Emergence First Page / Saki Yoshida Redraws

About

First Page of Emergence refers to a redraw meme inspired by the first page of the infamous hentai manga Emergence created by ShinDol in 2013. The page features the introduction of its main character, Saki Yoshida. Her stern pose and the quote associated with it have been referenced in many edits and redraws depicting other characters, often made for shock value by virtue of association to the infamous story.

Origin

The first chapter of Emergence was published on July 26th, 2013. The first page of this chapter introduces the heroine of the story, a young woman named Saki Yoshida, who silently reflects on her loneliness after graduating from school. The most popular English translation of this thought is as follows:

I… Saki Yoshida… after spending three years at middle school, graduated… without making a single friend… How did it end up like this?

This page, showing Saki blankly staring at the reader, has become iconic of this manga, so much so that her stern face was used in memes as soon as 2016 (see example below).

The earliest online occurrence of a meme centered on this page specifically, putting another character in Saki's situation, is an edit featuring KonoSuba character Megumin, posted on r/Animemes^[1] on August 18th, 2018. This post gained 223 points in over six years.

Spread

Redraws of the first page have appeared widely in anime communities online in the late 2020s and early 2020s. On October 25th, 2022, Twitter artist Koahri posted a redraw^[2] featuring Hololive member Ninomae Ina'nis, sporting Saki's iconic braids. The post gained over 40,600 likes and 3,500 retweets in two years.

On October 15th, 2024, NaSteR posted a redraw^[3] featuring Hololive member Kobo Kanaeru, which gained over 15,500 likes and almost 1100 retweets in 25 days.

Various Examples

External References