Fri, 19 May 2006
Wikipedia walks
It is interesting what can be found by just following the internal links on Wikipedia pages: I have looked up the phrase D'oh! (being non-native English speaker I really did not know its origin). Then, of course, I clicked on the page about Homer Simpson, and I have found that he is (apart from other categories) listed in a fictional alcoholics category.
So I wondered who else is considered to be a fictional alcoholic, and found Misato Katsuragi, my favourite Neon Genesis Evangelion character, listed there (well, is starting a day with a single can of beer considered being an alcoholic?).
I then followed to the page about Rei Ayanami. It contains an insane amount of details, speculations, and trivia. The most interesting information for me was, that even Rei's surname is taken from the WW2 Japanese ship (I already knew that some Evangelion characters' surnames are taken from the WW2 Japanese ships - for example Akagi or Sohryu - but it seems almost all of them are (see the question 3.4 in the previous link).
From general English catch phrase to Japanese destroyers in five or so clicks. Not bad, isn't it? Also, it seems that Wikipedia is especially strong in fictional characters. I have found such a big number of details there to which even a "specialized" site like AnimeNFO or AniDB cannot compare.