What is the hottest genre right now in Japanese film? J-Horror is pretty much dead, though horror as a genre is about as likely to die as Dracula. Anime is still mostly for kiddies and otaku (obsessives), with the massive exception of Studio Ghibli offerings. Blurring the line between animation and live action, 3-D digital could soon change that, though.
The hottest box-office genre — and the one least known by non-Japanese — is the tearjerker or, to be more specific, the melodrama about a dying teenager/child/dog, though adults are the tragic heroes of some films, such as the dead mother who returns temporarily to her grieving family in "Ima, Ai ni Yukimasu (Be With You)" or the middle-aged salaryman who succumbs to Alzheimer's in "Ashita no Kioku (Memories of Tomorrow)."
After walking out of screening after screening with red eyes, I've come to dislike these films on principle. Most manipulate emotions instead of earn them — or is that only my own rationalization for being such an easy mark?