---
title: A method to construct comics spoiler dataset and the analysis of comics spoilers
tags: 
author: [Nakamura Laboratory (Meiji University)](https://www.docswell.com/user/nkmr-lab)
site: [Docswell](https://www.docswell.com/)
thumbnail: https://bcdn.docswell.com/page/L7359G42E5.jpg?width=480
description: A method to construct comics spoiler dataset and the analysis of comics spoilers by Nakamura Laboratory (Meiji University)
published: September 08, 23
canonical: https://www.docswell.com/s/nkmr-lab/KRX81J-2023-09-08-164111
---
# Page. 1

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A method to construct comics spoiler
dataset and the analysis of comics spoilers
Takumi Takakua, Yoshiki Makia, Satoshi Nakamuraa
a Meiji
University, Nakano 4-21-1, Nakano-ku, Tokyo, 164-8525, Japan
27th International Conference on Knowledge-Based and Intelligent Information & Engineering Systems
Athens, Greece, 06-08 September 2023


# Page. 2

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Q. Have you ever encountered a spoiler?
27th International Conference on Knowledge-Based and Intelligent Information & Engineering Systems
Athens, Greece, 06-08 September 2023


# Page. 3

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Background
• Spoiler is usually known as revealing key plot details or outcomes of contents before
someone has had a chance to experience it themselves.
• People might encounter spoilers even if you try to avoid them.
27th International Conference on Knowledge-Based and Intelligent Information & Engineering Systems
Athens, Greece, 06-08 September 2023


# Page. 4

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Background
• I had an experience being spoiled on Twitter.
27th International Conference on Knowledge-Based and Intelligent Information & Engineering Systems
Athens, Greece, 06-08 September 2023


# Page. 5

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Background
• Spoilers can happen unintentionally in many different places, such as SNS, review
websites, thumbnail images, etc.
• Various studies have been conducted to investigate the issue of spoilers.
➢ Spoilers in film affect consumer behavior and found that spoilers makes people more
reluctant to watch movies. [Tsang et al. 2009]
➢ Clarifying the characteristics of sports spoilers on Twitter, and proposed a method for
judging the spoilers. [Shiratori et al. 2018]
•
•
Tsang. A. S. L. and Yan, D. (2009) “Reducing the Spoiler Effect in Experiential Consumption.” Advances in Consumer Research, 36: 708–709.
Yuji, S. Maki, Y. Satoshi, N. and Takanori, K. (2018) “Detection of Football Spoilers on Twitter” The 10th International Conference on
Collaboration Technologies (CollabTech 2018): 129–141.
27th International Conference on Knowledge-Based and Intelligent Information & Engineering Systems
Athens, Greece, 06-08 September 2023


# Page. 6

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Our Previous Study
• We conducted an experiment to find out the effects of spoilers on comics.
[Maki et al. 2017, 2018]
• We focused on comics because they are published in more extensive serialization
periods than other content, such as novels, dramas, animations, and movies.
• We divided the participants’ groups into those with spoilers and those without spoilers,
and found no significant difference in enjoyment between them.
•
•
Maki, Y., Shiratori, Y., Sato, K. and Nakamura, S. (2018) “A Consideration to Estimate Spoiling Pages in Comics” International Symposium on
Affective Science and Engineering ISASE2018 4: 1–6.
Maki, Y. and Nakamura, S. (2017) “Do Manga Spoilers Spoil Manga?” The Sixth Asian Conference on Information Systems: 258–262.
27th International Conference on Knowledge-Based and Intelligent Information & Engineering Systems
Athens, Greece, 06-08 September 2023


# Page. 7

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Our Previous Study
• We conducted an experiment to find out the effects of spoilers on comics.
[Maki et al. 2017, 2018]
• There was a issue on our previous studies.
➢ The definition of a spoiler was ambiguous, so there could be a possibility that
participants had different criteria for spoilers.
27th International Conference on Knowledge-Based and Intelligent Information & Engineering Systems
Athens, Greece, 06-08 September 2023


# Page. 8

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Our Previous Study
• We conducted an experiment to find out the effects of spoilers on comics.
[Maki et al. 2017, 2018]
• There was a issue on our previous studies.
➢ The definition of a spoiler was ambiguous, so there could be a possibility that
participants had different criteria for spoilers.
It is necessary to define the definition of spoilers in comics,
and reinvestigate the effects on comics.
27th International Conference on Knowledge-Based and Intelligent Information & Engineering Systems
Athens, Greece, 06-08 September 2023


# Page. 9

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Purpose of our study
1.
We first clarify the definition of spoilers.
2.
Ask experimental collaborators to select comics book pages that
match the defined spoilers.
3.
By analyzing the spoiler data obtained from the collaborators, we
will consider what kinds of places are likely to be avoided as
spoilers.
27th International Conference on Knowledge-Based and Intelligent Information & Engineering Systems
Athens, Greece, 06-08 September 2023


# Page. 10

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Defining the spoilers
•
Why defining Spoilers?
➢ Previous spoiler studies had imprecise and deficient spoilers.
•
Spoilers on short stories [Leavitt et al. , 2011]
➢ They only use punchlines as spoilers.
•
Spoilers on comics [Hassoun, 2013]
➢ The last panel of the facing page was the spoiler.
•
Spoilers are likely to be responded to differently depending on where readers are read
and where spoilers are presented
27th International Conference on Knowledge-Based and Intelligent Information & Engineering Systems
Athens, Greece, 06-08 September 2023


# Page. 11

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Defining the spoilers
Readers reading
Spoilers Presented
91 Volumes
27th International Conference on Knowledge-Based and Intelligent Information & Engineering Systems
Athens, Greece, 06-08 September 2023


# Page. 12

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Defining the spoilers
Readers reading
Spoilers Presented
91 Volumes
Readers do not notice spoilers since the place where they are
reading and where the spoiler is presented are too far apart.
27th International Conference on Knowledge-Based and Intelligent Information & Engineering Systems
Athens, Greece, 06-08 September 2023


# Page. 13

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Defining the spoilers
Readers reading
Spoilers Presented
9 Volumes
27th International Conference on Knowledge-Based and Intelligent Information & Engineering Systems
Athens, Greece, 06-08 September 2023


# Page. 14

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Defining the spoilers
Readers reading
Spoilers Presented
9 Volumes
Where readers are reading and spoiler is presented are close to
each other, so they perceive it as a spoiler and feel unpleasant
27th International Conference on Knowledge-Based and Intelligent Information & Engineering Systems
Athens, Greece, 06-08 September 2023


# Page. 15

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Definition of spoiler
•
Spoilers are likely to be responded to differently depending on where readers are read
and where spoilers are presented
•
We define spoiler as :
A page p in episode N+1 that would be objectionable to others who have
read up to episode N of the comic when it is presented
27th International Conference on Knowledge-Based and Intelligent Information & Engineering Systems
Athens, Greece, 06-08 September 2023


# Page. 16

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Experiment & Constructing Spoiler Dataset
Using the definition we defined, we conducted the experiment to find out what kind of
episodes are treated as spoilers.
• Therefore, we construct spoiler datasets based on the experiments’ data, and compare
the results with previous studies.
•
Battle
©️Takeshi Obata
Sports
©️Tsujitomo
Mystery
©️Tetsuya Tsutsu
Romance
©️Toko Minami
27th International Conference on Knowledge-Based and Intelligent Information & Engineering Systems
Athens, Greece, 06-08 September 2023


# Page. 17

![Page Image](https://bcdn.docswell.com/page/5EGX16N6JL.jpg)

Flow of the experiment
1
We asked participants to read the Nth
Story. N starts from 1
2
We listed the N-1th thumbnail pages
and asked participants to browse them
briefly.
3
Select a spoiler for each page of the Nth
story based on the definition. They also
select the 3 levels on degree of spoilers.
Choosing Spoilers
© Ken
Akamatsu
27th International Conference on Knowledge-Based and Intelligent Information & Engineering Systems
Athens, Greece, 06-08 September 2023


# Page. 18

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Flow of the experiment
Choosing Spoilers
•
We asked participants to select the tags
based on the description below
➢
Red
➢
Yellow : Probably a Spoiler
➢
Blue
: Definitely a Spoiler
: Not a Spoiler
© Ken
Akamatsu
27th International Conference on Knowledge-Based and Intelligent Information & Engineering Systems
Athens, Greece, 06-08 September 2023


# Page. 19

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Experiment Summary
•
Experiment in which participants are asked to identify comic book spoilers.
•
Told participants to “When deciding the spoiler page, be aware that whether other
people would find it offensive, not you.“
•
5 university students, aged between 21- 25
•
We did not consider whether participants had read the comic oftenly.
27th International Conference on Knowledge-Based and Intelligent Information & Engineering Systems
Athens, Greece, 06-08 September 2023


# Page. 20

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Results
•
We scored spoilers based on the degree of
spoilers tagged.
➢
Red
➢
Yellow : 1 point
➢
Blue
•
For each page, higher points means high
degree of spoilers, and lower points means
low degree of spoilers.
Choosing Spoilers
: 2 points
: 0 point
© Ken
Akamatsu
27th International Conference on Knowledge-Based and Intelligent Information & Engineering Systems
Athens, Greece, 06-08 September 2023


# Page. 21

![Page Image](https://bcdn.docswell.com/page/GJW3125KJ2.jpg)

Results (All You Need is Kill)
Dataset for the
current study
Dataset for the
Previous study
Battle
©️Take
shi
27th International Conference on Knowledge-Based and Intelligent Information & Engineering Systems
Athens, Greece, 06-08 September 2023


# Page. 22

![Page Image](https://bcdn.docswell.com/page/4EZVPDNNJ3.jpg)

Results (All You Need is Kill)
Mystery of story solved
Mystery of heroine solved
Dataset for the
current study
Punchline of the Story
Dataset for the
Previous study
Battle
©️Take
shi
27th International Conference on Knowledge-Based and Intelligent Information & Engineering Systems
Athens, Greece, 06-08 September 2023


# Page. 23

![Page Image](https://bcdn.docswell.com/page/Y765M189EV.jpg)

Results (GIANT KILLING)
Dataset for the
current study
Dataset for the
Previous study
Sports
©️Ts
ujito
27th International Conference on Knowledge-Based and Intelligent Information & Engineering Systems
Athens, Greece, 06-08 September 2023


# Page. 24

![Page Image](https://bcdn.docswell.com/page/G75YZ49D74.jpg)

Results (GIANT KILLING)
Another Match Result
Another Match Result
Dataset for the
current study
Match Result
Dataset for the
Previous study
Sports
©️Ts
ujito
27th International Conference on Knowledge-Based and Intelligent Information & Engineering Systems
Athens, Greece, 06-08 September 2023


# Page. 25

![Page Image](https://bcdn.docswell.com/page/9J2GRV5MJR.jpg)

Results (PROPHECY)
Dataset for the
current study
Dataset for the
Previous study
Mystery
©️Tetsuya
Tsutsu
27th International Conference on Knowledge-Based and Intelligent Information & Engineering Systems
Athens, Greece, 06-08 September 2023


# Page. 26

![Page Image](https://bcdn.docswell.com/page/DEYVD3KPEM.jpg)

Results (PROPHECY)
Motive of the criminal
Background of the criminal
Dataset for the
current study
Punchline of the Story
Dataset for the
Previous study
Mystery
©️Tetsuya
Tsutsu
27th International Conference on Knowledge-Based and Intelligent Information & Engineering Systems
Athens, Greece, 06-08 September 2023


# Page. 27

![Page Image](https://bcdn.docswell.com/page/VJNM6VRM78.jpg)

Results (ReRe:Hello!)
Dataset for the
current study
Dataset for the
Previous study
Romance
©️Toko
Minami
27th International Conference on Knowledge-Based and Intelligent Information & Engineering Systems
Athens, Greece, 06-08 September 2023


# Page. 28

![Page Image](https://bcdn.docswell.com/page/YE9NL6MWE3.jpg)

Results (ReRe:Hello!)
Outcome of the friend’s love
Dataset for the
current study
Outcome of the love
Dataset for the
Previous study
Romance
©️Toko
Minami
27th International Conference on Knowledge-Based and Intelligent Information & Engineering Systems
Athens, Greece, 06-08 September 2023


# Page. 29

![Page Image](https://bcdn.docswell.com/page/GE8KXZLR7D.jpg)

Discussion
•
For “All You Need Is Kill”, “GIANT KILLING”, and “PROPHECY”, we were able to collect
more spoiler pages compare to previous studies.
➢ The main spoilers in previous studies were “punchline of stories”, while in this study, more
detailed character stories and other information were also selected
•
For “ReRe:Hello!”, number of spoilers have not increased much.
➢ This may be due to the fact that the stories are often about everyday life, so there were
fewer scenes that could be treated as spoilers.
27th International Conference on Knowledge-Based and Intelligent Information & Engineering Systems
Athens, Greece, 06-08 September 2023


# Page. 30

![Page Image](https://bcdn.docswell.com/page/LELZ8DL2JR.jpg)

Discussion
•
From the results, we founded out that spoilers do not only occur at the end of the
story but can exist in a wide range of stories and that more spoilers may be needed to
reduce the interest in the work.
27th International Conference on Knowledge-Based and Intelligent Information & Engineering Systems
Athens, Greece, 06-08 September 2023


# Page. 31

![Page Image](https://bcdn.docswell.com/page/4JMV6PM9JW.jpg)

Discussion
•
From the results, we founded out that spoilers do not only occur at the end of the
story but can exist in a wide range of stories and that more spoilers may be needed to
reduce the interest in the work.
In spoiler studies, it is necessary to consider not only
important spoilers in one part of the story, but also spoilers as
a whole.
27th International Conference on Knowledge-Based and Intelligent Information & Engineering Systems
Athens, Greece, 06-08 September 2023


# Page. 32

![Page Image](https://bcdn.docswell.com/page/PJR2P1V9E9.jpg)

Preliminary Investigation
•
In the future, spoiler detection should be automatic rather than manual.
•
For automatic spoiler detection, it is necessary to find a relationship between
elements in the comic and spoilers.
27th International Conference on Knowledge-Based and Intelligent Information & Engineering Systems
Athens, Greece, 06-08 September 2023


# Page. 33

![Page Image](https://bcdn.docswell.com/page/PEXD3YZ37X.jpg)

Preliminary Investigation
•
In the future, spoiler detection should be automatic rather than manual.
•
For automatic spoiler detection, it is necessary to find a relationship between
elements in the comic and spoilers.
As an element of the comics, we focus on the number of
characters per page.
27th International Conference on Knowledge-Based and Intelligent Information & Engineering Systems
Athens, Greece, 06-08 September 2023


# Page. 34

![Page Image](https://bcdn.docswell.com/page/3EKXY38N7D.jpg)

Preliminary Investigation
•
We investigated what kind of relationships exists between the number of characters
per page and spoilers.
•
There are various methods for OCR (Optical Character Recognition). Among these
methods, we use Mokuro*, which allows users to retrieve images from e-comics and
obtain text information through OCR analysis.
•
We investigate how the number of characters affects the degree of spoilers in the four
works mentioned earlier.
27th International Conference on Knowledge-Based and Intelligent Information & Engineering Systems
Athens, Greece, 06-08 September 2023


# Page. 35

![Page Image](https://bcdn.docswell.com/page/L7359G2ZE5.jpg)

Preliminary Investigation
Battle
©️Takeshi
Obata
Sports
©️Tsujito
mo
27th International Conference on Knowledge-Based and Intelligent Information & Engineering Systems
Athens, Greece, 06-08 September 2023


# Page. 36

![Page Image](https://bcdn.docswell.com/page/87DDG1Z47G.jpg)

Preliminary Investigation
Mystery
©️Tetsuya
Tsutsu
Romance
©️Toko
Minami
27th International Conference on Knowledge-Based and Intelligent Information & Engineering Systems
Athens, Greece, 06-08 September 2023


# Page. 37

![Page Image](https://bcdn.docswell.com/page/VJPX3QDV78.jpg)

Preliminary Investigation
•
From the investigation, it can be seen that pages with a higher degree of spoilers tend
to have fewer characters.
➢
This can be because the characteristic scenes of spoilers tend to be spoiled from
comics’ images rather than texts.
27th International Conference on Knowledge-Based and Intelligent Information & Engineering Systems
Athens, Greece, 06-08 September 2023


# Page. 38

![Page Image](https://bcdn.docswell.com/page/2EVL451RJQ.jpg)

Preliminary Investigation
•
From the investigation, it can be seen that pages with a higher degree of spoilers tend
to have fewer characters.
➢
This can be because the characteristic scenes of spoilers tend to be spoiled from
comics’ images rather than texts.
Although some scenes do not fit this tendency, there could be a
possibility to automatically detect the spoiler scenes using the
relationship between number of characters and spoilers.
27th International Conference on Knowledge-Based and Intelligent Information & Engineering Systems
Athens, Greece, 06-08 September 2023


# Page. 39

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Future Prospects
•
For the spoiler dataset construction, we only asked 5 participants to participate the
experiment and only using those data.
➢
•
We plan to further study the appropriate amount of spoilers in the dataset
We had done preliminary investigation for automatic detection of spoilers just
focusing on number of characters.
➢
We plan to use onomatopoeia, the unique characteristics in comics, in addition to
handle all spoiler patterns.
27th International Conference on Knowledge-Based and Intelligent Information & Engineering Systems
Athens, Greece, 06-08 September 2023


# Page. 40

![Page Image](https://bcdn.docswell.com/page/4EQ8D4P2JP.jpg)

Conclusion
Purpose:
It is necessary to define the definition of spoilers in comics, and reinvestigate the effect on
comics.
Experiment:
Participants were asked to identify the spoiler pages in comics.
Results:
We were able to collect more spoiler pages than previous studies.
We found out the relationship between number of characters and spoilers for auto- detection.
Prospects:
Finding the appropriate amount of spoilers & improve the auto-detection using onomatopoeia.
27th International Conference on Knowledge-Based and Intelligent Information & Engineering Systems
Athens, Greece, 06-08 September 2023