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Since most anime-viewers in The West are big nerds, there are naturally going to be a lot of anime-inspired Internet memes.
- Rena's line from the 2nd episode of Higurashi. USODA!
 . Is quite the meme. There are many compilations of psychotic laughing in Higurashi aswell.
- While tie-ins aren't uncommon, Code Geass's Product Placement deal with Pizza Hut is blatant enough to both Japanese and American audiences that it's even included in fan art, everything from lunches to use as Censor Steam. This has also given rise to calling the series "Code Grease", as well as the phrase "Pizza Hut supports the Rebellion".
- Suzaku's infamous whirling kick of death has also been memetically mutated. He is now known as "Spinzaku". Yes. This has since evolved into giving him each week, as soon as the episodes are released, a new Fan Nickname of ___zaku. They include Drugzaku, Lolzaku, Runzaku, Roofzaku...and finally, Zerozaku.
- Also,
Jeremiah Gottwald Orange(-kun)...
- Kaguya Sumeragi (about herself, Kallen and C.C): We are Zero-sama's Three Court Ladies! =D
- Additionally, there is a minor meme about how the resident Ms Fanservice won't be satisfied easily◊... If You Know What I Mean.
- This troper is still scratching his head about Lelouch's hat.
- Milly's magic spells
- The Emperocket is starting to get some significance.
- Code Gayass
- Thanks to Code Trainwreck, Crazy Awesome Yaoi Fangirl Miasmacloud's Code Geass blog, the words Fabulous and Trainwreck get thrown around a lot regarding this show. Oddly, Miasma herself doesn't really use Trainwreck in a very negative sense, instead using it to explain why she likes the show but the Unpleasable Fanbase has taken the meme up as a weapon regarding the latest and very divisive episodes.
- Also, who is Kallen's father? DOMON KASSHU! (obviously).
- OUGI LIED, ROLO DIED!
- Following the example of the Orange/Sayoko shippers, the Suzaku x Lelouch fangirls have taken the word "homolust" as their battle cry after Suzaku becomes Lelouch's Dragon in episode 21 of R2.
- It's a running joke/meme that Shirou Emiya from Fate/Stay Night is incapable of understanding when something is a double entendre. Regardless of how blatant the entendre is, Shirou is to either take the line at face-value, or have a puzzled look on his face, with the line "...you lost me."
- He would also like you to know that "People die when they are killed!"
- Tsuruya from Suzumiya Haruhi is a Genki Girl with Cute Little Fangs. She was taken by a Japanese Webcomic artist and made into a Super Deformed Ditz named Churuya, with a catchphrase based on something she only said once in the anime, and an affinity for smoked cheese. This version has spread across the Internet—along with countless fan imitations involving characters from Haruhi or other anime—and is now more emblematic of Haruhi than anything that actually appeared in the show.
- It was referenced in the live concert for the show by Taniguchi's voice actor, Minoru Shiraishi, who proclaimed "Nyoro~n! Smoked cheese!" and also in Lucky Star, produced by the same company as Haruhi.
- Speaking of Minoru Shiraishi, "Wa-wa-wa-wasuremono... ore no wasuremono..."
- Another recent one from the same series is fan-made pictures of the cast as the opposite sex. "Kyonko" is particularly popular, mostly for the Unfunny; second is "Itsuko", who apparently makes some Itsuki fangirls question their sexuality. Everyone is Itsuki for Kyon.
- The "Hare Hare Yukai" Dancing Theme is practically required by any and all Haruhiists that visit anime conventions.
- An older one was when the advertising for the English language distribution was dubbed "viral market" and received added popularity when people started adding pictures of Viral of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann dressed in a business suit.
- Happiness! is a milder example, being a rather bland forgettable h-game-turned-show with the exception of the unusually popular Jun, who's featured and lusted over in all the fanwork for the show despite being canonically male.
- The Loituma Girl cartoon, which consists of a short looped animation from episode 2 of Bleach, showing Orihime twirling a "leek", while a snippet of the nonsensical middle section of "Ieva's Polka", as performed by Finnish group Loituma, plays. This was deliberately given homage in Negima!?, the Alternate Continuity Mahou Sensei Negima series.
- "Leek Spin" is even a card in the Bleach card game...
- Hatsune Miku, the primary mascot of Yamaha's Vocaloid2 voice synthesizer software, has adopted this meme for her own. So naturally, this is taken to its logical next step...
- Tropers, how many of you have spent hours listening? hands in the air time.
- Given enough free time, a youtuber can crank together something like this
- There's also NOBODY DIES IN BLEACH.
- And, as we all know, the only reason to watch the Filler arcs is for the QUALITY animation. Seriously...what the hell happened to Rukia?
- The Say My Name trope is inexplicably closely identified with Fushigi Yuugi, although this might be a product of that show being the first shojo series to penetrate the Western market. It was parodied wonderfully in an Adult Swim promotion for Inu Yasha, thanks to some creative editing.
- Suiseiseki of Rozen Maiden, a.k.a. 'desu'. Her Verbal Tic Catch Phrase is "desu", and even though this is a fairly common speech pattern in lots of characters, it become highly associated with her for some reason. This meme had good timing, along with being deliberately cultivated by 4chan.
- After the horribly animated Yoake Mae Yori Ruriiro Na -Crescent Love- drew two cabbages as simple green circles, Fan Art with Feena holding one such cabbage was everywhere, and it actually survived a round in the SaiGAR "manly character" competition. Negima!? also spoofed this one.
- The Gag Dub series Yu-Gi-Oh The Abridged Series took the bizarre evil American character 'Bandit Keith' and exaggerated his already laughable jingoist nationalism. His Catch Phrase "In America!" has become emblematic of the series, even now that he has revealed himself to actually be Canadian.
- The infamous "It's OVER NINE THOUSAAAAAAAAAND!" gag video, based on a scene from Funimation's first dub of Dragonball Z. It was later followed up with "I hope my body can take it", "The balls are inert", "The whole universe is going to die!", and then they and all the author's other favorite memes came together in the polka version...
- Interestingly enough, Kakarot's power level in that scene in the manga is listed as over "only" 8000. It is possible have a number that's over 8000 and over 9000.
- It's also "largely over 8000" in the French dub.
- And in the original Japanese. They changed it in the English dub to better match the lip movement.
- New life has been breathed into this now that anonymous got Oprah to say "over 9000 penises" on live tv. Cue mashups.
- This is also combined occasionally with Disgaea, thanks to the game actually letting you level up to 9999.
- Of course, many people are really tired of that damn joke.
- ...Four words; Imma. Chargin'. Mah. Lazah.
- A similar phenomenon in Japan occurred with a scene from Yu-Gi-Oh, containing the Gratuitous English line: "Doro... MONSUTAA KAADO!" Variations include ones in which Yugi fails to draw a monster card, and the inevitable techno-beat remix.
- Another Japanese one is based on the English dub of Rurouni Kenshin: "FUTAE NO KIWAMI, AAAAAAAAAAH!"
- Many Wholesome Crossdressers in anime are drawn really, really pretty, to the point where they can be passed off as actual female characters to new fans with surprising ease. The 4chan fanbase itself modified an old quote-turned-meme — that is, of Admiral Ackbar's "It's a trap!" — to describe this kind of a character as a "trap", in the sense that a highly stereotypical, undersexed, and loudly heterosexual male otaku would be trapped in a conflicting lust for the character. At this point, the jargon is used ironically. Also occasionally used in reverse — as in, a woman hiding as a man, called a "Reverse Trap".
- Similarly, male characters who end up in drag for zany schemes will usually prompt fans to create Wholesome Crossdresser or even outright female personas for them. A famous example is 'Ranko', a false persona Ranma Saotome creates which many fans distanced from the male character and began to treat as their own. Another is Cloud Strife, who once had to crossdress as a disguise, being popular with artists who like to put him in dresses or turn him into a girl.
- One of the few female-to-male examples is Sheik from The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. In the game, he's just Princess Zelda crossdressing to escape the Big Bad, but yaoi fans and the official manga have decided the transformation was a little more... complete.
- Let's not forget 'Naruko', based off Naruto's "Sexy no Jutsu".
- And Hermione Ayasaki, who is all but canon by now.
- Even Ash Ketchum of Pokemon falls victim to this. The running cross-dressing total is 3, thus far. Granted, he's never willing to dress up like a girl, but GOD DAMN.◊
- The Gundam verse gets a lot of these:
- Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam featured a letter from Kai Shiden, written in Gratuitous English, which read "Captain Quattro, he is a CHAR.◊" The result is anyone who shares characteristics with the Red Comet will be referred to as "A CHAR".
- The process known as the Bright Slap, used for "slapping the fail out of" a Wangsty Humongous Mecha pilot, comes from the original Mobile Suit Gundam, wherein Bright Noa did just that to protagonist Amuro Ray. Mecha fans frequently express their desire to see this happen to whiny protagonists such as Kira Yamato or Shinji Ikari. Sadly, this is seldom employed in-show.
- Prince Ali, Mighty Is He!
- Just make sure to never accept a ride from him.
- Bow before your savior, Jesus Yamato. Note that many people want to see a matchup between him and the above, as a test of Ali's ability to negate Plot Armor.
- On one last Gundam-related note, Acguy is love.
- One more... when the Japanese Agriculture Ministry caught two of its employees editing That Other Wiki's Gundam page on company time, they issued the statement that Gundam does not fall under the purview of the Japanese Agriculture Ministry.
- Can you say J.A.M. Project?
- Actually, they have yet to do a Gundam song.
- This has often distorted the message behind Space Runaway Ideon's famous ending, and in fact is what made it famous. Granted, "Ideon blew up while the Big Bad exploded so large it blew up a galaxy" isn't quite as impressive as "Ideon destroyed the universe!!!"
- It doesn't help that in Super Robot Wars Alpha 3, they said the universe would be destroyed if Ideon went out of control.
- Sometimes you get memes about things that weren't liked enough to get memes. In Tsukihime, Satsuki aka Sacchin gets "Isn't it sad, Sacchin~ ;_;" for her role as the Unlucky Childhood Friend, misfortune, and lack of a route in the games.
- The line "A cat is fine, too" crops up a lot in discussions of images relating to Half Human Hybrids and the like, as well as variations that replace "cat". The line comes from a Tsukihime doujin where a lolicon Shiki insists on trying to have sex with his familiar, who transforms from little girl to her alternate cat form under pressure at the very end...
- This troper is unsure whether or not Neil Gaiman knew anything about these meme when he wrote American Gods, where protagonist Shadow actually Baldr slept with Cat Girl Bast.
- An extreme example produces such gems as explaining to someone that a show does not◊ exist.
- Shiki is not a fan of chairs.◊
- The final episode of the School Days anime was replaced with thirty minutes of peaceful landscape scenery, including a boat on a lake, after it was deemed too close to home due to violent incidents in the news. This resulted in "NICE BOAT" being used to describe anything from censorship to being murdered. The real last episode coincidentally did end with a Nice Boat. The "Magical Heart Kokoro-chan" OVA episode gives a quite deliberate Shout Out to the meme, featuring a lifeboat labeled "NICE BOAT" drifting down a river of blood...
- Among Naruto fans, it's become popular to describe the series' Uchiha clan as being masters of "the Art of Run," a ninja technique that looks suspiciously like running away from your opponents. The meme originated because the villain Itachi Uchiha has on numerous occasions begun a battle and then left the scene after exchanging only a few blows with the series's heroes. It gets even funnnier when the only time he doesn't run away, he dies. In addition, it has been common to mark members of the villain group Akatsuki for death once they take off their cloaks, and the Sharingan has been labeled the ultimate hax.
- And don't forget our dear Voldemaru Jackson. Get the pedophile◊ away from our boys.
- Death Note features a scene where Light eats a potato chip in slow motion, which became an internet meme. Then the English dub of it aired with him giddily declaring in his mind "I'll take a potato chip... and EAT IT!". While the scene plays out similarly in the original, the nutty laughter that the English voice actor inserts into it saw its revival.
- Before that, 4chan spawned a few. "Just as planned" and its variations (such as leaving "planned" untranslated), of course. The end spawned a lot of references to swimming lessons, thanks to a parody edit of the manga◊. "Ladies" became the standard spoiler reference for an event halfway through the series, and thanks to the relative popularity of the manga, "Ladies Night" was greatly looked forward to as the anime adaptation reached that point. As a variation, Melodies for another event near the end.
- Note also Daddies and Remedies.
- Mikami's chant of "SAKUJO!" every time he uses his Death Note has also become something of a meme, especially when left untranslated.
- PEOPLE DIE IN DEATH NOTE.
- Cute little Cheerful Child Yotsuba Koiwai has become something of an unofficial mascot on Image Boards such as 4chan, since the software to use the boards is also called "Yotsuba". The "favorites" icon for 4chan is in the shape of a 4-leaf clover, just like the title character's hairstyle, and the 404 messages feature her.
- Victoreem's "Very Melon" song from Gash Bell.
- Similar to the Loituma Girl cartoon, a looped short clip of Mai and Mii dancing from the Popotan h-game opening was set to "Caramelldansen" by the Swedish Eurodance group Caramell. Events proceeded predictably. Its peak was great enough that Hayate The Combat Butler even included a dansen as part of a censor in episode 48.
- A Japanese TV sketch involving a man crushing a business card in front of the woman who gave it to him, while looking at her with a ridiculous expression on his face, was turned into a meme when someone did a comic strip version with Kagami and Konata from Lucky Star.
- If you don't get that one, it's Values Dissonance. The exchanging of business cards is a fairly big deal in Japan, with its own set of social mores.
- Similar to the Rambo example in the film section, in the 1970s Ferdinand Marcos' regime banned Super Robot show Voltes V in the Philippines, officially because of excessive violence, but really because the heroes were rebels fighting a brutal dictator. Voltes V proceeded to be adopted as a mascot by Filipino rebels.
- The ending sequence from Clannad, the touching "Dango Daikazoku", has been made into hundreds of different versions, often starring Pokemon.
- The popularity of a certain sword-wielding Tsundere can be boiled down into five simple words, all capitalized: "OH GOD SHANA IS HOT".
- You can get the same effect by replacing her name with that of her Expy, Louise from Zero No Tsukaima...except Louise uses a whip, not a sword.
- This troper remembers that some months ago, she saw LOTS of LJ-icons where the charas had Kamina's pointy sunglasses photoshopped on them.
- Fact: Shopping Kamina's Cool Shades, or even Simon's weird-ass star-shade-goggle-things, onto a character makes them instantly badass.
- Before Kamina's shades and TTGL, Gendo Ikari from Neon Genesis Evangelion had had his shades - and arms! - 'shopped onto others too.
- I don't quite understand it, but many people will respond to talk about the Large Hadron Collider with the the misunderstanding of the eyecatch line "ROW ROW, FIGHT THE POWER".
- It probably has to do with the widespread perception that, like Kamina and Simon, CERN are pretty cool guys: tehy unleash awesome cosmic forces and don't afraid of anything.
- And of course, for the British TTGL fans: "UNION FLAGANN, SPIN ON!"
- The main villain of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure Part 3, Dio Brando, became a brief internet celebrity with his unique choice of finishing move and victory cry◊, particularly as it appeared in a Capcom Fighting Game.
- Almost on par with "Caramelldansen" are music videos based on the song "Danjo" by J-pop artist Taro!, which also feature a distinctive and rather goofy dance. Sighted series include Super Smash Bros, Death Note, and Eyeshield 21.
- Of course, one can't mention Caramelldansen and Danjo without Caipirinha coming to mind. It started with Tomo's "you're a kid" dance from Episode 20 with a double-speed Brazilian song about Caipirinha (the national drink of Brazil), seen here and soon everyanimecharacter you can think of was brought into it. This is the first.
- After Pluto was declared to not be a planet anymore many Sailor Moon fanart pieces were made showing Sailor Pluto being kicked out the Sailor Team for this reason.
- Abusing Pluto (the stellar body) seems to be on its way to meme-hood. Thus far there's a Star Trek book where the Borg eat it, and it gets offhandedly blown up by an alien dictator in Ben 10 Alien Force. Poor Pluto, it never hurt anyone...
- Not exclusively related to anime but the infamous Finnish dubbing team Agapio Racing Team's Macekre-dub of certain series has achieved meme-like qualities in Finland, especially the emotionless expressions of emotion from Digimon.
- The phrase "____ is mai waifu" (the phrase "My Wife" rendered as Gratuitous English), when referenced to a user's particular attraction to a fictional, unattainable character. Bonus points for extraordinarily hot anime girls. Comes from Azumanga Daioh where the girls look at a picture that Kimura-sensei dropped which he explains is of "Mai waifu". She's pretty hot, and this is Kimura we're talking about here.
- Favorite examples: Tali, Yoko, Liru, Konata, Dizzy, Peach, Zelda and Samus, to name just a few.
- An alternate origin could be the Japanese otaku practice of proclaiming a female character "ore no yome", which means exactly the same thing. A Shout Out to this practice appeared in Lucky Star.
- "GAR", a small but amusing typo (or acronym, depending on how you look at it) in the phrase "Gay for Archer", gave way to the ultimate synonym for "manly" and "badass".
- May or may not also be related to Gao Gai Gar, which epitomizes the term...
- For "nutbladder-busting" levels of cuteness, look no further than Hidamari Sketch. Hey! Keep your hands where we can see them!
- Similarly to the Hare Hare Yukai and Dansen memes, the opening for Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei has been mixed with nearly everything under the sun. A few examples for your viewing pleasure.
- These memes, however, have left Itoshiki-sensei in despair.
- Also, Excaibar's legend began in the 12th century.
- And the ultimate mashup of memes... the Niconico Douga medleys. Compiled by the users of Niconico Douga (a popular Japanese video streaming site), the combination of anime, videogame and music from other sources, titled Kumikyoku (Medley), turned out surprisingly tuneful and chock-full of memes and in-jokes. It doesn't help that it's spawned its own vocal renditions across the world, and numerous remixes, all of which are made of awesome and win.
- 2008 is becoming known as "The Year of Dead Snipers", after Gundam 00, Macross Frontier, Strike Witches, and the most recent Full Metal Panic novel have all killed off or apparently killed off their respective sniper characters.
- "Symmetrical Docking" is a phrase commonly used to describe a picture of two girls standing so close together their breasts are squished against each other. This came a Super Robot Wars Alpha 2 Yonkoma where, instead of showing ChoRyuJin's Symmetrical Docking Transformation Sequence, a picture of original characters (with huge breasts) Kushua Mizuha and Seolla Schweitzer are shown in this position◊, greatly confusing Mazinger Z...
- "So I herd u liek mudkips?"
- Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha has spawned a few of these, including "Full Power! Destroy Everything!", "Shall I... cool your head a little?", and of course the "White Devil" Fan Nickname. And then there's the extraordinary popularity of overdubbing scenes from the show with the soundtrack of mecha shows, including but not limited to Subaru's Final Fusion.
- Backbeard, noted Celtic eyeball monster and Gegege no Kitaro villian, has become associated with criticism of lolicons. Here's how it happened: years ago, there was a notorious anti-loli poster called Backbeard on 2channel. This led to someone photoshopping this famous panel◊ to say "kono rorikon domome" ("you damned lolicons!")
- Proven fact, you can cause most seasoned anime fans to drop to the floor in horrified convulsions with three simple non-words: "Drr...Drr...Drr..."
- Thanks to the dub of Sailor Moon, we got the 'talent' joke. The short version? The Sailors (in R) were trying out for a role in a play. In the dub, Lita said she should get the role because she has the most talent. In the original version, Makoto said she should get the part because she has the biggest boobs. However, the dub still has a close-up of her chest.
- Among Humongous Mecha fans "G is the most powerful letter of the alphabet". See Gundam (especially G Gundam), GaoGaiGar, and Getter Robo, among others.
- Minami Kana is BOSS (or "bossu", if you want to put some more Engrish on it).
- Did Sonic say the S-word?
- On /a/, it's a meme to answer any and all requests for anime recommendations or the source of a picture with "Boku No Pico". It's a shotacon OVA.
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