What piece of foreign popular culture are you surprised isn't more popular here?
As one would expect, some foreign media travels better than other foreign media. Disney and Pixar are always popular, of course. The Minions are popular. The Powerpuff Girls are receiving a surge of Heisei nostalgia, which is cool. Tom and Jerry are popular, but the Looney Tunes aren't as popular.
I suspect this is because Looney Tunes relies more on English wordplay and niche American celebrity references (and maybe the character designs aren't as cute).
This is why I'm really surprised that The Muppets aren't more popular here.
Japan likes puppets just fine! Bunraku is traditional Japanese culture, the NHK plays a lot of kids puppet shows, and Puppet Sunsun seems to be especially popular now.
And most of the humor from The Muppets is physical comedy. There's some wordplay, but I don't think the Muppets really rely on it.
The only time I've seen Muppets outside of like an American secondhand store is Round 1 recently had a big Kermit the Frog plush toy in a crane game.
I wonder why The Muppets never really caught on here. What other examples do you have of things you would have expected to be bigger here that just aren't?