greatest anime website ever?
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Once upon a time, I read AoD to get my fix of anime goings ons. I rarely visit there anymore. I’ve pimped them before, but the best kept secret is no longer: Wikipedia is the world’s greatest anime website.
(Second best? Youtube. It’s not as informational or as organized as Wikipedia, but it’s definitely a better time waster. Tremendous time wasting upside potential…)
After I saw that article about how “>26% of the top 100 Wikipedia searches are anime-related, I was kinda surprised: Anime toppled sex. Anime destroyed politics. Anime eviscerated pop culture. Anime pwned the NBA. LeBron? Ha. Pikachu is the real global icon. At first, I was kinda amazed… wow, I can’t believe anime is getting more search hits than sex, especially when people are still confusing He-Man for anime… after all, when was the last time you saw anime or anything anime related on Wikipedia’s front page?
Then thinking about it for awhile, it all made sense. Most anime fans are procurement-savvy, and this has had the halo effect of being technology savvy. Ever since the VHS days, anime fans had to be smart about how they got their anime because it was always a challenge. SVHS? Master dub? You learned the terms quickly. Nowadays, the terms have changed, but the concept does not. I think most anime fans know what bittorrent, irc, xdcc, and virtualdub are, but I doubt most NBA fans know of all these. I’ve learned a lot about networking just so I can get optimal transfer speeds from my router… just so I can get my Gurren Lagann fix minutes sooner. I don’t think I’m alone.
(Not to mention that the typical anime fan is probably more technology savvy than the typical NASCAR fan…)
Well, so anime has spawned some technology users… so what? Well, I think people who use and are into technology can wrap their heads around a concept like Wikipedia easier. I tried to explain Wikipedia to my dad. He didn’t get it. I tried to explain to most people older than me. None of them got it. “Wait, people can just edit whatever they want? Where’s the accountability?” The whole point is that there is none… an almost utopian flow of information. Aside from AoD and maybe ANN, there really weren’t any place to find information about anime. Sure, you could hunt through Animesuki’s forums, but that’s pretty dang time inefficient, and you might get dragged into a discussion about Lucky Star. Wikipedia solved a lot of those problems by providing anyone with a template to easily and quickly distribute information– the technology savvy anime fans carved out a huge niche on Wikipedia and set down roots. It became the defacto fact book for anime. Check out something like Gundam‘s entry, it’s as detailed and informative as the entry on American presidents. (But try submitting a report to your history teacher about why Wing Zero is like the Abraham Lincoln…) That’s one trait thing both Wikipedia and Youtube share: the users drive the content, and that’s the real value of these sites.
Unlike focused sites like AoD or ANN, Wikipedia had no intention of controlling the information presented. The user community edited themselves and freed themselves from the corporate taint that pretty much ruined AoD for me. The users toil (yes, I have contributed myself to a few entries) rather anonymously to bring forth the information from everything from Azumanga to Zegapain. Azumanga has more references than Dune. It fits the anime community very well… there’s a lot of anonymous contributors for fansubs, a lot of anonymous bloggers, and a lot of anonymous Wikipedians… people who don’t need the limelight and don’t have a LBJ-sized ego.
Nonetheless, with 26% of the top searches, I think that pretty much places Wikipedia as the #1 anime website. Though I can’t figure out what these 26% could be… I can see stuff like Pokemon, Naruto, Yu-Gi-Oh, and One Piece go highly, but stuff like Haruhi, Gundam, and Code Geass would definitely carry their share of the weight as well. I go there when I need to research something like Nanoha’s lexican, the ISBNs for Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou, symmetrical docking, or the bust sizes of various Mai Hime characters, Wikipedia has me covered. Now excuse me, I have an article on Hayate the Combat Butler to touch up.
26 Responses to “greatest anime website ever?”
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Wow, this is quite a surprise. I knew I wasn’t the only one to go to Wiki first for every douobt I had regarding an anime, but 26%? That… amazing, in a sense.
I use Wikipedia a lot for finding out episode names and release dates. It’s also quite handy for finding out the history of a series and where it originated from (such as Kanon). YouTube is OK for anime videos, but most of the stuff I watch there originates from the AS forums, so overall I think that’s a better place for specific content.
Hmm… but wasn’t a lot of the Gundam-universe information “borrowed” from MAHQ, at least in the early days of Wikipedia? Or maybe it still is; I don’t know since I got tired of the series after Destiny.
Oh, and YouTube might be good for anime, if not for the Narutard test (type favourite song into yT. Append “Naruto”. Despair)
…I’ll get my coat.
Oh, wow. Anime beats sex. I need to get this out to the masses. All of them.
I definitely think that the users’ ability to add to the information on Wikipedia really helped craft a very valuable anime tool. Anime fans police themselves very well, and Wikipedia gives the fan a great way to spread the word about a series without going through the hassle of creating an especially ugly tripod site that will be dead in 6 months.
BTW those parody sketches are hilarious, especially the Lucky Utawarerumono one.
I gotta agree about the accountability thing with Wiki.
If it’s an unpopular anime show you might like, they’ll be nobody to correct you when you put in the wrong information. And if it’s a show racked with in-studio controversy (ala Garbage Seed Destiny), you might not get all the information due to some Wikian’s fear of digging deeper. (There might be a lot more info over from the Japanese side; due to its neutrality. But will the Western Wikians translate it?)
I’d rather go to YouTube.
And yeah. Who goes over to “AnimeOnVHSTape.com” anymore? It’s by, and for, people who’d rather spend money on high-definition surround-sound DVD equipment than on actual plot and character development. Plus I despite their inability to do anything some companies decide to exclude “English dubbing” (which has been improving, btw).
>>>I’ve learned a lot about networking just so I can get optimal transfer speeds from my router… just so I can get my Gurren Lagann fix minutes sooner. I don’t think I’m alone.
You’re right, you’re not the only one. And yes, I think you hit the point right on the spot.
[quote post=”1109″]after all, when was the last time you saw anime or anything anime related on Wikipedia’s front page?[/quote]
Earlier this month, actually. Excel Saga was the featured article on June 4th.
BTW, I forgot to mention that Wikipedia’s epithet is (un)officially “Jesus of the Internet”.
http://i14.photobucket.com/alb.....kiJotI.jpg
don’t forget that a lot of graphic designer’s also came from watch anime , me being one of them , i used to watch anime , take screen caps from the walls and then make wallpapers , wallpapers turned into websites , websites turned into wanting to make more like AMV’s , AMV’s turned into me wanting to make short films movies and work on my graphic know how’s , if it wasn’t for anime and porn (cant forget porn) the internet would be pretty boring to me and i would me a whore on myspace with 2000+ friends i am sure , casue tho its the net you get used to doing the same thing over , break.com / digg.com/ AoMM / gmail ect…) and thats pretty much it , with out it we would not have our wonderful pikachu must die wallpaper
[quote comment=”151897″][quote post=”1109″]after all, when was the last time you saw anime or anything anime related on Wikipedia’s front page?[/quote]
Earlier this month, actually. Excel Saga was the featured article on June 4th.[/quote]
It’s true, I even took a screenshot.
http://i63.photobucket.com/alb.....fa/wtf.jpg
You forgot Anipike, during the early days of anime, it was THE anime site for info and news.
Your citation for the 26% number is a broken link – looks like you meant a href=”http://blog.compete.com/2007/05/31/wikipedia-search-terms/”>http://blog.compete.com/2007/0.....rch-terms/.
Argh, I meant http://blog.compete.com/2007/0.....rch-terms/
so this should mean that whenever i search for something the anime article should come up first instead of another article with the same name, but no whenever i search lucky star it still comes up with that damn madonna song
I knew that there was a lot about anime in wikipedia but to make up 26% of the searches that is rather surprising.
Even if Wiki is not always accurate it at least provides a starting point. It is also a great devourer of time as well. While accountability is low that is the price of user generated content, it makes the information in these articles rather democratic in a weird sort of way.
The thought of how much I had to learn, hard drives placed into enclosures, and how many computers I have built to enjoy anime is unsettling the amount of GBs that have been dedicated to them.
I’ve not gotten around to contributing much as of late, but Wikipedia is indeed becoming a portal for anime. I typically hit it up whenever I find a new series, and although articles start off slow, they usually manage to group together enough bits here and there for me to either decide to pick it up or explore other avenues of even more detailed information.
Unfortunately I suffer from a condition that I call “Wiki-Sprees”. Interlinking is hazardous to my free time. Must…resist…temptation…to click!
[quote post=”1109″](Not to mention that the typical anime fan is probably more technology savvy than the typical NASCAR fan…)[/quote]
Ouch… thats some burn… its still sizzling.
This only confirms what I’ve seen on torrent linking sites the internet over… there are simply more anime related torrents than anything (save maybe porn but its close). Really think about it… anime has influenced more than you might realize. Do you like video compression? Anime had a huge role in that. Bit Torrent? Yup. Image boards? More than a bit. Cars? Some of the top car desighners watch anime for ideas. Giant Robots? Practically invented.
Realize it or not anime is a huge part of pop culture.
Speaking of anime sites… is anyone having trouble trying to access Tokyo Toshokan? I need my Lucky Star 13 raw!
Yeah, I saw this and was kind of surprised. Personally, I was into technology before I got into anime, but your logic of how anime viewers become techosavy certainly makes sense.
I’ve fixed up a couple wikipedia pages about anime myself (Angelic Layer is my greatest achievement – just look at the before and after over the course of a few months).
Wikipedia is usually THE first place I go to look up info about a series. If not first, it’s second after ANN.
Christ, the quote is running together with my response. Disregard my previous post.
————————-
You said: “Some of the top car desighners watch anime for ideas.”
I quoted that and asked: “Wait, which car designers watch anime. I’m not doubting you, I just want to know where you read this and who specifically you are talking about.”
I have to agree, Wiki is pretty much my number one place to search for general anime info with ANN coming in at a close second. In fact, I use firefox’s keyword search feature for both sites extensively, which is pretty darn convenient.
>>I’ve learned a lot about networking just so I can get optimal transfer speeds from my router… just so I can get my Gurren Lagann fix minutes sooner. I don’t think I’m alone.
Oh god, how true of me too. Especially when you’re on an ISP which regularly mistreats it’s customers, every little trick you can find out for improving connection quality instantly becomes second nature. I have my ISP’s best IP ranges, DNS and many other generic router settings in my head that I could probably look in to becoming a network admin XD.
Using Wiki to search for anime makes sense because it has so many anime titles listed there. I run the Tenchi Muyo! FAQ site, so my site is going to have detailed information about the canon TM!R series from Kajishima-sensei. That said, it is a niche site and while good for canon Tenchi fans, what about all those other titles?
I use Wiki a lot, especially when I’m writing reviews. Mainly, I can’t remember character names or am looking for proper spelling. For some titles it is great but for other titles, it is sparse. But it does allow fans of series to contribute information to a central site without having to pay hosting costs (something I have to do).
Still, Wiki has problems. I blogged about the Wikipedia Nazi’s who in the name of following the rules, do stupid things like rename CLAMP to “Clamp” (details on my blog). I’ve seen idiots remove images for dumb reasons and wars start for that. I’ve seen people state decide that because the official English manga for a title translated a characters name, that’s the only name that can be used for the article. It doesn’t matter that the official English anime version didn’t translate the name because this person has determined the ONLY version of the name that is correct.
Anyway, I won’t waste more time ranting on this here as I’ve already done so here.
that’s because when you type bleach at google shortcut search, you will see wikipedia first.(don’t know if it work the same in other search engine)
i prefer other website for searching anime but i prefer wikipedia anime information.
Wow, I was searching for Anime waching websites through google and there were a whole lot of choices, but they all are garbage!!! I was scanning and scanning and I just decide to give this site and try and I found nothing really related to what I was looking for. However, this person really created a wonderful site for AnimeFans, yeah, we all need to discuss this, huh? Guess so. So, cool, Wikipedia is the bomb, right, with 26% of seraches about Anime. I gotta check out that site, thanks for all the info.!! =)
P.S. How did this publisher found out so much geek stuff? Lol
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