The Influence of Online Anime towards Children - Study on Children in Malaysia

Aug 25, 2026

Online anime has a major influence on children’s growth in Malaysia, shaping how they engage with everyday life. This study examines how online anime affects children’s daily experiences and how it can contribute to positive interaction during peer discussions. Participants included 10 nine-year-olds selected by their viewing experience. Children were interviewed in small groups, recordings were analyzed using discourse analysis, and character, setting, and storyline effects were identified.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages8

Reading Time20 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Introduction

Background of anime and manga

Online anime introduction and global diffusion

Prior research on anime effects and cultural proximity

Examples of anime and Malaysian animation

The Influence of Online Anime towards Children Normaliza Abd Rahim, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia Roslina Mamat, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia Hazlina Ab Halim, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia Arbaie Sujud, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia Siti Nur Aliaa Roslan, International University Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Abstract Online anime has been a major influence towards the growth of children in Malaysia. Therefore this study investigates the online anime that influence children in their everyday lives. The study also discusses the influence of online anime that contributed to positive interaction in the discussion between the children. The study involves 10 nine year olds subjects from a class of one school in Putrajaya. The children were selected based on their experience in watching online anime. The subjects were interviewed. They were in groups of 3 to 4. They discussed about the characters, setting and storylines from the online anime that they had watched and the conversation were taped and analyzed. Selected extracts were analysed and discussed by using the discourse analysis method. It is found that subjects were strongly influenced by the characters, setting and storylines from the online anime. They were happy and contented to be like the characters in the story. It is hoped that online anime were able to give positive influence towards children in their everyday lives. Keywords: Online Anime, Influence, Discussion, Interaction, Communication Introduction Anime has been the liking for youngsters from early age of 5. There were not only for youngster but also for teenagers as well as adults. Anime has been introduced by the Japanese where it consists of beautiful drawings of cartoon and has storyline accompanied. Anime started with Manga where according to Brienza (2009) in Cooper-Chen (2011) there were 200 million Manga books in the Dragonball series originally published in Japanese by Shueisha have been sold worldwide. The selling has increased since 2002 with 60 million to 210 million in 2007 but unfortunately due to economic downturn it declined in 2008. Due to the high demand of manga in year 2000 onwards, online anime were introduced due to the high demand reader from all over the world (Cooper-Chen, 2010) . There were large number of series collection of anime and there were also involved in large recruiting of staff involved in the drawings. There were also courses in the universities in Japan specially majored in anime. It was really a crucial time when there were lack of talented anime artists and therefore the courses in this field were introduced. Until now, there were not only manga but also online anime were sold worldwide and a large number of the selected anime were transferred to dramas and movies. The movie Hana Yori Danga was filmed in 1995. The same storyline was then features in the drama series Meteor Garden (2001) from Taiwan and were famous with the Flower Four handsome boys where later on the same drama were produced by the Japanese, Hana Yori Danga (2005) and Hana Yori Danga Returns (2007) . From there, the same storyline from the manga was used in the drama series Boys Over Flowers (2009) by the Korean where the drama series were accepted worldwide. Here, it can be seen that manga and anime were accepted no matter in the form of storybooks, dramas, movies or even online anime (Richmond, 2009) . Research on online anime was also researched by Umi Khattab & Gin Chee Tang (2012) on animes like Doraemon and Pokemon and were popular most in Taiwan and Indonesia. The results of the study confirmed that the popularity of anime in Asian countries was due to the same cultural proximity. Umi Khattab & Gin Chee Tang (2012) also stated that their finding on the anime and video games were not 100% from the Japanese culture. That includes the character, setting and some of the items in the anime were not appropriate for the Japanese culture. This has negative impact toward

FAQs

How does the study explain online anime influencing children in everyday life?

The study focuses on how children connect with anime characters, settings, and storylines in their daily experiences. It emphasizes the influence on feelings and perceived contentment.

What research method was used to analyze children’s responses?

Ten nine-year-old participants were interviewed in groups of 3 to 4. Their discussions were recorded and extracts were analyzed using discourse analysis.

Which anime elements were found to have the strongest impact?

The findings indicate strong influence from characters, setting, and storylines, which made subjects happy and contented to be like the characters.

Aug 25, 2026

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