Are Japanese Wikipedia users obsessed with anime?
Japanese blog Itai News [found via Danny Choo] has posted a comparison of the all time most-edited entries on Wikipedia’s Japanese, English, and French language sites. The data is as follows:
English Wikipedia
1. George W Bush
2. Wikipedia
3. America
4. Christ
5. 2006 Israel Lebanon war
French Wikipedia
1. Events in 2005
2. Events in 2004
3. Algeria
4. France
5. Wikipedia
Japanese Wikipedia
1. One Piece (characters)
2. Mai Hime
3. One Piece
4. Bleach
5.Gintama
The conclusion drawn by Itai News is that a lot of Japanese Wikipedia users are anime fans. This does seem to be the case when one looks at the rankings based on all-time edits, but what about more recent data?
To find out, I checked Wikirage, a site that has daily, weekly, and monthly rankings of the most-edited Wikipedia entries. This is how it ranked the last week of activity:
English Wikipedia
1. Cyber Sunday (2008)
2. High School Musical 3
3. Chandrayaan-1
4. Far Cry 2
5. Dead Space (video game)
French Wikipedia
1. World Wrestling Entertainment
2. WWE Cyber Sunday
3. Jacques Mesrine
4. Total Solar Eclipse: July 22 2009
5 List of WWE employees
Japanese Wikipedia
1. Kirby Super Star
2. Indian Rebellion of 1857
3. 2008 Japan Series
4. Toshio Tamogami
5. Yattaman
Japan still has Kirby and Yattaman in it’s ranking, but it appears that Japanese Wikipedia users are giving a lot of attention to serious news and history entries as well.
- Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
- dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
- Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan (Subscribe)
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I guess it’s logical, given that it was probably one of the first (if not THE first) articles, but I have to laugh at Wikipedia being among the Top 5 Edited Articles on Wikipedia.
Meanwhile, I didn’t expect the French to be such WWE fans! Are all these edits coming from Quebecois or what?
Huh? The Indian Mutiny? Why such interest?
The thing with an entry for a long running TV series (which in Japan usually means anime), is that the fans update it every time a new episode airs. So “most updated” over a long period of time doesn’t necessarily reveal a lot about the interests of the bulk of wikipedia users.
The same can be said for WWE in France, since changes in the roster, etc. are kept up-to-date by the diehard fans while many people may not care at all.
That’s odd that the Indian Rebellion of 1857 is just smack dab in the middle there, right below Kirby (which interest in him above other game series is astonishing) and right above Yattaman.
And hey, we’ll all be dead eventually and nothing will matter, so I say let people enjoy what they will while they’re here. =)
But I thought all Japanese people were otakus. Has anime lied to me?
I’m just kinda surprised at the fact that Mai-HiME is on the second place. XD
There are ridiculous quantities of anime on the English Wikipedia too. It’s a good first resource for the topic, in fact.