Anime is 10% Better than Sex

Well of course anime is better than sex… at least, according to online web-analysis portal Compete.com. In a blog article published in recent days on the website, it was documented that web browsers making use of the all-subject encompassing online encyclopedia Wikipedia apparently have as large, if not larger interest in Japanese animation as they do in human anatomy. The popularity of Japanese animation ("anime") and of Japanese comics/graphic novels ("manga") has ebbed and flowed with the rising interest television advertisers have in late night cable in addition to domestic and international investment endeavors in regional title distributors. Now, with sporadic theatrical releases and merchandising efforts working in conjunction with cable television deals and annual fan conventions that soar into the dozens of thousands, what was once an underground interest seems to have grown quite a sizeable, searchable community.

Compete.com, who asserts user-friendly goals in deciphering web-popularity and usefulness at the hands of the consumer, hopes to enhance the traditional search engine or of web search-functions by providing "click-sharing," that "extends search algorithms by tapping the collective online experiences of millions of people."

The Compete.com article refrenced here, entitled "Wikipedia: Encyclopedia or Kama Sutra?" raises a point of interest for a variety of anime fans in that it points out in terms however odd, simple, perhaps unusual to some, but ultimately of generic interest to most; points out the success and pouplarity of Japanese animation in western culture.

According to the article, "Wikipedia: Encyclopedia or Kama Sutra?," for the month of April 2007, anime was a more widely searched theme matter than that of sex, or of matters pertaining to anatomy. Determined by termed searches that were categorized into six areas--popular culture, music, movies, general research, sex, anime--Japanese animation accounted for approximately 26% of the terminology searched on Wikipedia for the month of April 2007. Sex themed searches on Wikipedia, admittedly not entirely gratuitous and often relevant to sexual concepts, accounted for 16% of total terms searched. Wikipedia, a live documentation of biographical, sociological, political and popular cultural information, has found favor with next generation web users seeking the Web 2.0 experience where social-networking and interactivity are primary means of accessing if not critiquing and cataloguing interests and experiences.

Anime, or perhaps animation of a type, given the original article's author referencing infamously tacky 1980s television animation in the process, is more popular than sex. This of course, neglects to clarify if such a thematic categorization excludes any long-form, short-form or internationally co-produced Japanese animation. Whether such statistics also include the fact that a great amount of the proliferation of Japanese animation in relation to file-sharing and web communities on the Internet deal exclusively with anime in conjunction with sex/pornography (i.e. hentai), is also perhaps negligible. Regardless, Compete.com provides anime fans with a curious, if not humorous statistic with which to gauge the popularity of a media industry they love so dearly.

It should be noted that the presence of Japanese animation in mainstrem media toplists are hardly a newfound source of public interest, given that for years newspaper publications and website traffic documentation sites have tagged topics time and time again that have dominated the interest of consumers. After all, the terms "Dragonball," "Naruto," "Inuyasha," "Sailor Moon" and "Pokemon" are all currently on the Lycos 50, which details the traffic of users and their gravitation to specific search terms in the course of a week. Dragonball, as anime fans who have been around the net for a while may know, has been on the Lycos 50 for several years; having spent more than half of its time in the Top 10 in fact. Similarly, the USA Today accessible list of the Top 150 Best Selling Books Database has frequently found itself the home of exceedingly popular manga publications a few times over the years as well.