Forums / Discussion / Meme Research

One other thing I forgot about in my original post, I noticed a number of parodies on YouTube surrounding the opening to the series Good Luck Girl/Binbougami Ga. Is this another trend we should make note of?

Videos down in this entry.

Sorry now I'm busy and it will keep me for a while…

@RM21 & @Jacob

"Bakyun Akari" and "Akari's Opening Pose" are considered as different things in each. "Bakyun Akari" has a dozens amount of artworks on pixiv. Though I'm not sure if we can give it its own entry, it's one of the sub-memes of the anime at least.

The latter, that Akari's opening scene, should be considered as a part of the iconic phrase of this anime \Akkari-n/ (pixiv's search results). I think it deserves to have an entry.

@1983parrothead

Fixed.

I'd like to ask your opinion about the tag grouping some entries.

I'm planning to use the similar entry feature for grouping entries like this case: A mascot or a character in an official product become another creature on the web, which personality/nature is given from online users jokes. The entries that I'm assuming are Kumamon, HOME Haruka, Mikudayo, Devil Spoo and several entries that I'm planning to submit in the future.

So, What do you think what is the suitable term for the tag name? Sadly, I can't come up with any good term for the tag name for this because I'm not a native English speaker. And I think the tag had better not be limited to Japan because this kind of memes can happen in any linguistic/cultural areas.

Late report, Youkai Taisou Daiichi (Youkai Excercise Number One) videos are now under wildfire and now it needs to be monitored.
Any signs that this will be documented?

Haven't you checked this? → Yo-Kai Exercise Number One

Oh, right. Got time-confused. How come the anime itself might be seldom used as an OtoMAD source?

@group tag
It's probably best to keep it simple and go for something like just 'mascot' or 'brand mascot' if that feels too broad.

Not bad, but both of them sound a little vague to me. those names are meaning of what it is. But I think the tag name should point which type the meme is.

I don't know. But it's said that kids anime productions are basically removing MADs strictly to avoid unnecessary confusions because the main target of their titles can't understand the difference of original footage and MAD parodies.

Hello again, fellow researchers.
Do you know what this trend of photoshopping a mouth taking a condom out of his packaging or photoshopping a hand presenting a positive pregnancy test on anime characters is about?

It seems it comes from a Chinese(?) Facebook page.

Is there another one with a needle?

Pixiv fad, maybe?

@Tomberry

Both of them are now trending among Japanese Twitter users (and will soon die as usual).

The former is called as "咥えゴムコラ" (Kuwae Gomu Kora; lit. "Chewing Condom Collage"). It seems that this fad was triggered by this user's tweet.

• Twitter Search – 咥えゴムコラ

And the latter is called as "妊娠検査薬" (Pregnancy Test) or "妊娠コラ" (Ninshin Kora; lit."Pregnant collage"). The trigger was a now-defunct tweet by this user.

• Twitter Search – #妊娠検査薬 OR #妊娠コラ

However, "Chewing Condom" has been already popular since the late 2012 as this Google Trends says. Pixiv tells us that it's also a popular motif for illustrations. And both of "chewing condom" and "Pregnancy Test" collages have been already practiced in Futaba Channel since before.

So these are not new things.

@Tomberry

Saw it on Tumblr.

It got viral real quick, at least on twitter and tumblr. Same. More examples.

Oh well, Mona already explained it.

This seems to be the same difference between "aheogakin" (the exploitable meme) and "ahegao" (the fetish). Here, there is something culturally known, the act of chewing a condom to make someone sexier, and this peculiar exploitable.
Is it notable enough though?
Same question for the pregnancy test one.

The pregnancy test one seems to be catching on on the Western web as well, at least on Tumblr though.

The Birth of an English hash tag may be a good signal for starting. Kotaku also reported this pregnancy announcement meme yesterday.

Fortunately, the entry is already submitted. I'm going to rewrite this from now.

I'd like to talk about "Chewing a condom" again after finishing this.

Chewing Condom has search interest since 2012 for Japan, so I guess looking up where that originated from is a good lead. Can't tell for the west, as a Search Interest for "Chewing Condom" turns up no results. If it turns out to be nothing special, then that's it and we can leave it alone.

I'm not really seeing why the pregnancy announcements needs to be NSFW. I mean it's pretty much the same as unnecessary censorship and Brazzers which I'm pretty sure both are not NSFW tagged. Pregnancy is talked about all the time in work environments anyways. It's a pretty mild topic.

Second. I'll remove NSFW status together with the entry's updating.

OK. Let's continue discussing.

I'd like to do this explanation by the original word "Kuwae Gomu" because I'm not sure whether "Chewing a Condom" is a suitable translation for this phrase.

As described above, "Kuwae Gomu" has been just another motif for adult illustration since before. But nowadays, it's one of the most well-known ero situations.

According to this google trend results and several google's search results, its history has three important points in 2010, 2012 and 2014.

Circa 2010, many ero blogs, a derivative of 2ch affi-blogs, running for revenues from adverts, Google Adsense or EC sites associate programs, started to be launched. Ero blog literally reupload hentai illustrations from pixiv or paid doujin comics without authorizations, and its posts usually collect images by each theme (eg. Big Boobs, Ahegao, X-ray cam, MILF, etc…). "Kuwae Gomu" is also one of these themes in ero blogs. By the help of those rude weblogs, people began to know the taste of "Kuwae Gomu" gradually.

The first large peak in the Google Trends in 2012 was led by a 2channel's thread called "Ranking of Anime Characters who look good in Kuwae Gomu." which conducted voting from 2channel users between June to September of that year. It was a spin-off project from "Ranking of Anime Characters who Would Do Compensated Dating." from the same 2channel board, which gave a large impact to the Japanese Otaku people in June of that year.
The result announcing movie uploaded to niconico had been watched over hundreds of thousands of times. Throughout these online events, "Kuwae Gomu" became to a sort of icon for slut girl inviting to the play from herself.

The second peak in May 2014 was caused by twitter users who celebrated May 6th like an anniversary day for condom by uploading selfies and illustrations of "Kuwae Gomu" (hash tag, archive page, pixiv tag). This is because "56" can be read "Gomu" (5 = Go, 6 = Mu) in Japanese.

After that point where many many ordinary young (unthoughtful) girls participated onto a selfie event, "Kuwae Gomu" has been more than a mere otaku or hentai illustration icon. Compared to these episodes behind the pose, that tweet only earned hundreds retweets and tens of reactions in several days is a very very trivial thing.

In a smilar way, November 28th is "Good Knee-High Socks Day" because 1128 can be read "ii nĪhai" (11 = ii = Good, 28 = nĪha(i) = knee high socks). I guess a vast amount of girls selfies wearing knee-high socks will be uploaded on the end of next month as well as the last year (hash tag).

FYI, Kuwae Gomu also refers to a wholesome moe situation of girl tying her hair while putting a hair elastic in her mouth. This is because we Japanese call hair elastic as Gomu, too.

Today, I submitted the entries for these old op/ed parody memes with consideration of its amounts of videos, page views. I guess these are worthy of attention.

• BLOOD+ Ending Parodies
• Rozen Maiden Ending Parodies
• Girl's-High Ending Parodies
• Kannazuki no Miko Ending Parodies
• ef Opening Parodies
• Higurashi When They Cry Kai Opening Parodies
• Durarara!! Opening Parodies
• Kichiku Megane Opening Parodies
• Masaru-san Opening Parodies

Meanwhile, I shelved writing articles for these ones. They have more videos than that of Free! ending parodies, but I slightly felt that they are lacking of notability.

NND Search results:

• Steins:Gate OP Parodies
• Mirai Nikki ED Parodies
• Code Geass ED Parodies
• Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei OP Parodies

BTW, I couldn't find any popular works of nozaki-kun op parody. Does it really deserve to be mentioned in the article?

Jesus Christ mona, you submitted more entries in a day than I do in a year. Also:

They have more videos than that of Free! ending parodies

I feel like this is a subtle jab towards my insistence for a free entry ;_;

But in all seriousness about the nozaki entry, you're probably right, I'll remove the section about op parodies.

Perhaps for Christmas, let's update the snow storm entry. It was introduced 15 years ago in 1999.

Hmm… Honestly, I don't think snow storm is enough popular to have its own entry for any reason (therefore, I haven't touched the entry so much.). niconico's search results says the videos' amounts and page views are quite small. At least, it's clear that this song isn't a popular musical resource for MADs as much as other bemani songs that we've submitted its entries.

I want to know the reason why you submitted that snow_storm entry.

Seriously, I apologize. I shouldn't have created it. It just felt interesting to me.

Do you know anything about this trend of character GIFs that has been surfacing recently? I've seen it around a lot, but from what I've talked about with the other researchers, no one seems to know what this trend is even called

Dunno what they are, but they all seem to follow a specific pattern, and a lot of the image uploaders have noted that they've seen this style of image around a lot. Do you have any ideas?

Don't be sorry. I would never blame on you.
Anyway, I'll tweak that entry for someday before entering that pool.

These animated images utilizes pixiv's new feature Ugoira (うごイラ) which was launched on this summer. Because it can animate jpg/png format images, Ugoira animations are more high-resolution than animated gifs supported by other image uploading services.

So yeah, many animated illustrations are surfacing just because that is a new feature. And as that search results says, the movement of these girls doesn't spread like a meme on the illustrators community.

Twenty-One, why are you so bad a meme research? It has to do with the E-Mote movie maker . Both images have the tag えもふり on the Pixiv page (which was linked to in the notes on both) This image is the oldest one on Pixiv with the tag. The tag is also used on Nico Nico Siega. Here is the Pixiv page about the E-Mote movie maker.

Edit: Dang it, Mona got to it before me, but I think Twenty-One was asking about the subject matter within the image, not the image format it is.

I'm gonna chime in and ask a question? Would memes involving Bemani music or MADs count? because I think a certain recent song maybe have reached memetic status.

Is this meme yet?

We've already discussed about this Baan Face (バーン顔) in before. Please check this out.

Hmm.. Should we cover "eurobeat" remixes/culture? I have seen it applied on the various touhou, disney and mlp music tracks. We also have background music trend of it, such as "Running in the 90's" soundtrack and whatever has been appeared on the Initial D anime.
Has potential?

IDK. I don;t think genres are memes per se (of could there the Seapunk page) Why is it called Eurobeat anyway?

I don't think genres are memes.

But we do have music genre entries. For example: Dubstep Trap

Why is it called Eurobeat anyway?

No clue. The reason is probably its 90's disco music derivation. But that is my opinion.

Take a look. This meme is right now making the rounds as of late.

56 uploads in its first week.

Hmm, I don't think it so much remarkable. I guess it will die soon as same as other recent easy-to-copy OtoMAD fads.

Not only that, @mona_jpn. A Kancolle-like game called "Touken Ranbu" (刀剣乱舞) is also making the rounds. I bet it is even more intensive that the one I mentioned earlier.

You know, those images 21 posted before he got banned? I think E-MOTE is involved. I'm quite curious as to what it is exactly

Yeah, Tohken Ranbu, usually called "TouLove" (とうらぶ, TouRabu) or "DosuColle" (ドスこれ) for short, is now quite popular among Fujoshi, though the game itself is a crappy KanColle clone. pixiv already has over 13,000 fan illustrations. We may have to keep paying attention to this new Fujoshi trend.

However, I guess KYM will never come to need a subculture entry for this video game. As you know, Fujoshi fandom rarely originates meme-like phenomenon from their favorites itself. Instead, Fujoshis are fond of re-utilizing their favorite characters in other pre-existing memes such as Miku Miku Dance covers or hand-drawn animated videos.

Have you already checked English tutorial videos for E-mote Free Movie Maker?

At least, this application itself is never something memetic.

What's the deal with this Karasawa Takahiro (唐澤貴洋)? Seems to be an actual lawyer or based on an actual lawyer: keeps showing up as a comedic or whipping-boy-type character.

I guess you came to know Mr. Karasawa at the latest MMD cup. He is a Japanese lawyer known as the mascot or the subject for bullying on 2channel's /livejupiter/ board. He's usually called "The Reverend" (尊師, Sonshi) on there. He became to be famous on that board after he receive a commission from a troll who was exposed his personal information on that board, and he requested to 2channel's adtimins disclosure of IP addresses of informers.

Since then, Mr. Karasawa is the enemy among /livejupuiter/ users, and have been mocked by collages and Shift-JIS arts.

So basically he got doxxed, asked 2channel to dox other people and became a butt monkey for it?

Hello Japanese researchers.
We have already many Touhou sub-trends on here but I'm finding out only just now that we don't have this one:

Pettan, pettan, tsurupettan (つるぺったん), a song for flat-chested girls.
Was it a noticable trend in Japan?

"I guess you came to know Mr. Karasawa at the latest MMD cup."
Correct: he kept showing up and the videos with him as a main character seem to get a lot more views than videos of their general quality would normally get. So I figure it was some active meme on the Japanese bit of the internet.

Thanks for the answer.

Yep. But the biggest achievement of that incompetent lawyer is that he demonstrated people can't be sued for defamation by doxing even after the layers get IP address of them. And he get ridiculed because they know he did such ineffective requests to get retaining fees from ignorant clients and abandoned the following workings.

Yeah, I know Tsurupettan song is famous on YouTube as well as niconico. But I don't feel so much need to give it an entry because there is no remarkable creations which derived from this song.

This song published in almost 8 years ago would deserve to have an entry if there are many hundreds of hand-drawn animated videos inspired by that one, instrumental, singing and dancing covers for this song or numerous amount of MAD videos utilizing this song as a musical resource.
However, there are no things like these for this song.

Jibun Wo. The first line of Flow's Colors, aka Code Geass's first OP.

Back when Code Geass was airing, this was apparently said by /a/ all the time. I don't know how widespread it was, so I'm asking anyone who was around back then if they can recall this phenomenon.

I don't know anything about its spread on 4chan. But I would like to talk about unfortunate circumstances of some animes.

Anime titles which copyrights are hold by Mainichi Broadcasting System (MBS) or Sony Music Entertainment (SME) can hardly own its parody video, or MAD video, fads because these companies never approve the reuse of their contents in fan creations. Actually, they have continued deleting parody or MAD videos very strictly on the video sharing services for near a decade. And, Code Geass is exactly owned by both of 2 infamous media companies. Hence its OP and ED movies couldn't get much popularity on niconico or YouTube due to their strict copyright claims.