Fundamental Research on Viewers' Subjective Perceptions of the Merits and Strengths of Animated Works: An Exploratory Study Analyzing Free Description Data

Abstract

There has been little research into how viewers perceive animated works. Therefore, this research focused on their merits and strengths, and aimed to exploratorily clarify how people subjectively perceive it. A questionnaire survey was conducted on 71 university and graduate students, with the responses analyzed via the KJ method. The merits and strengths of animated works were categorized across seven major themes: “creativity”, “vivid characters”, “artistry”, “easy to get used to”, “easy to enjoy”, “effects of comprehensive artistry”, and “the creation of diverse experiences”. We were able to understand how viewers perceive anime from the aspect of their merits and strengths, based on the data actually obtained from viewers.