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Wikipedia:Wikipe-tan

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For encyclopedic coverage of the mascot, see Wikipedia mascots § Wikipe-tan.
"WP:TAN" redirects here. For the Tanzanian WikiProject, see Wikipedia:WikiProject Tanzania.
"WP:MOE" redirects here. For the WikiProject about Missouri, see WP:MO.
Wikipe-tan
First appearance
Futaba Channel (January 8, 2006)
Created byKasuga[a]
Based onMoe anthropomorphism of Wikipedia
In-universe information
SpeciesHuman
GenderFemale
FamilyCommons-tan (sister)
Wikiquote-tan (sister)

Wikipe-tan (Japanese: ウィキペたん; pronounced [wikipeꜜtan]) is a personification of Wikipedia created in January 2006 by Japanese editor Kasuga.[a] She is an unofficial mascot of Wikipedia and is used at several WikiProjects. The -tan in "Wikipe-tan" is a hypocoristic suffix, in the form of a Japanese honorific. Like the OS-tans, she is a product of moe anthropomorphism.

Background

[edit]
Wikipe-tan's initial design

The general idea for a "Wikipe-tan" mascot was posted on January 5, 2006, by the anonymous Taiwanese IP address 192.192.170.2, who suggested a mascot "just like OS-tan" on the Wikipedia mascot vote.[1] Japanese Wikipedia user Kasuga drew at least two images of a "Wikipe-tan" character and posted them on the Futaba Channel on January 8; the thread was linked from the mascot discussion on January 13,[2] and two of the images were uploaded to Commons and added directly to the discussion on January 18.[3]

Kasuga has stated that when designing Wikipe-tan and, later, her sisters, he kept two things in mind: Fujiko F Fujio's advice that a good character design should have a distinctive silhouette, and an observation by Scott McCloud in his Understanding Comics that golden age comic book artists gave each character symbolic color charts.[4]

On March 29, 2007, Wikipe-tan was joined by the moe anthropomorphisms for Wikipedia's sister projects, Commons-tan and Quote-tan. Kasuga has stated "...new Wiki-sisters will be designed in the future". However, Kasuga also stated that "there was no page that needed other sisters' images up to now. I might draw their images if there are pages which need them."

Although Wikipede received more support in the mascot vote, new Wikipe-tan images were made and saw continued use. Jimbo Wales described Wikipe-tan as a community mascot in 2007,[5] though he has since noted that he personally dislikes the character.[6]

Wikipe-tan is the mascot character for WikiProject Anime and manga and WikiProject Holidays' Christmas task force; she was also the mascot for Admin coaching, the Counter-Vandalism Unit, and a contender for an official Wikipedia mascot. In addition, Wikimedia Hong Kong uses Wikipe-tan images and her cosplay during functions and promotions. Wikimedia Malaysia has also used art of the character in their social media posts on Instagram.[7] Wikipe-tan has occasionally been treated as a mascot for Wikipedia or its community in news reports.

Character

[edit]

Appearance

[edit]

Wikipe-tan is a usually fair-skinned girl or woman of a variable height and apparent age depending on the particular image. She is distinguished by iconic teal hair, of different shades (but rarely as dark as Wikimedia blue).

Garb

[edit]

Although her wardrobe is extensive, her most common outfit is a dark blue maid dress, with a collar and a white apron tied at the waist. She typically wears her hair in twintails, held with two jigsaw puzzle piece-shaped hair ties, and a pin on her apron bib is similarly shaped. She wears tights that are the same color as her dress, often without shoes although sometimes she wears dark brown slip-ons.

The puzzle pieces worn by the character are similar to some of the pieces in the Wikipedia logo:

  • she wears a puzzle piece on her collar with the symbol "ワィ", which is a misspelling of the katakana "ウィ", the first syllable of the Japanese katakana transliteration of "Wikipedia" present in the Wikipedia logo's previous version).
  • 祖 is a kanji character apparently changed from the logo's 袓, the latter being a Chinese character not used in Japanese.[8]
  • Ω is a letter from the Greek alphabet.

The most up-to-date picture by Kasuga[which?] shows her wearing the characters 維 (being the first character of Wikipedia's Chinese name) and the correct Japanese katakana ウィ from the current Wikipedia logo.

Personality

[edit]

While there is little canon dialogue, Wikipe-tan is generally depicted as being amiable and eager to share knowledge, even to a fault.

Timeline

[edit]
See also: history of Wikipedia § Timeline
The three current Wikimedia sisters (from left to right): Commons-tan, Wikipe-tan, and Quote-tan.

2006

[edit]
  • June 2006 — Wikipe-tan is made the mascot for the Anime and manga WikiProject after the previous mascot, a fan-art image of the title character from Midori Days, was removed from Commons due to copyright problems. Since her first appearance, many users across the entire Wikimedia project have placed images of her on their userpages (see Commons usage for each image).
  • August 9, 2006 — an image of Wikipe-tan is promoted as a featured picture, and it appeared on the main page as the October 2 Picture of the day.
    October 9, 2007 — the image was delisted and is no longer a featured picture.
  • September 2006[9] — Wikipe-tan is adopted as the mascot of the Counter-Vandalism Unit since their previous logo had been removed[10] in February 2006 due to trademark and copyright-related complications.
  • May 31, 2006 — A userscript userChrome.css is written and made available by Kylu, allowing users to add Wikipe-tan to their Firefox browser. However, Firefox has changed the format of their user interface chrome system since then.[11]
  • June 2006 — issue 48 of games™, a United Kingdom gaming magazine, used an image of Wikipe-tan on page 30 as an illustration of maid cafés.[12]
  • August 2006 — Two Wikipe-tan cosplayers participate in a cosplay activity at the University of Hong Kong. One of them was later interviewed by the Hong Kong magazine Easy Finder, which erroneously reported that she had been invited by Kasuga and Norwegian "administrator" GunnarRene to become the real-life personification of Wikipe-tan.[13][14]
    December 18, 2006 — The Hong Kong newspaper Apple Daily compounded that error, reporting that she had become a representative for Wikipedia.[15]
  • October 12, 2006 — Hong Kong's Apple Daily ran a short article discussing Wikipe-tan, and how the GFDL helped her spread across Wikimedia.

2007

[edit]
  • February 3, 2007 — An article is started for Wikipe-tan on the OS-Tan Collections Wiki.
  • February 21, 2007 — WikiProject Military history began using a Wikipe-tan image, requested to be created with her in a navy uniform for featured articles, to decorate one of their userboxes.
  • March 2007 — the Swedish foreign ministry published a promemoria[16] about Japanese anime and manga, using text and Kasuga's Wikipe-tan image from the Swedish Wikipedia without acknowledgement as required by the GFDL. The Swedish media reported this violation in April,[17] and the Chancellor of Justice ruled that the act was a copyright infringement in November.[18]
  • June 6, 2007 — Shwing! of the blog (Doa)nimation asserts that "the moe is irrisistable" [sic].
  • June 15, 2007 — the German newspaper Dresdner Neueste Nachrichten (circulation ca. 31,000) used Wikipe-tan on the front page as well as next to an article on the variety of manga.
  • July 2007 — a suggestive image of Wikipe-tan (not drawn by Kasuga) is proposed for use in the article on lolicon. The image was removed[19] from Commons by Jimbo Wales, who called Wikipe-tan a "community mascot" who should not be subject to such "pedophilic sexualization".[19] Kasuga later drew a new image for the article which did not use Wikipe-tan. The image was later undeleted in November 2025 on the basis that there was no community consensus to delete and Wales is not an "absolute monarch".[20]
  • August 4, 2007 — A Wikipe-tan standee is displayed at Wikimania.
  • September 22, 2007 — An illustration by DeviantArt user SigurdHosenfeld is uploaded under a CC-By-SA 3.0 license, and added to Wikimedia Commons two years later.
  • October 4, 2007 — Kasuga uploads an illustration to Pixiv of Wikipe-tan objecting to people abbreviating 'Wikipedia' as 'wiki', noting in the post commentary that it would be like calling Zakrello from Mobile Suit Gundam "Zack".
  • October 21, 2007 — Domthedude001 illustrates Wikipe-tan as a cheerleader in pixel art style.
  • December 21, 2007 — an image of Wikipe-tan wearing baro't saya is added to Wikipedia:Tambayan Philippines.
    That same image was used on the front page of the Chavacano-language Wikipedia at cbk-zam: from June 2008 to March 2026.

2008

[edit]
  • February 29, 2008 — A tag wiki page is started on Danbooru.
  • April 16, 2008 — Sukaponta posts to Pixiv a doodle speculating that Wikipe-tan's hair puzzle pieces are actually bladed weapons.
  • June 1, 2008 — British newspaper The Observer featured on page 35 in the 'World' section a picture of the cropped sailor fuku version of Wikipe-tan in the article "Girl geeks find manga haven", byline Justin McCurry. The article makes no mention of Wikipedia, Wikipe-tan, or the GFDL.
    August 2008 — a new image replaced[21] Wikipe-tan, though the old logo with Wikipe-tan was still used on the Project template until[22] March 2011.
  • December 17, 2008 — An article in The Guardian mostly about Internet Watch Foundation and Wikipedia mentioned another controversy involving an image of Wikipe-tan as a point of comparison.[23]

2009

[edit]
  • January 25, 2009 — Jishi uploads to Pixiv a drawing of an exuberant Wikipe-tan at a computer.
  • June 12, 2009 — Wikipe-tan is added to Mascotpedia, a Wikia/Fandom site.

2010

[edit]
  • January 30, 2010 and February 28, 2010 — Several desktop backgrounds are posted to Safebooru.
  • April 10, 2010 — A vinyl 1.2 metres (3 ft 11 in) green-haired figure of Wikipe-tan designed by Harold J. Sasaki with partial inspiration from the Wikipede is put up for preorder by the Japanese company Mel Factory. A large-scale statue of the character by the same company was also installed in a private library.[24]

2011

[edit]
  • February 11, 2011 — Cpro uploads an illustration of Wikipe-tan using a holographic UI to Wikimedia Commons.

2012

[edit]
  • May 31, 2012 — Wikipe-tan is said to be "falling out of favor" at this point in the words of Sage Ross, but not such that a mug went unappreciated.

2013

[edit]
  • July 9, 2013 — Kasuga's catgirl Wikipe-tan image is uploaded to e621 and the SFW mirror site e926.
  • August 13, 2013 — 'The Penguin' posts a blog post about Wikipe-tan.

2014

[edit]

2015

[edit]
  • September 15, 2015 — Wikipe-tan was mentioned alongside various other mascot characters in a Hopes and Fears article.[25]

2016

[edit]
  • June 22, 2016 — A tag wiki page is started on Gelbooru.

2017

[edit]
  • 2017 — Wikipe-tan is used as an example of a character with a super-deformed version in a textbook.[26]

2018

[edit]
  • April 14, 2018 — Ikazu401 posts to DeviantArt and Pixiv an illustration of Wikipe-tan resting her head on her hands.

2019

[edit]
  • October 3, 2019 — Wikipe-tan was used in the thumbnail of a video by Cr1TiKaL.[27]

2021

[edit]
  • January 11, 2021 — Creeperberries posted an illustration to Newgrounds.
  • April 1, 2021 — Adult Wikipe-tan was added as an opponent in the free browser-based strip poker game SPNATI (Strip Poker Night at the Inventory) as part of their yearly April Fools' Day event. After the event ended, she was removed before being added again due to several requests from the player base.[28]
  • July 29, 2021 — Wikipe-tan is added to Heroes Wiki, a Wikia/Fandom site.

2022

[edit]
  • April 18, 2022 — An article in Futurism used Wikipe-tan to illustrate the concept of catgirls.[29]
  • June 29, 2022 — Experimental hip-hop artist ilysm released the album no matter how i look at it.., which uses art of Wikipe-tan holding up two glocks at the camera as the album cover. The character also saw continued use in other albums by the artist.[30]

2023

[edit]
  • April 24, 2023 — moppynoko uploads to Newgrounds an illustration of Wikipe-tan writing in a small notepad while wearing pince nez; her hair tie puzzle piece has 維納 on it.
  • October 9, 2023 — SpagMushrooms uploads to Newgrounds two commissioned pinup artworks of Wikipe-tan: one as a teacher, and one as a dominatrix. Due to compatible licensing, both illustrations are on Wikimedia Commons.
  • November 13, 2023 — Wikipe-tan became a viable redirect to moe anthropomorphism.[31]
  • December 2, 2023 — J00NSLIVTZ uploads to Newgrounds a sketch of Wikipe-tan laughing.

2024

[edit]
  • January 1, 2024 — UnevenPrankster posts a drawing to Newgrounds to celebrate Public Domain Day of Wikipe-tan with Steamboat Willie-era Mickey Mouse.
    April 19, 2024 — And several months later, one of Wikipe-tan wearing glasses.
  • July 9, 2024 — An article on Moeverse wiki about Wikipe-tan is started.
  • August 27, 2024 — LeoShortNose posts a drawing of catgirl Wikipe-tan to Newgrounds.

2025

[edit]
2025 LOVEWEB episode
External videos
YouTube logo
cartoon animations by sadi1v
video icon JUST BE COMPETENT
video icon the shorts version too half her head kinda got cut off we don’t mention it
  • February 1, 2025 — Wikipe-tan made an appearance in an episode of the informational animated web series LOVEWEB.[32]
  • March 8, 2025 — Wikipe-tan has an article created on Sillypedia at Miraheze, a wiki farm.
  • May 9, 2025 — Wikipe-tan has her own Wikia/Fandom site created, to which an article is added.
  • September 14, 2025 — A Neocities fan page is published.
  • September 23, 2025 — American animator sadi1v [Wikidata] who specializes in object show gijinkas posted an animation of a half-frame-glasses-wearing Wikipe-tan holding a book and grooving to a remix of the song "Impostor Syndrome" by Sidney Gish from her 2017 New Year's Eve album No Dogs Allowed, with this page as a scrolling background.
  • September 27, 2025 — SouSTAR posts a sketch to Newgrounds of Wikipe-tan bursting out of the puzzle globe like a pop out cake.
  • October 15, 2025 — Wikipe-tan was briefly talked about in Izzzyzzz's now-deleted video essay about OS-tan. In the video, Izzzyzzz describes her as "one of the most infamous" Site-tans due to the amount of inappropriate remarks given toward the character.[33]

2026

[edit]

Kasuga's art

[edit]

Wikipe-tan

[edit]

Wikimedia sisters

[edit]

Commons-tan

[edit]

She is the sister of Wikipe-tan and Wikiquote-tan. She is a short girl with fair skin, her hair is red with a blue arrow beret, she wears a dark blue maid dress with white sections and also wears socks the same color as her dress, she also wears orange slip-on shoes.

  • Commons-tan
    Commons-tan
  • Adult Commons-tan
    Adult Commons-tan
  • Taking a picture
    Taking a picture

Wikiquote-tan

[edit]

She is the sister of Wikipe-tan and Commons-tan, she is a short girl with light skin, her hair is dark blue with a hook of the ” symbol in blue, she wears a dark blue maid dress with white sections, she wears socks of the same color as her dress, she also wears blue shoes.

  • Quote-tan
    Quote-tan
  • Adult Quote-tan
    Adult Quote-tan

Cropped versions

[edit]

Derived from Kasuga's art

[edit]
This page is part of Wikipedia's repository of public domain and freely usable images, such as photographs, videos, maps, diagrams, drawings, screenshots, and equations. Please do not list images which are only usable under the doctrine of fair use, images whose license restricts copying or distribution to non-commercial use only, or otherwise non-free images here. Please also consider uploading new free images and transferring images in this category to the Wikimedia Commons so that they may be more widely used.


Barnstars

[edit]
  • Barnstar for WikiProject Anime and manga
    Barnstar for WikiProject Anime and manga
  • WikiProject Anime and manga Barnstar 2.0
    WikiProject Anime and manga Barnstar 2.0
  • Proposed nekomimi Barnstar
    Proposed nekomimi Barnstar
  • Proposed cleanup Barnstar
    Proposed cleanup Barnstar
  • Proposed nekomimi cleanup Barnstar
    Proposed nekomimi cleanup Barnstar
  • Proposed Barnstar
    Proposed Barnstar
  • Proposed Barnstar
    Proposed Barnstar
  • Italian Wikipedia Barnstar
    Italian Wikipedia Barnstar
  • Early version of the Barnstar 2.0
    Early version of the Barnstar 2.0

Miscellaneous

[edit]

The following are images which have been used on the English and International Wiki. These include displays on Wikipedia articles, displays on Wikipedia project pages, and displays on Humorous and/or user pages.

Stubs

[edit]

Userboxes

[edit]

See also

[edit]

Footnotes

[edit]
  1. ^ a b カスガ (Japanese pronunciation: [kasuga]) In the aftermath of the unified login finalization, the user now going by Kasuga on Commons and on English Wikipedia is a different person. The accounts of the creator of Wikipe-tan were renamed Kasuga~enwiki, Kasuga~jawiki and Kasuga~commonswiki.

References

[edit]
  1. ^ 192.192.170.2 (January 5, 2006). "How about Wikipe-tan just like OS-tan". Meta. Archived from the original on April 5, 2019. Retrieved March 7, 2011.
  2. ^ 72.137.173.201 (January 13, 2006). "something like the one here?". Meta. Archived from the original on April 5, 2019. Retrieved July 10, 2011.
  3. ^ Shii (January 18, 2006). "Um... it seems those images are GFDL ... let's put them here, then". Meta. Retrieved July 10, 2011.
  4. ^ Kasuga (October 23, 2007). "Adult Wikipe-tan by ~Kasuga39". deviantArt. Archived from the original on August 10, 2011. Retrieved July 10, 2011.
  5. ^ Wales, Jimbo (June 8, 2007). "Community mascot". Wikimedia Commons. Archived from the original on April 5, 2019. Retrieved March 7, 2011.
  6. ^ Wales, Jimbo (February 7, 2011). "I am not a fan". Wikipedia. Archived from the original on November 4, 2015. Retrieved February 7, 2011.
  7. ^ "Instagram". www.instagram.com. Retrieved 2026-05-19.
  8. ^ https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2008-July/044782.html
  9. ^ "Wikipedia:Counter Vandalism Unit/Nav". Archived from the original on 31 October 2022. Retrieved 25 September 2014.
  10. ^ "Wikipedia:Counter Vandalism Unit/Nav". Archived from the original on 27 November 2022. Retrieved 25 September 2014.
  11. ^ "Contributors guide on Firefox advanced customization with CSS". 2025-04-01.
  12. ^ "Magazine Issues | Videogames Magazine - gamesTM - Part 3". www.gamestm.co.uk. Archived from the original on 2010-07-13. Retrieved Feb 20, 2023.
  13. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2007-01-14. Retrieved 2006-12-31.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)[bare URL image file]
  14. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2007-01-14. Retrieved 2006-12-31.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)[bare URL image file]
  15. ^ "维基娘代言人出展游戏展" [Wikigirl Spokesperson Appears at Game Expo]. 21CN Game Channel (in Chinese). 18 December 2006. Archived from the original on 16 March 2007. Retrieved 28 September 2024.
  16. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 September 2007. Retrieved 2007-12-27.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  17. ^ Helander, Magnus (2007-04-30). "UD plankade Wikipedia" (in Swedish). resume.se. Archived from the original on 2019-04-03. Retrieved 22 November 2010.
  18. ^ "Filecrunch.com homepage". filecrunch.com. 22 November 2010. Archived from the original on 11 July 2011. Retrieved 15 January 2017.
  19. ^ a b "Deletion log". Archived from the original on 30 September 2023. Retrieved 25 September 2014.
  20. ^ https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?page=File%3ALoliWikipetan.jpg&title=Special:Log
  21. ^ "Wikipedia:Counter-Vandalism Unit: Difference between revisions". Archived from the original on 5 January 2023. Retrieved 25 September 2014.
  22. ^ "Template:Counter-Vandalism Unit: Difference between revisions". Archived from the original on 2 November 2023. Retrieved 25 September 2014.
  23. ^ Finkelstein, Seth (17 December 2008). "Sting in the Scorpions tale is the exposure of Wiki's weakness". The Guardian.
  24. ^ "ウィキペたんフィギュア発売決定！！ - FGR.com". fgr.hariko.com. Retrieved 2026-06-25.
  25. ^ Howard, Dorothy (15 September 2015). "Meet the manga avatars of your favorite tech platforms". Hopes&Fears. Archived from the original on 16 September 2015. Retrieved 16 September 2015.
  26. ^ Neto, Ernane Alves Guimarães; de Lima, Leonardo Souza (7 June 2018). Narrativas e Personagens para Jogos (in Portuguese). Editora Érica. p. figure 4.6. ISBN 9788536525716.
  27. ^ penguinz0 (2019-10-03). The Official Podcast #148: The Boys Make A Porn Game. Retrieved 2026-05-27 – via YouTube.{{cite AV media}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  28. ^ "Wikipe-tan SPNATI Wiki". Miraheze. Archived from the original on 30 September 2023. Retrieved 3 April 2022.
  29. ^ Tangermann, Victor (18 April 2022). "Elon Musk Says He Could Make "Catgirl" Sex Robots If He Wanted To". The Byte. Archived from the original on 17 September 2024. Retrieved 28 September 2024.
  30. ^ "no matter how i look at it ." Rate Your Music.
  31. ^ "Wikipe-tan", Wikipedia, 2023-11-13, retrieved 2026-05-14
  32. ^ Wikipedia: The Internet's Masterpiece - LOVEWEB (video). youtube.com. Shadok. February 1, 2025.
  33. ^ Izzzyzzz (2025-10-15). Windows Anime Girls: A Deep Dive Into 'OS-Tan'. Event occurs at 21:05. Archived from the original on 2025-10-15. Retrieved 2026-05-27 – via YouTube.
  34. ^ "Wikipedia:Today's featured article/May 3, 2026", Wikipedia, 2026-05-03, retrieved 2026-05-14
  35. ^ Lise. "dude open the wikipedia home page it doesn't matter what browser". X.
  36. ^ "Wikipedia mascots", Wikipedia, 2026-05-22, retrieved 2026-05-27
  37. ^ "Instagram". www.instagram.com. Retrieved 2026-06-16.
[edit]
Wikimedia Commons logo
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Wikipe-tan.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Wikipe-tan&oldid=1366464569"