Bilibili, China’s biggest anime site, covers the screen in user comments

China’s biggest anime streaming site, famous for “bullet comments” -- floating viewer comments which directly on top of a video. Targets gamers as well as fans of anime and comics.

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Bilibili’s frontman is a TV meme and its frontwomen two blue-haired schoolgirls inspired by Japanese icon Hatsune Miku. (Picture: Bilibili)

Published: 5:56pm, 18 Sep 2018Updated: 8:08am, 20 Sep 2019

This article originally appeared on ABACUS

Bilibili is China’s biggest anime streaming site, as well as one of the country’s biggest video-sharing sites. The Shanghai-based company markets itself as the online home for fans of ACG: Anime, comics and gaming.

Often known simply as the B-site by fans, Bilibili is now a Nasdaq-listed media juggernaut. But when it first started out in 2009, it was a scrappy little place for millennials and Gen Z to watch Japanese anime (mostly illegal and unlicensed).

But what sets Bilibili apart from other video sites is its signature style of viewer comments, called bullet comments.

What are bullet comments? They are basically one-line comments contributed by viewers that float directly above the video you’re watching. It’s like they’re screaming for your attention.

It’s hard to keep track of what’s happening… or even watch the videos. (Picture: Bilibili)

Bullet comments can either be in real-time, or comments left by previous viewers pegged to specific moments of a video. In short, it’s like Twitch’s chat but superimposed directly upon the footage itself.

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