About

"Colors" Gender Swap is a viral clip from the 2023 short music film Colors animated by Toho Studio and WIT Studio. In August 2023, a montage from the video in which a male character changes to a female, paired with the song "Moonlight" by Kali Uchis, achieved virality as a video caption meme format.

Origin

On March 24th, 2023, the short music film Colors (animated by TOHO Studio and WIT Studio and featuring a song by Sawano Hiroyuki and Hato Motohiro) premiered on YouTube.^[1] In the film, a schoolgirl is attracted to her male classmate and admires a pink-haired girl she meets around the city, who are apparently one and the same. The video (shown below) received over 5.7 million views in five months (shown below).

The exact first instance using the format could not be discovered, but on August 10th, 2023, TikToker^[2] tw.lucidfz posted the earliest found meme based on a clip in which a male character switches to a female, captioning the scene "POV: your homie calls you pookie" (shown below). The post, however, did not get significant traction.

Spread

On August 14th, 2023, YouTube^[3] user ラディア posted a template for the format which received over 20,000 views in two weeks. On August 15th, YouTube^[4] user Goldfih En posted a version titled "When the pawn got promoted…," with the video gaining over 3,500 views in two weeks (shown below).

Starting in mid-August 2023, multiple video caption memes using the format were posted on TikTok and YouTube. For example, on August 16th, 2023, TikTok^[5] user retrofitanime96 posted a meme that received over and 650 likes in two weeks. On August 22nd, TikTok^[6] user @itsbluey__ posted an I'm Not Gay But $20 Is $20 meme that received over 462,000 likes in one week (remake^[7] shown below).

More versions of the meme went viral on TikTok, YouTube and X in late August 2023.

Various Examples

Template

Search Interest

External References