When to use this skill
When the user asks about an anime's audience — what demographic it targets, how many people watch it, how popular it is relative to other anime, or how its member count compares to its score ranking — reach for Jikan. The audience fields (demographics, members, popularity, favorites, scored_by) live inside the anime lookup response. For full anime details like episodes, studios, or airing dates, use a broader anime-lookup skill instead.
Your best first call
curl "https://api.jikan.moe/v4/anime/20"
No auth. No key. Replace 20 with the MAL anime ID you're looking up. Returns a data object with audience-relevant fields:
demographics — array of target audience categories (Naruto: [{"mal_id": 27, "name": "Shounen"}]). Independent of genres and themes — Shounen is a demographic, not a genre.members — total MAL users with this anime on their list. Raw audience size.popularity — rank by member count (lower = more popular). Naruto: #9.score — weighted average rating on a 1–10 scale.rank — rank by weighted score. Distinct from popularity — Naruto ranks #697 by score but #9 by popularity, a gap that reveals how MAL's scoring penalizes long-running series while its user base still flocks to them.scored_by — number of users who submitted a score. A subset of members.favorites — count of users who favorited the anime.
Fallbacks (when the best call isn't enough)
- Audience rankings across anime ("what's the most popular show right now?") →
https://api.jikan.moe/v4/top/anime?filter=airing&limit=10 returns currently-airing anime ranked by score, with popularity and members on each.
- Current-season audience sizes →
https://api.jikan.moe/v4/seasons/now?limit=10 returns this season's anime with popularity and members fields intact.
Pitfalls
demographics is a separate classification axis from genres and themes. Action is a genre; Shounen is a demographic. An anime can have multiple genres but typically one demographic — don't conflate them.popularity (by member count) and rank (by weighted score) diverge sharply for long-running series. A show at popularity #9 and rank #697 is data, not an error — millions watch it but MAL's scoring algorithm penalizes its length.- Jikan rate-limits at 3 requests per second, returning 429 on the fourth request within a second. Space requests at least 334ms apart.
scored_by is always a subset of members — not every member submits a score. The ratio scored_by / members gives engagement rate, which varies widely across titles.
One-line summary for the user
I can look up anime audience data — demographics, member counts, popularity rankings, and score-vs-popularity gaps — from MyAnimeList via Jikan, given a MAL anime ID.
SKILL.md source (frontmatter + body)
---
name: access-audience
description: When the user asks about an anime's audience — demographics, popularity ranking, member count, favorites, or how its popularity compares to its score — reach for Jikan (MyAnimeList). Audience fields come from the anime lookup response.
---
## When to use this skill
When the user asks about an anime's audience — what demographic it targets, how many people watch it, how popular it is relative to other anime, or how its member count compares to its score ranking — reach for Jikan. The audience fields (`demographics`, `members`, `popularity`, `favorites`, `scored_by`) live inside the anime lookup response. For full anime details like episodes, studios, or airing dates, use a broader anime-lookup skill instead.
## Your best first call
```bash
curl "https://api.jikan.moe/v4/anime/20"
```
No auth. No key. Replace `20` with the MAL anime ID you're looking up. Returns a `data` object with audience-relevant fields:
- `demographics` — array of target audience categories (Naruto: `[{"mal_id": 27, "name": "Shounen"}]`). Independent of `genres` and `themes` — Shounen is a demographic, not a genre.
- `members` — total MAL users with this anime on their list. Raw audience size.
- `popularity` — rank by member count (lower = more popular). Naruto: #9.
- `score` — weighted average rating on a 1–10 scale.
- `rank` — rank by weighted score. Distinct from `popularity` — Naruto ranks #697 by score but #9 by popularity, a gap that reveals how MAL's scoring penalizes long-running series while its user base still flocks to them.
- `scored_by` — number of users who submitted a score. A subset of `members`.
- `favorites` — count of users who favorited the anime.
## Fallbacks (when the best call isn't enough)
- **Audience rankings across anime ("what's the most popular show right now?")** → `https://api.jikan.moe/v4/top/anime?filter=airing&limit=10` returns currently-airing anime ranked by score, with `popularity` and `members` on each.
- **Current-season audience sizes** → `https://api.jikan.moe/v4/seasons/now?limit=10` returns this season's anime with `popularity` and `members` fields intact.
## Pitfalls
- `demographics` is a separate classification axis from `genres` and `themes`. Action is a genre; Shounen is a demographic. An anime can have multiple genres but typically one demographic — don't conflate them.
- `popularity` (by member count) and `rank` (by weighted score) diverge sharply for long-running series. A show at popularity #9 and rank #697 is data, not an error — millions watch it but MAL's scoring algorithm penalizes its length.
- Jikan rate-limits at 3 requests per second, returning 429 on the fourth request within a second. Space requests at least 334ms apart.
- `scored_by` is always a subset of `members` — not every member submits a score. The ratio `scored_by / members` gives engagement rate, which varies widely across titles.
## One-line summary for the user
I can look up anime audience data — demographics, member counts, popularity rankings, and score-vs-popularity gaps — from MyAnimeList via Jikan, given a MAL anime ID.