Wikipedia:WikiProject Anime and manga/Characters

This is an essay on style. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more WikiProjects on how to format and present article content within their area of interest.

This information is not a formal Wikipedia policy or guideline, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community.

Shortcuts

This page in a nutshell: When writing about an anime character you have to show how they are notable outside of just their fanbase.

Overview

In this essay I will talk about how to properly write up an article for an anime/manga character, and also explain what would qualify for inclusion. In short, we the editors here on Wikipedia get that you may have a character that you really really like or are attached to so you want an article made right away! If it were up to me we would have a slew of articles about <insert your favorite anime/manga series here>, but at the same time we want to make sure other readers can rely on what you type up. So if you are trying to get others to like the series you like it would be important to tell them accurate information right? This is where reliable sources come in that verify that what you type up is the truth, and not just things like fan rumors (You can read about it at WP:RS and WP:V). Another major factor is notability (See WP:N), meaning that unless the character is deemed notable for its own article it is likely going to be deleted. Notability comes through reliable sources, so if you cant provide enough of the sources then I'm sorry but we cant have an article about your favorite character. When creating a character article please also keep in mind that you want to present the information to a reader who potentially has never seen or read the series the character is in. This means that nobody would normally understand how x character fires up his/her magical powers, or understand the timeline of Universal Century without explaining it. For more information on the subject, you can read WP:JARGON.

Layout

The aim of Wikipedia's editors is to get the articles we have up to Good article status, and beyond. The good news is that we have character articles that have made this high distinction. Most of the good articles all have a thing in common, that being the layout which is as follows..

Infobox

This will not be a subsection (The "===Infobox===" is just for this essay), but will be in the form of a template. {{Infobox animanga character}} is the template that is used for character articles, and has many fields to fill out. The top fields to focus on are: "name =", "series =", "first =", "creator =", and "voiced by =". An image is always preferred but you have to keep WP:COPYRIGHT in mind, images that can be used include... manga cover art, DVD covers, screenshots, or posters. These images can only be used once in the entire article per our non free content policy so the infobox would seem like the best choice. Free use images can be used anywhere but are hard to come by as permission is usually required from the copyright holder or holders. Other fields such as "gender", "nickname", "relatives", etc. are not normally used unless they are essential to the story notability wise.

Lead section

The lead section will also not have a subsection (so don't use ===Lead section===), and should contain no more than three paragraphs that summarize the entire article from top to bottom. Depending on preference the lead may or may not need to include references as they are already going to be present in the article's body.

Creation and conception

This section will be the hardest to fill out due to the language barrier that exists as not many editors understand Japanese. The "Creation and conception" section is key to establishing independent notability, and will need answer questions such as "who created this character, and why?". In general character creation and conception from a series are also not usually discussed in detail by reliable sources unless the series was popular in Japan or abroad. Possible places to find good sources for this section include anime/manga magazines, or less commonly Japanese entertainment websites. Primary sources are useful here as well, especially interviews with the creator, character designers, directors, voice actors, and the author's blogs and afterwords.

Appearances

This section is usually broken down by "In the manga", "In the anime", and "In other media" and should contain no more than four paragraphs per section. Some examples to look at include: Himura Kenshin, Akane Tsunemori, and Edward Elric. The golden rule in my opinion is Let the reader watch/read the story for themselves, in other words we do not need to narrate the entire story. Try your best to include only key parts of the character's plot line, it is very tempting to go into details about relationships but let the reader enjoy that. Out of universe sources such as who played the character in x adaptation can also fit into this section. Referencing may be done through self-published sources such as the manga books themselves or by episode. You can read {{Cite book}}, and {{Cite episode}} on how to use these references. This section can be used before "Creation and conception" but I feel here that it is best to have out of universe information presented first.

Reception

Reviews for a character should include info from at LEAST 3 reliable sources, you can find these sources at our reliable source collection. You can take reviews of a series and use it for the character if enough reviewed information exists for said character. For example; if the review was for the first series anime of Rozen Maiden on DVD, and enough information was given on Shinku then that would count as a review. Passing mentions such as "the characters were good" or "Shinku is the best character" cant be used as they are too broad so use your best judgement when pulling out reviewer's comments on the character. If you can find them, character popularity ratings in manga magazines also count as reception as does in rare occasions really notable merchandise such as character songs or figures.

External links

All external links have to follow the WP:EL guideline which means that sorry no, we cant link your fan website dedicated to your favorite character. Good external links for stand alone character articles are profiles on official series websites, an example is Chi [1] from Chobits. While websites such as IMDb may also be used, social media websites such as Twitter, YouTube, or Facebook are almost never used.

References

This section is included or should be included on all articles on Wikipedia. For this section all you need to do is put: reflist with {{ }} on both sides to generate a references list. For help on citing references please read WP:CITE. Some editors prefer grouped references such as the ones shown in Allen Walker as they do not flood the references section. For these, a separate list needs to be created under {{reflist}} called {{refbegin}} ending with {{refend}}.

Help my character article is being deleted!

If the article you create does not have enough reliable sources, then it can't pass our notability guidelines. We are simply not a fan site to host character articles on, if you want to create your own Wikia there is always that option. Common outcomes for characters that are sent to WP:AfD are a redirect or a merger to a "List of <anime/manga title here> characters" article. If the character is minor or very limited in plot role then it's more likely to be deleted.