Ara Ara

About

Ara Ara, often spelled Ara Ara~, refers to a Japanese expression roughly translated as "oh dear", "my, my" or "well, well" which is often associated with shotacon hentai genre. In memes, the phrase is often used to hint at a female character's sexual intentions towards a younger male, usually below the age of consent.

Origin

While exact origin of the phrase is unknown, the expression "Ara Ara" has appeared in numerous manga and anime series, both of pornographic and non-pornographic nature, used by various characters to express concern. One of the better known examples of use of the phrase in hentai is shotacon manga Mother Son Love by artist Cuvie (cropped version shown below, left). Japanese manga and anime series Aria character Alicia Florence uses the catchphrase on multiple occasions (shown below, center). Another example is Japanese light novel Date a Live and its anime adaptation, where character Kurumi Tokisake often uses the phrase (shown below, right).

Spread

Some of the earliest examples of use of the expression as a humorous reaction can be traced to /a/ board of 4chan, with the earliest archived post containing the phrase made by an anonymous 4chan user on February 3rd, 2008 (shown below, top).^[1]

While initially the expression had rarely been used with the implied sexual subtext, in the following years the phrase became more associated with hentai, particularly with the shotacon genre. Starting in the mid-2010s,^[2] the catchphrase began being associated with the onee-san (elder sister) trope (examples shown below).

In the following years, catchphrase "ara ara" had been used by anime community on 4chan, Reddit, Tumblr and other websites as a humorous way of hinting at sexual subtext in situations involving younger males and older females, even if those situations did not imply any such subtext originally. In many examples, sexual assault by the female is implied.

Ara Ara on a Train

Ara Ara on a Train refers to a sexually suggestive artwork by Japanese hentai artist Kemuri Haku, originally posted by the artist on April 28th, 2018 (shown below, left).^[3] On May 5th, 2018, Funnyjunk user aznzeus posted the first known meme based on the artwork, receiving over 650 upvotes on the site (shown below, center).^[4] On the following day, Redditor cubev10 posted another version of the meme to /r/anime_irl and /r/wholesomeanimemes subreddits (shown below, right),^[5][6] where it gained over 40 and 500 upvotes in six months, respectively.

In the following weeks, the artwork gained signifcant popularity on Reddit as an exploitable, primarily in /r/animemes subreddit.^[7]

Ara Ara on a Beach

Ara Ara on a Beach refers to a sexually suggestive artwork by Japanese hentai artist Kemuri Haku, originally posted by the artist on July 20th, 2018 (shown below, left).^[8] On July 23rd, Redditor Coala_voador posted a meme based on the image to /r/animemes subreddit, gaining over 6,600 upvotes in six months.^[9] In the following weeks, the image gained significant popularity in /r/animemes subreddit as an exploitable.

Ara Ara Chase

Ara Ara Chase, also known as Girl Chasing a Kid, refers to an object labeling meme format based three comic panes showing a girl in a yellow shirt and red shorts chasing a boy in a blue shirt at increasing speed. Based on panels from Soul of Neko webcomic, the format gained popularity in memes in June 2019.

Various Examples

Templates

Search Interest

External References