puffy Amiyumi and CLAMP and that's really more interesting :)

@Elfie : Yep, Rose of Versaille has been really popular in France back in the early 90's and like you said, the DVDs are still selling well. All of this is thanks to a TV show showing various animes such as Dragon Ball, City Hunter, Rose of Versailles, Captain Harlock, Cobra, Grendizer and a lot of others... But eventually some politics decided that japanese animation was bad for childrens and in the late 90's the japanese animation was anything but popular... Fortunately the mangas started to sell well few years later and the passion for Japan came back quickly