About

How to Pick Up X or How to Handle X refers to an illustrated guide on the proper and improper methods on how to pick up a plush of Aoyagi Toya from the mobile rhythm game Project SEKAI as if it were alive. Posted in early April 2023, the image spawned a meme format as users applied the formula to VTubers and characters from various franchises.

Origin

On April 8th, 2023, Twitter^[1] artist wobbuuu posted a three-part guide on how to pick up a living chibi plush of the Project SEKAI character Aoyagi Toya (shown below). The tweet received over 46,000 likes and over 9,000 retweets in over one week.

Spread

Starting on April 9th, 2023, other users on Twitter posted memes and fan art inspired by the drawing, replacing Aoyagi Toya with VTubers and characters from anime series and video games. On that day, Twitter^[2] user @_eiilise posted the earliest found derivative fan art, replacing Toya with Kazuha from Genshin Impact. The post (shown below, left) received over 960 retweets and 5,800 likes in one week. Later that day, Twitter user @guizhongkin tweeted^[3] an version with photographs of VTuber Shu Yamino edited in that received over 540 retweets and 2,300 likes (shown below, right)>

In the following days, multiple versions of the meme went viral on Twitter. For example, on April 12th, artist @Moon_LDL tweeted^[4] a Watson Ameila version that garnered over 1,900 retweets and 13,200 likes in five days (shown below, left). Also that day, Twitter^[5] user @Bee_Sempai posted a version featuring Bridget from Guilty Gear that accumulated over 3,000 retweets and 13,100 likes in the same period (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References