Research on the Spread and Influence of Japanese Hotblooded Animation in Mainland China - Taking Demon Slayer as an example

Aug 27, 2026

The study investigates how Japanese hot-blooded animation spreads and influences audiences in Mainland China, using Demon Slayer as a case for analytical research. Guided by the Uses and Gratifications theory and the 5W model, it examines cultural communication content, audience reception, and the cultural industry effects. Comparative analysis derives practical paths and methods for cross-cultural communication and highlights how Japanese animation reshapes Chinese animation content and fandom behavior.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages5

Reading Time13 min

AccessFree to download

Research background

Subculture and Internet-driven cultural globalization

Demon Slayer’s rise and market impact

Cultural communication content and audience analysis

Communication content and narrative framework

Audience reception and subcultural fandom

Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 615 Proceedings of the 2021 4th International Conference on Humanities Education and Social Sciences (ICHESS 2021) Research on the Spread and Influence of Japanese Hotblooded Animation in Mainland China——Taking Demon Slayer as an example RunYu Tian 1 1School of Film and Television, Sichuan University of Media and Communications, Sichuan, Chengdu 610599, China *Corresponding author. Email: [Tryochako1119@163.com](Tryochako1119@163.com) ABSTRACT Under the background of the rapid development of the Internet information age and subculture， hot-blooded animation achieves excellent cross-cultural communication in China and is well-loved.This article will take Demon Slayer as an example for case analysis，use the theory of use and satisfaction and the theory of 5W model， analyze the cultural communication content, audience and cultural industry of Japanese hot-blooded animation, and analyze the cultural content of Chinese animation. Through further comparative research, the path and method of crosscultural communication are obtained. Keywords: Demon Slayer, Cross-cultural communication, Anime, Culture Industry 1. Research background Subculture, also known as collective culture and subculture, refers to the unique concepts and lifestyles of a certain region or a certain collective under the background of the main culture or comprehensive culture. [1]As a subculture loved by young people, Japanese manga has received extensive attention since its birth and has been loved by the public in the subsequent development. In today’s era of rapid Internet development, many cultures and things began to spread based on the Internet, which promoted the further spread of culture on a large scale. With the development of cultural globalization, cross-cultural communication began to flow between countries. Animation has caught the limelight of the Internet in a cross-cultural context. With the continuous change and update of science and technology, the media has changed from newspapers, magazines and books to television and then to the Internet today. The form and content of comics have also changed and been affected. At the beginning of the 21st century, when it comes to the Japanese kingly youth hot-blooded anime, people will think of the three classic animes, Naruto, One Piece, and Bleach. It lasted for 8 years, laying the foundation for the vigorous development of animation in the future. Since then, Japanese hot-blooded anime has shown a "patterned" fatigue, and it has been difficult to surpass these works for more than a decade. Until 2016, Demon Slayer was serialized on Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump, and then adapted into an anime with the same name in 2019. Demon Slayer due to its hot-blooded, exquisite story, vivid characters and rich plot, it quickly emerged as a "social phenomenon-level animation", which not only set off a frenzy in Japan, but also aroused heated discussion on a global scale. Under the leadership of Demon Slayer as of February 25, 2021, the size of the Japanese manga market reached 612.6 billion yen, a record high since statistics were available in 1978. [2] The author Gotouge Koyoharu was selected into the Times 100 people list [3], becoming one of the 100 most influential people in the world, and Japanese hotblooded animation has once again been promoted to the public's focus. In China, Demon Slayer is also a hot comic and has been loved by subcultural groups. As of March 10, 2021, Demon Slayer has 630 million views, 3.132 million coin-operated, and 427,000 forwarding volume, 364,000 people scored a high score of 9.8. There were 102,000 subscriptions to related topics at Bilibili, which resulted in 93,000 fan-made videos, with 1.57 billion views. [4] Throughout the history of Japan’s passionate animation development, under the influence of cross- 1 Copyright © 2021 The Authors. Published by Atlantis Press SARL. This i

FAQs

Why is Demon Slayer used as the case study for this research?

The paper positions Demon Slayer as a highly popular “social phenomenon-level” hot-blooded animation in both Japan and China, making it suitable for analyzing cross-cultural spread and influence.

What theories guide the analysis in this article?

It applies the Uses and Gratifications theory and the 5W model to analyze cultural communication content, audience, and industry-related effects.

What does the paper aim to obtain through comparative research?

The study seeks to derive the path and methods of cross-cultural communication, and to clarify the communication success and cultural value of Japanese hot-blooded animation in China.

Aug 27, 2026

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