The top 10 popular anime or mascot characters among Japanese kids

The Kamen Rider Series (仮面ライダーシリーズ Kamen Raidā Shirīzu?, translated as Masked Rider Series) is a metaseries of manga and tokusatsu television programs and films created by manga artist Shotaro Ishinomori. The Kamen Rider media generally feature a motorcycle-riding superhero with an insect motif who fights supervillains, often known as kaijin (怪人?). The franchise began in 1971 with the Kamen Rider television series, which followed college student Takeshi Hongo and his quest to defeat the world-conquering Shocker organization. Its popularity has grown; the original series spawned television and film sequels and launched the Second Kaiju Boom (also known as the Henshin Boom) on Japanese television during the early 1970s, impacting the superhero and action-adventure genres in Japan.[1]

Frozen is a 2013 American 3D computer-animated musical fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures.[4] It is the 53rd Disney animated feature film. Inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale "The Snow Queen",[5] the film tells the story of a fearless princess who sets off on a journey alongside a rugged iceman, his loyal pet reindeer, and a naïve snowman to find her estranged sister, whose icy powers have inadvertently trapped the kingdom in eternal winter.

Pokémon (ポケモン Pokemon?, Japanese pronunciation: ['pokemoɴ]; /ˈpoʊkeɪˌmɒn/ or /ˈpoʊkᵻˌmɒn/ - poh-kay-mon or poh-ki-mon)[1][2] is a media franchise managed by The Pokémon Company, a Japanese consortium between Nintendo, Game Freak, and Creatures.[3] The franchise copyright is shared by all three companies, but Nintendo is the sole owner of the trademark.[4] The franchise was created by Satoshi Tajiri in 1995,[5] and is centered on fictional creatures called "Pokémon", which humans, known as Pokémon Trainers, catch and train to battle each other for sport.

The franchise began as a pair of video games for the original Game Boy that were developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo. It now spans video games, trading card games, animated television shows and movies, comic books, and toys. Pokémon is the second best-selling video game franchise, behind only Nintendo's Mario franchise[6] and one of the highest-grossing media franchises of all time.

Cumulative sales of the video games (including home console games, such as Hey You, Pikachu! for the Nintendo 64) have reached more than 280 million copies.[7] In November 2005, 4Kids Entertainment, which had managed the non-game related licensing of Pokémon, announced that it had agreed not to renew the Pokémon representation agreement. The Pokémon Company International (formerly Pokémon USA Inc.), a subsidiary of Japan's Pokémon Co., oversees all Pokémon licensing outside of Asia.[8] As of May 2016, the Pokémon franchise has grossed revenues of ¥4.8 trillion worldwide[7] (equivalent to US$46.2 billion).

Pretty Cure, PreCure, PC or Precure (プリキュア Purikyua?) is a Japanese magical girl anime metaseries created by Izumi Todo and produced by Asahi Broadcasting Corporation, Asatsu-DK and Toei Animation. Each series revolves around a group of magical girls known as Pretty Cures who battle against evil forces. Starting in February 2004 with Futari wa Pretty Cure, the franchise has seen many anime series, spanning over 600 episodes to date, as well as spawning movies, manga, toys, and video games. Its most recent iteration, Kirakira PreCure a la Mode, began airing in February 2017 as part of TV Asahi's Sunday morning children's television block, following Super Hero Time. To date, two of the series have received English-language dubs.

Doraemon (Japanese: ドラえもん) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Fujiko F. Fujio. The series has also been adapted into a successful anime series and media franchise. The story revolves around a robotic cat named Doraemon, who travels back in time from the 22nd century to aid a pre-teen boy named Nobita Nobi (野比のび太 Nobi Nobita?).

The Doraemon manga series was first published in December 1969 in six different magazines. A total of 1,345 stories were created in the original series, which are published by Shogakukan under the Tentōmushi (てんとう虫?) manga brand, extending to forty-five volumes. The volumes are collected in the Takaoka Central Library in Toyama, Japan, where Fujiko Fujio was born. Turner Broadcasting System bought the rights to the Doraemon anime series in the mid-1980s for a English-language release in the United States,[1] but cancelled it without explanation before broadcasting any episodes. In July 2013 Voyager Japan announced the manga would be released digitally in English via the Amazon Kindle e-book service. It is one of the best-selling manga in the world, having sold over 100 million copies.

Thomas & Friends (titled Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends prior to 2003) is a British children's television series. It had its first broadcast on the ITV network in Great Britain from 1984 to 1992. It is based on The Railway Series of books by the Reverend Wilbert Awdry and his son, Christopher Awdry.

These books follow the adventures of a group of anthropomorphised locomotives and road vehicles who live on the fictional Island of Sodor. The books were based on stories Wilbert told to entertain his son, Christopher, during his recovery from measles. Many of the stories from the first four series are based on events from Awdry's personal experience.

Anpanman (アンパンマン?) is a Japanese picture book series written by Takashi Yanase, running from 1973 until 2013 following his death. The series has been adapted into an anime series entitled Soreike! Anpanman (それいけ!アンパンマン?, Let's Go! Anpanman), which is one of the most popular anime series among young children in Japan. The series follows the adventures of Anpanman, a superhero with an anpan (a bean-jam filled pastry) for a head, who protects the world from an evil anthropomorphic germ named Baikinman.

Heavily merchandised, the Anpanman characters appear on virtually every imaginable children's product in Japan, ranging from clothes[1] to video games to toys[2] to snack foods.[3]

The series spawned a short lived spin-off show featuring one of the more popular recurring characters on the show, Omusubiman.

Yo-kai Watch (妖怪ウォッチ Yōkai Wotchi?, trademarked in Japan as Youkai Watch and Yokai Watch, lit. Spirit/Monsters Watch) is a series of role-playing video games and a mixed-media franchise, created and developed by Level-5. The original game was released for the Nintendo 3DS in Japan in July 2013 by Level-5 and was released in November 2015 in North America and April 2016 in Europe by Nintendo.[6]

A sequel, Yo-kai Watch 2, was released in three versions; Ganso and Honke, which were released in Japan in July 2014, and Shinuchi, released on December 13, 2014. A spin-off game, Yo-kai Watch Busters, was released in July 2015. A third title, Yo-kai Watch 3, was released in July 2016.

Six manga adaptations have been produced; a shōnen manga series that began serialization in Shogakukan's CoroCoro Comic from December 2012, a shōjo manga series that began serialization in Shogakukan's Ciao magazine from December 2013, two shōnen yonkoma series that began serialization in CoroCoro Comic SPECIAL and CoroCoro Ichiban! from October 2014 and April 2014 respectively, a shōnen and seinen manga series that was serialized in HiBaNa from April to September 2015, and a shōnen manga series based on Yo-kai Watch Busters that was serialized in CoroCoro Comic from June to October 2015. An anime television series produced by OLM, Inc. began airing in Japan from January 2014 and began airing in North America from October 2015.[7][8]

An animated film was released in December 2014 with a second film following in December 2015. A third film was released in December 2016. A fourth film was announced for release in 2017.