Hayao Miyazaki classic breaks Twitter record

by Chris MaGee

What are two things that are insanely popular in Japan? If you're thinking baseball and Kirin lager... well, you're not wrong, but... If you think Hayao Miyazaki films and Twitter then you're on the right track. What happens, though, if these two things come together, then what happens? Well, you break world records, that's what happens!

According to a post over at TheVerge.com a recent airing of Miyazaki's 1986 animated classic "Laputa: Castle in the Sky" on Japanese television prompted rabid fans to head to Twitter to tweet about that broadcast. Obviously all of Miyazaki's films have a huge following amongst the Japanese public, but "Laputa" has gained special cult status with fans simultaneously shouting out "Balse!" along Pazu and Sheeta, during their final face off with the film's villain, Muska. The coordination of this unified shout of "Balse!" saw a record breaking spike of 25,088 tweets per second on the popular micro-blogging site. This far outstrips the previous record of 9,000 tweets prompted by the announcement of Beyonce Knowles pregnancy.

Check out this Youtube video below to see the Twitter madness going on in tandem with the broadcast of "Laputa".

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