The Winners Are the Characters Fans Never Get to See
July 7 is Tanabata, the Japanese star festival built on the legend of Orihime and Hikoboshi, two celestial lovers allowed to cross the Milky Way and reunite just once a year. Japanese anime news site Anime Anime marked the date by asking readers a question with the same rule attached: if you could meet one male anime character once a year, who would it be? The full poll results draw on 218 responses collected from June 12 to June 19, from a readership that skews about 65 percent male, with roughly half of voters in their thirties.
First place ended in a tie between Detective Conan's Shinichi Kudo and Jujutsu Kaisen's Satoru Gojo, each at about 4 percent of a widely scattered vote. Anime Anime points out the thread connecting the two: these are characters whose own stories keep them offscreen, which makes a guaranteed yearly meeting sound like a genuine luxury.
Shinichi is the teenage detective who spends nearly the entire series shrunk into his child alter ego, Conan Edogawa, after the Black Organization poisons him. Appearances in his original body are rare. "I'd like to at least meet Shinichi once a year, on Tanabata," one respondent wrote, while another noted he is famous enough to make the newspapers in-universe and simply wanted a photo together. Several ballots came in for Conan himself, too.
Gojo, the blindfolded Tokyo Jujutsu High teacher and the strongest sorcerer by his own admission and everyone else's, drew comments about both power ("I want him to teach me the secret of that strength") and looks ("I fell in love at first sight with those blue eyes"). Anime Anime adds that his limited screen time in this year's broadcast likely helped his case. Season 3, The Culling Game Part 1, ran from January to March 2026 with its plot built around rescuing a sealed-away Gojo, so wanting to see him was practically the season's whole premise.
Bungo Stray Dogs Takes Third Place Twice
Osamu Dazai and Chuya Nakahara tied at No. 3, putting two Bungo Stray Dogs characters in the top five. Dazai is the Armed Detective Agency's slippery strategist, a first-rate mind with a mysterious past as a Port Mafia executive. Chuya is the Port Mafia executive who once worked alongside him as the feared underworld duo called Soukoku. The two can barely stand each other these days, and the fan comments embraced the danger anyway: "If Dazai called out to me, I might just follow him," and "I want Chuya to pick me up and let me join the Port Mafia. I'd be his secretary, anything."
A Sugar Addict, the King of Heroes, and a Robot Cat
Gintoki Sakata of Gintama and Doraemon tied at No. 5. Gintoki's supporters imagined a mellow day of sweets and a shared round of drinks with the perpetually broke samurai. Doraemon's voters went straight for the gadgets: world tours through the Anywhere Door and trips to the past and future by time machine. One respondent even schemed to use his gadgets so they would never have to say goodbye at all.
Below the top five, Fate/stay night's Gilgamesh picked up a comment sparked by Fate/strange Fake, which the voter said reminded them how much fun he is. Their plan: watch him empty the treasury of Babylon in battle, join the lavish celebration afterward, and agree that once a year is about the right dose of his ego. Disney Twisted-Wonderland's Malleus Draconia earned votes on confident logic. With magic as powerful as his, the thinking goes, he could handle the trip between worlds himself.
Looking Ahead
Anime Anime says the female-character edition of the poll is coming next. As for the co-winners, Detective Conan's anime is still running in Japan nearly 30 years after its 1996 debut, and Jujutsu Kaisen wrapped Season 3 on March 27, 2026 after streaming on Crunchyroll across most regions worldwide. A teaser for Season 4, The Culling Game Part 2, is already up on TOHO animation's official YouTube channel, confirming the next arc is in production. Fans who voted for Gojo, in other words, should eventually get more of him than one day a year.