Enoden Bicycle Bro

About

Enoden Bicycle Bro (Japanese: 江ノ電自転車ニキ, Enoden Jitensha Niki) is a nickname given to a man on a bicycle who accidentally photobombed a photo shoot of a train. The incident is sometimes dubbed "The Turmoil at Tatsunokuchi" (龍の口の騒乱) or "The Namamugi Incident^[1] in the Reiwa period" (令和の生麦事件). In August 2021, the photobomb led to the man's sudden rise in online stardom, driven by Japanese people's heavy antipathy to some of Toritetsu (撮り鉄), train fans fond of shooting train photos and videos.

Origin

At midnight on August 5th, 2021, Enoshima Electric Railway^[2], called "Enoden" for short, had a test-run of an old train receiving an overhaul and repaint at a factory. To take photos of the shiny vintage car, 50-some train fans gathered at the best shooting spot at Tatsunokuchi crossroad in Fujisawa City, Kanagawa Pref., where the train runs on a public road. However, a foreign man riding on a bicycle blocked the moment. A participant of the shooting, Twitter user @fmk_msfea, uploaded a 45-second video where the train fans surrounded him and cursed at him, shouting "Go die!" (死ね, Shine), "Get out!" (どけ, Doke), and "Money! (Pay) Money!" (金だろ金!, Kane Daro! Kane!).^[3] The tweet received more than 1,000 likes and 1,300 retweets before it was deleted. On the next day, Twitter user @mayamakodomo reposted it (shown below). The video received more than 13,500 likes and 7,500 retweets in six days.

Later the same day, Japan-railway.com published an article about the incident citing the video above, which started with the line "A foreign guy interrupted a photoshooting by train fans."^[4] Also many Toritetsu on Twitter expressed their anger towards the photobomber.

Spread

As the incident spread on Twitter and was covered byonline news outlets,^[5][6] users on the social networking service were more sympathetc toward the man who got threatened, arguing was just riding on the public road without infringing any laws. It also led to a backlash against some of the Toritetsu who shared that video on the social media claiming they were the victims of his obstruction. Internet users gave the guy a nickname "Enoden Jitensha Niki", which "Jitensha" and "Niki," meaning "Bicycle" and "Aniki" (lit. "Big Brother" or "Bro".), and started creating exploitables and photoshopped images paying tributes to him and poking fun at the rude Toritetsus. As well, his iconic pose in the picture, holding his left arm high on the bicycle, also inspired people to redraw it. Those creations are posted on Twitter^[7], Pixiv^[8], Nico Nico Seiga^[9], Instagram^[10], and TikTok^[11] under the tags #江ノ電自転車ニキ or #龍の口の騒乱, a name of the incident named on Nico Nico Pedia.^[12]

Cyclist Identity

The following day, the man was identified in a comment on YouTube (shown below), revealing that the name of Enoden Jitensha Niki is Dylan, the owner of Home Taco Bar, a Mexican restaurant nearby the shooting spot.^[13]

Some angered Toritetsu tried to reviewbomb the shop on Google Reviews (shown below, left), but their attempt was overridden by many other internet users' positive reviews. As a result, the shop's rating reached five stars, supported by over 7,000 reviewers (shown below, center). Though those positive and negative reviews were all removed as invalid later, Dylan's shop succeeded to get many new customers. On August 9th, Twitter user @takiren7 uploaded a photo of people lining in front of the shop. The photo received more than 6,800 likes and 2,280 retweets in three days (Shown below, right).^[14]

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Dylan himself uploads posts with his hashtag on Facebook^[15] and Instagram.^[16]

Background: Antipathy to Toritetsu

There are large number of Toritetsu (撮り鉄), or Japanese train enthusiasts. However, Toritetsu don't have a good reputation because of incidents where they shouting abuse at passengers, disrupt train services, occupy public spaces in station yards, or break into private property in order to take good photos. After social networking services became popular in the 2010s, it sometimes happens that their selfish claims, like the first tweet in this incident, receive backlash on social media.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References