Well, the polls certainly mean something.
Summary:
- Fans wonder how important AnimeJapan’s “Manga We Want to Be Made into Anime” yearly polls are.
- While no anime from the last year’s poll has an adaptation yet, most anime that placed high a few years ago got adaptations.
- There is definitely a correlation.
Along with a yearly exhibition where new projects get announced, AnimeJapan runs various other activities. Among them are the “Manga We Want to Be Made into Anime” polls, which often attract the attention of Western fans as well.
Many otaku wonder how much these polls even matter, though — do the winners always get adapted? What about the rest of the high-ranking nominations? Answers to these questions are actually somewhat complicated and require looking back at the history of the polls.
Nothing from last year has an adaptation… yet
If you look at the results from the past year, you might think that these polls don’t matter at all. After all, none of these manga got an adaptation. However, one needs to remember that anime takes more than a year to produce, especially when you consider planning and other pre-production stages.
Yes, investors and producers don’t blindly take these rankings as guides for what to adapt. However, there are signs that point to the fact that the poll results (and the general popularity of manga on them) are taken into account.
These manga tend to get adaptations
For example, if we look at the poll from a few years back — 2020 — only one manga on the list has no adaptation announced or already made. And it’s Act-Age, which is a special case in particular — the manga was canceled because of the author’ arrest for breaking the law.
Similarly, almost all manga from the 2021 poll winners have gotten an adaptation. In fact, multiple of these aired within the last few seasons — namely, Solo Leveling (Ore dake Level Up na Ken) — which is technically a manhwa, The Dangers in My Heart (Boku no Kokoro no Yabai Yatsu) and The Apothecary Diaries (Kusuriya no Hitorigoto).
The last one adapts the light novels, but they do have two manga running, so the series was also eligible.
There is a correlation
It seems that the votes in AnimeJapan’s polls about manga adaptations actually matter. Even if they don’t, there’s a strong correlation between a work placing high on a poll like this and it actually getting an adaptation.
Usually, however, it takes several years for a series that places high there to be actually made into anime. If you’re a fan of Kagurabachi, for example, you should be happy: there’s a huge chance that manga will get an adaptation in the next couple of years, as it placed seventh in 2024’s poll.