Fandom Report: Naruto on FanFiction.Net

[kohikari]

...I need a hobby.

Um. A different one, I mean. Maybe I need multiple hobbies. I'm just a liiittle too dangerous when I'm bored/procrastinating/avoiding something.

So.  First, since I knew Harry Potter was the most popular section overall and Naruto was the most popular section in the Anime/Manga category, I decided to check out the rest of the site so I could get an idea of what the rest of ff.n is like.

Heavy Hitters Per Category (10K+ stories)

TV Shows
Buffy: The Vampire Slayer - 32K
CSI - 19K
Stargate: SG-1 - 17K
Supernatural - 12K

Movies
Pirates of the Caribbean - 15K
Star Wars - 19K

Miscellaneous
Wrestling - 13K (...)

Games
Final Fantasy VII - 20K
Final Fantasy VIII - 11K
(FF total: 45K)
Kingdom Hearts - 29K
Pokemon - 18K
Zelda - 11K

Comics
none (sad)

Cartoons
Teen Titans - 21K
X-men: Evolution - 11K

Books
* Harry Potter - 333K
Lord of the Rings - 41K
Twilight - 11K (ew)

Anime/Manga (HQ)
Avatar: Last Airbender - 11K
Beyblade - 17K
Bleach - 11K
Card Captor Sakura - 21K
Digimon - 29K
Dragon Ball Z - 29K
Fruits Basket - 13K
Fullmetal Alchemist - 21K
Gundam Wing/AC - 39K
Inuyasha - 76K (my old fandom)
* Naruto - 113K
Rurouni Kenshin - 15K
Sailor Moon - 26K
Yu Yu Hakusho - 21K
Yu-Gi-Oh! - 43K

(Note on URLs:

http://www.fanfiction.net/category/Section/rating/genre/language/sort/length/character1/character2/status/0/page
Category and section are words, i.e. anime, tv, book, movie, misc, game, comic, cartoon; Naruto, Harry_Potter, etc.
All the rest is in numbers.
All ratings is 10, K-T is 3, T is 13, pr0n is 14, etc.
All genres is 0, General is 1, Romance is 2, Humor is 3, Drama is 4, Poetry is 5, Angst is 10, etc.
English is 1, Spanish is 2, etc.
Sort by: Update Date is 1, Publish Date is 2.
All lengths is 0, 1K is 1, 20K is 20, 100K is 100, etc.
I'm not entirely clear on the character codes, but I do know that for the Naruto section, Naruto is 2039, Sasuke is 2040, Sakura is 2041, and Hinata is 2045. The URL may be selecting from a pan-site character base to which the Naruto characters were added after 2038 others. All characters available in the section is 0.
All statuses is 0, In-Progress is 1, Complete is 2.
I have no clue what the second-to-last bit is; it doesn't work with any other numbers. Verification, maybe?
Aaand the last number is for the page number.
So, http://www.fanfiction.net/anime/Naruto/10/0/1/1/100/2039/2040/0/0/1 is fresh meat for sporkage that I will get around to...sooner or later.
It's liek a sekrit CODE. 8D

)

So.

As of today, there are 113K stories in the Naruto section. 4056 pages of English stories.

Let's see what the character statistics are like.

Most Popular Characters (with 100 pages or more)

1.) Uchiha Sasuke (1116p)
2.) Uzumaki Naruto (1100p)
3.) Haruno Sakura (813p)
4.) Hyuuga Hinata (364p)
5.) Sabaku no Gaara (246p)
6.) Hatake Kakashi (226p)
7.) Hyuuga Neji (221p)
8.) Uchiha Itachi (214p)
9.) Nara Shikamaru and Tenten (132p)
10.) Yamanaka Ino (116p)

Analysis: The boys are pretty much up there, and of their own merit, either for their character or for Teh Ghey or to be paired with someone else.  Together they take up a good 44% of the entire section.  Sakura isn't too far behind, but most of the reason she's so popular is because fangirls use her (and Hinata) for either self-insertion with their favorite Hawt Guys, or for their character but still to be paired with the Hawt Guys. (Gen is so underappreciated.) After that are the Hawt Guys. Notice that they're all in the same general area of popularity. One statistic that will always be true is that fanfiction tends to be written by teenage girls. These teenage girls all tend to have Bad Boy kinks. Fact: 20% of the Naruto stories are rated pr0n. Coincidence? I think not. (Ah, the sad fate of the yuri fans, to be oppressed by the rabid het fans and the rabid yaoi fans! Alas.) Then there's Shikamaru and Ino, who exist solely to be paired with each other (and often with Temari as well), and poor Tenten. Oh, Tenten. 77% of your stories are just so you can be paired with Neji. Such selectiveness in choice of partners is unprecedented in the other characters (like Naruto, who can be found to pair with at least eighty others). Maybe if Kishimoto had given you a backstory--or a personality--or hell, even a full name--but no. Such is your fate.

...See, this is why I need a hobby. A hobby that maybe doesn't involve theatre, because acting classes just make me more special.

On to the pr0n!

Most Popular Pairings (with 30 pages or more)

1.) SasuNaru/NaruSasu/whatthefuckever (450p)
2.) SasuSaku (390p)
3.) NaruHina (163p)
4.) NejiTen (101p)
5.) NaruSaku (99p)
6.) ItaSasu/SasuIta/wtfe (65p)
7.) SasuHina (63p)
8.) KakaSaku (54p)
9.) GaaSaku and KakaIru/IruKaka/wtfe (52p)
10.) ShikaIno (45p)
11.) ItaSaku (40p)
12.) ShikaTema (36p)
13.) NaruGaa/GaaNaru/wtfe (35p)

Analysis: RYFGs are scary. I will concede this point. But those rabid het fangirls, they're damn persistent. They're catching up to the crazy yaoi pr0n. That's quite a feat. However, I'm obligated to say that they will never overcome the canon subtexty pairing that looms over all the rest. That one's too obvious to ever die.  *ship ship*  I'm not sure how I feel about SasuHina catching up to ItaSasu and the like, because while the Uchiha Drama Queens are Teh 'Cest, they have way more canon evidence (i.e. actual interaction) than Sasuke and Hinata.  Who never spoke to each other.  Because Hinata is a Narutard and Sasuke (the original Itachitard) is beyond uninterested.  HOWEVER.  I must confess a pet peeve for the KakaIru pairing and the like, which never made sense to me because the one time they spoke was utterly lacking in UST.  The first time I did a Pairing Reporrit, in October of 2006, KakaIru and the like was #8; last October, it was #9; today it dances on the edge of a full #10 spot.  This fills me with the most unholy joy.  If ShikaIno overtakes it next, then so much the better; we need a little Team Ten in the top ten pairings.  (Also:  The animation of Shippuuden inexorably sweeps on, and the manga and anime are being professionally translated faster than ever.  NaruSaku, which has always been canon because of the inherent nature of shounen manga, may soon chase NejiTen out of the #4 spot.  Some may celebrate; some may mourn.  It's up to you.)

Tendencies of the Long-Winded Fangirl (6 stories or more)

Total fics worded 100K or more: 22p (531 stories)

1.) NaruHina (4p; 80s)
2.) SasuNaru/etc. (3p; 51s)
3.) SasuSaku (2p; 37s)
4.) NaruSaku (18s)
5.) KakaSaku and ShikaTema (9s)
6.) SasuHina, KakaIru/etc., NaruIno, and KyuuNaru/um? (8s)
7.) NejiTen (6s)

Analysis:  Remember what I said about het shippers being persistent?  NaruHinatards define the term.  I respect that.  There is great power in OCD.  Also, more evidence that NaruSaku has a good chance of advancing in the lines.

Note:  As working with the major pairings alone was inconclusive, I expanded the terms of 'major' to 15 pages or more.  The pairings with 15 to 29 pages, in that order (a.k.a. from least to greatest), are KakaSasu/LeeSaku, InoSaku, NaruIno/LeeGaa(etc.), KibaHina/KakaNaru/KyuuNaru, ItaNaru, GaaHina, NejiSaku, and NejiHina.  Ah, fangirls.

Compound Analysis:  I have way too much fun with this.

Comments

[hi-no-neko.livejournal.com]

Well, Avatar's production is managed by an American company, and Anime/Manga generally means cartoons from Japan. It's just so silly to see an American cartoon in a category designed for Japanese cartoons. x3

Mm. I guess I'm just used to pairings that have teensy-tiny fanbases that it kind of shocked me to see it be that popular. SasuNaru, NaruHina . . . those are the kinds of pairings I'd expect such big numbers from! x3

[kohikari.livejournal.com]

It can be startling to see such a random pairing be so popular, but in the end it's a good thing. One of the quirks of the internet is that an idea--a story, a world, a character--can be analyzed and poked at and misinterpreted and reinterpreted and turned inside out so many times until it becomes another thing entirely. Until it becomes a fandom. It's weird, but it's there, and I think I like it. X3