Nico Nico Douga

Nico Nico Douga (ニコニコ動画) is something I only recently discovered.

What is it?
It is basically a video sharing website.

How big is it in Japan?
It's actually the 13th most visited site in Japan, so pretty dang popular! It also boasts 19 million registered users.

How is it different from YouTube?
Funny enough, when the site first went up it used YouTube as a video source; however, as Nico Nico gained popularity, it caused so much traffic for YouTube that the company blocked Nico Nico altogether. Now it hosts its own videos.

Anyway, by far the biggest difference is the fact that users' comments overlap the video itself. This makes it so you can see peoples' comments in real time, as if the person is commenting as the action onscreen unfolds. I first encountered this type of video while at the Crunchyroll booth at this year's Fanime in San Jose. Linda Le, a.k.a. Vampy, was interviewing some cosplayers, and the interview was being streamed to the internet live. Some of you may remember me posting this picture:



This was done in what I now know is the Nico Nico style. People were commenting instantly on what Vampy and the interviewee were saying, and it was scrolling across the screen--pretty cool.

Many of you are probably wondering, "Aren't all those comments running across the screen going to be super annoying?" It can be, but I think it depends on what you're watching. If you wanted to, for example, watch an episode of T.V., or a new music video of an artist you really like, the comments would probably just be obstructive. But, if it is a humorous video, it can actually add quite a lot to the hilarity. It's really funny to see what people say, as something happens in the video.

My latest and funniest encounter with Nico Nico came from my language partner. She posted a very interesting video, which I have linked below. It's from Super Mario World, but it's not a level you'll find in the game. I'm not sure how they did it, but it's some kind of user-created level--probably made from a ROM--and it's just about the toughest level you'll ever see.



If you don't want to watch the whole thing, just skip to any part of the middle to get a feel for the Nico Nico style. What makes this video so hilarious, besides the insane difficulty that the player has to deal with, is everyone's comments. Despite having studied Japanese for a while now, I don't understand most of coherent comments being made, so don't feel like you need to know Japanese to enjoy this particular video.

**The More You Know**
Knowing just these three things will let you enjoy the video:

1) Whenever you're reading informal Japanese comments, such as on Youtube or Nico Nico, and you see a lot of w's, such as "wwwwwwwwwww," that is a Japanese way of typing laughter. Think of a single "w" as the Japanese equivalent to "lol," and "wwwwwwwww" as the Japanese equivalent of, "lolololol." In this video, you will see this pretty much every time the player dies.

2) The hiragana character あ means "a" and is pronounced "ah." So when you see a ton of "あああああああ," that's the same as saying "ahhhhhhhhhh," in English.

3) The hiragana character お means "o" and is pronounced "oh." When you see a ton of "おおおおおおおお," that's the same as saying "Oooohhhhhhhhh," in English.

You will see those last two examples exclaimed both any time the user does something impressive, and often when he dies. Now that you know these three points, you might want to watch part of the video again (especially a part where the player dies, wwwwwwwwwww).