Are you familiar with the glorious Tumblr phenomenon known as Swimming Anime? If not, Susana covered it in-depth when it burst onto the scene in a cloud of chlorine and homoerotic tension last month. But for tl;dr purposes, the basics are these: A company called Kyoto Animation (or KyoAni) created a 30-second promo for an anime about four male members of a swim team. It wasn’t a real anime; they were just showing off their animation skills. But Tumblr latched onto it, creating characters, ships, fanart, fic, and in-depth meta within 48 hours, all for a show that was never going to exist.

Until now. Congratulations, Tumblr. Swimming Anime is being made.

Geeks never pass up an opportunity to integrate their fandoms into their everyday lives. Whether we’re pouring our coffee into a Green Lantern mug at work, sporting a Sailor Moon hoodie at the gym or driving around with nerdy decals, bumper stickers and custom license plates on our cars, we love what we love, and we’re not afraid to show it. Former theme park designer Jenn Fujikawa and licensed attorney Giulia Palermo have taken their adoration for all things geeky one step further – into the kitchen, paying homage to their fandoms with food.

Tumblr is no stranger to ironically inventing a fandom, complete with ‘shipping, art, music videos, role-playing blogs, fanfiction and unique vocabulary in a very short amount of time based on a very small, shall we say, canon. Take, for example, the ‘ship Creamsicle, a peaceful outpouring of effort in reaction to a Tumblr flamewar.

This time, though, it’s Swimming Anime, a fandom based on one thirty second promo for an animation company that is not even a real show. In any way. And it might just be me, but it seems to be less of a tongue in cheek response than usual.

Alas, what a cruel twist of fate that these officially licensed Studio Ghibli Zippos are coming out right after the holiday season has ended. Though that might be a good thing, as a single lighter will set you back between $135 and $210. Now you have plenty of time to save up and buy one for the anime fan/smoker (or anime fan/pyromaniac?) in your life a few months from now.

(via Collider, available for purchase on TokyoZippo.com)

Yesterday we gave you our most commented on posts of 2012, but most commented on is not the same as most popular. And by popular we mean looked at. The number of time a specific URL was visited. And what holds true on the internet holds true here: people like galleries (as long as they’re not too annoying). So without further ado, here’s the ten most viewed posts we wrote this year. We would have had to go to twelve to reach a post that didn’t have a gallery of some kind in it (although that post would have been the announcement of The Casual Vacany, J.K. Rowling‘s first post-Harry Potter novel).

We’ve had quite the year here at The Mary Sue. Looking back on it now, we can say without any snarkiness, it was a great one. Part of that has to do with all of you, the folks who visit our site daily to participate in (usually) engaging conversations. When we post an article, we hope it garners discussion, even if that discussion is about how much Peter Jackson must have spent on shampoo for The Hobbit or how hilarious tap dancing zombies are. Some posts never get any comments (and how sad they must be) but others take on a life of their own when a particular topic gets readers talking whether the topic was controversial or not. We like it when things remain civil and do our best to step in when they don’t, but it’s always interesting to see different perspectives. Here now are our Top 10 Most Talked About Stories of 2012 on The Mary Sue.

And the award for most animation styles included in one six-minute sequence goes to: This music video for Livetune’s “Transfer,” directed by Fantasista Utamaro and Kubotabee. That’s one crazy morning commute.

(via: Cartoon Brew)

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After achieving Olympic superstardom, many athletes go on to bigger and better sports-related gigs — they often continue training, or nab sweet endorsement deals that pay them to be the amazing athletic machines that they already are. However, twenty-one year-old swimmer Satomi Suzuki isn’t just any athlete — she’s also a huge nerd who dreams of voicing video game and anime characters.

In 1992, the celebrated Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon anime debuted in Japan, capturing the hearts of thousands of young fans. The series would eventually explode across the globe, resulting in five major story arcs, stage musicals, live action series, and countless pieces of iconic merchandise (after all, who didn’t want their own sailor outfit?). We shared in the excitement of their battles and victories, we laughed at their antics, we sang that catchy theme song, and we definitely envied their cat. Now, twenty later, creator Naoko Takeuchi has announced that we don’t have to put away our plastic moon scepters just yet–the series will return with a new anime debuting in the summer of 2013.

Okay, so when we say “Japanese chess,” we mean shogi, but “Japanese chess” is the most succinct way to explain the two thousand year old strategy game based on a gridded board filled with pieces representing kings, generals, chariots, and soldiers. Naruto, the series of manga, anime, and movies, features characters playing shogi not-infrequently, being set in a fantasy version of Japan. It’s no wonder that someone might become interested in the game after watching the series. After all, it’s a real game with real rules, not like some we could name.

In fact, 20-year-old Karolina Styczynska‘s road to shogi championship began with Naruto, and this weekend she achieved something of a global milestone.