Monitoring Anime Popularity on Crunchyroll & MyAnimeList Using Web Scraping

Introduction

Anime isn’t just a genre—it’s a global phenomenon. With millions of viewers across Japan, the USA, and beyond, platforms like Crunchyroll and MyAnimeList (MAL) have become the go-to hubs for fans to rate, review, and follow their favorite series. But with new episodes released weekly and fan opinions shifting rapidly, how do you track real-time anime popularity trends?

OTT Scrape offers powerful web scraping solutions to monitor anime ratings, reviews, and fandom movements across Crunchyroll and MyAnimeList, focusing on Japan and the USA—two of the most influential markets in global anime consumption.

Why Monitor Anime Popularity?

For studios, licensors, marketers, and content platforms, understanding which anime titles are rising or falling in popularity can help with:

• Timely licensing and dubbing decisions
• Planning merchandise drops
• Influencer and creator partnerships
• Marketing budget allocation
• Regional release strategies

With real-time rating scraping, decision-makers stay ahead of the fandom curve.

Crunchyroll & MyAnimeList: The Data Goldmines

Crunchyroll:

• Streaming platform with global reach
• Offers rankings by country, genre, and new releases
• Users can like, rate, and comment on episodes

MyAnimeList (MAL):

• Social cataloging and rating site
• Fans score anime titles (0–10), leave reviews, and update watch statuses
• MAL rankings strongly influence anime visibility in Western markets

What OTT Scrape Extracts

Key Data from Crunchyroll:

• Anime title and genre
• Number of likes/views
• Comment volume
• Trending rank
• Country-wise popularity
• Episode metadata

Key Data from MyAnimeList:

• User score (average and breakdown)
• Total reviews and reactions
• Watch status data (Watching, Completed, On-Hold, Dropped)
• Tags and themes (e.g., Isekai, Slice-of-Life)
• Review sentiment (via NLP)

Sample Scraped Data Table

Use Cases for Anime Rating Scraping

1. Anime Licensing & Distribution

Studios and publishers can analyze what anime is trending in the West or Japan to decide on global dubbing, licensing, or film adaptation timelines.

2. Merchandise Planning

Retailers and D2C anime merch brands can predict sales spikes based on show momentum.

3. Fandom Sentiment Mapping

Identify when a fanbase becomes dissatisfied (e.g., due to animation quality drop or plot pacing) using review analysis.

4. Influencer/YouTuber Collaborations

Track which titles are getting buzz on Crunchyroll comment threads and MAL forums to guide creator collabs.

Tracking USA vs Japan: Fan Behavior Patterns

Sentiment Analysis Example

Anime: Solo Leveling

Platform: MAL + Crunchyroll

Region: USA

Top Themes in Reviews (MAL):

• Animation Quality: "Studio did justice"
• Pacing: "Too fast for light novel fans"
• Main Character: "Overpowered but loved"

Weekly Sentiment Breakdown:

How OTT Scrape Collects Anime Data

Step 1: Platform-Specific Scraper Engines

We build country-targeted bots for Crunchyroll and MyAnimeList using rotating IPs for Japan and the USA.

Step 2: Data Normalization

Unify formats across anime episodes, seasons, and languages.

Step 3: Sentiment Engine

Apply NLP models like BERT and Vader to parse emotions from user reviews.

Step 4: Dashboard or API Delivery

Visualize key trends or fetch real-time updates into your internal systems.

Case Study: Anime Merch Brand Targeting US Otakus

Client: A US-based anime merchandise company

Objective: Track trending anime weekly to plan hoodie & figure drops

OTT Scrape Strategy:

• Scraped Crunchyroll USA Top 10 and MAL score spikes
• Sent weekly dashboards on show momentum & top tags
• Identified rise in Mashle: Magic and Muscles interest pre-merchandise launch

Outcome:

• 3x merchandise ROI compared to non-data-backed drops
• 40% faster sellout time on new launches

Technology Stack at OTT Scrape

• Scrapers: Scrapy, Puppeteer for JS-rendered Crunchyroll pages
• Proxies: Geo-based IPs for Japan & USA
• Language Parsing: spaCy + custom Japanese/English sentiment lexicons
• Storage & APIs: AWS RDS, Firebase, REST API
• Dashboarding: Google Data Studio, Tableau

Ethical & Legal Considerations

• Follows robots.txt rules
• No bypassing of logins or subscription content
• Only publicly visible review/comment data collected
• Fully anonymized data usage

Final Thoughts

Anime is fast-moving—and so are fans’ opinions. A rating that trends up or down can define a series’ global future. With real-time scraping from Crunchyroll and MyAnimeList, you can:

• Monitor show popularity
• Track regional fan reactions
• Guide smarter business and creative decisions

OTT Scrape offers automated, accurate, and actionable anime intelligence across Japan and the USA.