Nikkei Entertainment has released their annual “Talent Power Ranking” map and unless you can read Japanese or do cartography as a weekend hobby, looking at the map below may just leave you with a headache. (Click on it to open a larger version)

So let’s break the map down. For this post, I’ll do the female talent rankings and, once my eyes have uncrossed, I’ll tackle the men’s map in a later post.

First, let’s break down the latitude and longitude meanings on this map. As Aramajapan states, the vertical lines represent Interest (audiences want to see, hear, know about that person). The horizontal lines represent Familiarity (audience know the name and face). Beyonce would score 100 on that line.

The green zone to the upper left is the “Next Generation Talent” or basically talent that people aren’t aware of yet, but are likely to break through in the next few years. Kind of like Tom Holland and Chadwick Boseman from Captain America: Civil War were a few years ago.

Actresses are in bold regular font, musicians are in bold italics.

V =  vertical line  H = horizontal line

Here are some of the people in that group:

Kubota Sayu (4 V, 68 H)

Nakamura Yurika (4 V, 70 H)

Takeda Rena (13 V, 67 H)

Asakura Aki (6 V, 78 H)

Yamashita Rio (15 V, 62 H)

Okamoto Azusa (9 V, 60 H)

Yamada Nana (13 V, 64 H)

BabyMetal (15 V, 65 H)

Super Girls (13 V, 57 H)

Flower (19 V, 73 H)

Kurashima Kana (8 V, 80+ H – dot off the chart next to 10)

The middle orange zone is the “Attention Zone” or basically talent that agents and producers are looking at right now. The American equivalent would be Margot Robbie (yes, I know she’s Australian).

Here are some of the people in this group:

Hirose Alice (41 V, 71 H)

Kawaguchi Haruna (49 V, 71 H)

Ishida Yuriko (63 V, 67 H)

Natsuna (52 V, 62 H)

Matsui Rena (41 V, 59 H)

Charlotte Kate Fox (33 V, 65 H)

Sumire (59 V, 64 H)

Maggy (53 V, 63 H)

Nishiuchi Mariya (59 V, 67 H)

Momoiro Clover Z (59 V, 61 H)

Nogizaka46 (36 V, 63 H)

Yamamoto Sakaya (39 V, 65 H)

Also Yuki, Ami, Miwa, Superfly, Misia, and E-Girls

The light blue bubble in the upper right are the superstars of the moment. This is where your Scarlett Johanssons and Jennifer Lawrences would be.

Here are some of the familiar names in this group:

Arimura Kasumi (79 V, 80 H)

Ayase Haruka (91 V, 80 H)

Kiritani Mirei (76 V, 77 H)

Hirose Suzu (74 V, 73 H)

Ishihara Satomi (86 V, 74 H)

Ueto Aya (90 V, 72 H)

Horikita Maki (88 V, 74 H)

Kitagawa Keiko (85 V, 79 H)

Rola (90 V, 70 H)

Aragaki Yui (81 V, 79 H)

Nishino Kana (72 V, 66 H)

Amuro Namie (86 V, 64 H)

Ikimono gakari (76 V, 76 H)

Perfume (76 V, 70 H)

At last, the Purple Zone aka the Well-Known but Lacking Interest bubble. This is basically where Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro would live.

Here are some names that are a part of this group:

Maeda Atsuko (83 V, 46 H)

Sawajiri Erika (80 V, 52 H)

Ashida Mana (the little girl from Pacific Rim – 80 V, 52 H)

Gouriki Ayame (88 V, 52 H)

Hamasaki Ayumi (86 V, 45 H)

Kashiwagi Yuki (69 V, 44 H)

Takahashi Minami (78 V, 53 H)

Sashihara Rino (78 V, 53 H)

Finally, there are a bunch of people and groups who aren’t a part of any of these bubbles. They’re just sort of floating round on the map near one or more of the bubbles. Here are some of the names that appear in the non-bubble areas.

 

Mizuhara Kiko (56 V, 53 H)

Akimoto Sayaka (49 V, 54 H)

Terajima Shinobu (50 V, 54 H)

Kimura Fumino (55 V, 78 H)

Kyari Pamyupamyu (81 V, 60 H)

Matsushita Nao (68 V, 69 H)

Toda Erika (70 V, 71 H)

Honda Tsubasa (63 V, 69 H)

Sugimoto Aya (70 V, 57 H)

That’s all for now. There will be a link over to Ranker.com soon that will house a Top 25 Ranking of all the personalities on this list. They’ll primarily consist of the people who appear in the light blue bubble area.