Keit-Ai (Finds A Way)
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About
Keit-ai (also known as Keit-Ai, Keit-AI, or Keit愛) is a copypasta of an original story concept made in the Anime & Manga section of 4chan (also known as /a/). Due to the prolific and widespread use of the copypasta, it's usually associated with the phrase "Finds a Way".
The name "Keit-ai" is a Japanese pun (rendered in rōmaji) and portmanteau of the words "Keitai" ("携帯" or "ケータイ", which means "Mobile" as in "Mobile phone") and "Ai" ("愛", which means "Love").
Origin
The premise of the copypasta[1] goes like this:
A boy falls in love with a girl.
Unable to confess, he is gifted with by a deus ex machina with the girl's phone number. Never minding the strange area code, he immediately calls her, and is overjoyed to find out that she has a crush on him as well.
But, the next day, when he recounts the previous day's confessions to the girl, she only looks at him with a perplexed expression. After some investigation, he finds out that the girl he called is not the same girl he fell in love with. In fact, she doesn't exist in this universe at all. She is the girl's alternate universe counterpart, who has fallen in love with the MC's own AU self, who too is blissfully unaware of her crush.
Hijinks ensue as the two strike up a deal to give each other their darkest, most private secrets in order to equip the other with the weapons they need to conquer the heart of their other selves. While the two chase their respective loved ones, DRAMA ensues as they begin to fall in love with each other instead and question the NATURE of LOVE.
It can be seen posted in "Write an Anime Plot"[2] threads on 4chan’s /a/ board like so.
The earliest archived mention of Keit-ai[3] was posted back in 2011 by a 4chan tripcode user and artist known as "Hataki !WBLg6PTzh"[4]. He and several anons also tried making Keit-ai real but failed.[5][6][33]
Spread
The premise has since gained notoriety on /a/ as an exploitable copypasta (in which the poster replaces certain words a la mad libs or snowclone template, often referencing the latest seasonal anime or popular manga at the time[7][8]).
From June 2011 to June 2015, the term "Keit-ai" had gathered 727 hits off of the FoolFrame 4chan archive[9]. At the time of this writing, from June 2015 to April 2016, the term "Keit-ai" has gotten over 4,209 hits and growing off of the DesuArchive 4chan archive[10]. Meanwhile, reposts and variations of the Keit-ai copypasta number about 458 hits on FoolFrame[11] and 2,349 hits on DesuArchive[12].
The meme and its derivatives have also been referenced on FunnyJunk[17], Twitter[22][23], 9gag[42], Tumblr[18][19], MyAnimeList[28][29][46], Reddit[20][21][54], Facebook[30][48][56], TV Tropes[53], and IMDB[45]. There are also mentions of the pasta on various forums[24][39][40][41], blogs[25][36], online polls[26][27], audio clips[43], question-and-answer (Q&A) sites[49], and anonymous messaging apps[50]. A collaborative wiki was also created[6]. Keit-ai had even joined /a/'s roster[31] of fictional soccer players as one of the starters that play at the 4chan Cup[32] but was soon expelled. Keit-ai was eventually reinstated as a bench player.
Furthermore, fake Keit-ai posters[18] were made based on promotional images from the Makoto Shinkai hit movie "Kimi no Na wa (Your Name)"[13], which features plot point similarities (a love story involving cellphones and alternate dimensions) with the copypasta in question. This has gotten to the point where even reviews[47] for the movie reference the meme.
Fan Fiction and Webcomic
A Vocaloid fanfiction story[35] based on the Keit-ai premise was made by a writer named Fliers and published on March 24, 2012 at Fanfiction.net. It was finished on June 3, 2012 with 11 chapters.
A writer by the name of Abdiel1 actually wrote the details of the Keit-ai story with the use of original characters[14] on July 7, 2014 at the Fiction Press website. It is a currently ongoing series.
An original short story based on Keit-ai was written by author Godric_Damp called "Keit-Ai – Calling Me"[34] . It was made for the Reddit Challenge Prompt and it was archived at the Archive of Our Own website on August 24, 2016.
Another fanfic named "Keit愛 – A Springles story"[55] by Toco_Brower based on Attack on Titan and the ship of Sringles (Sasha Blouse and Connie Springer) was then published at the Archive of Our Own website on January 18, 2018.
An OEL (Original English Language) webmanga[44] or webcomic of Keit-ai was then posted on the Webtoons website by user From A to A on August 3, 2016. It's also ongoing.
Fake Anime Adaptations
On November 3, 2015, a fake anime preview of Keit-ai was uploaded by YouTube user Mirlo.[15] As of September 2016, it has gathered over 60,000 views (shown below, left). A few months later, another YouTube user named Gabriel De Angeles[16] uploaded a fake full first episode of Keit-ai on March 31, 2016 (a day before April Fools' Day). In turn, it got over 20,000 views as of September 2016 (shown below, right).
These mock Keit-Ai YouTube videos use clips from various anime sources, mostly commercials made by Makoto Shinkai and/or CoMix Wave Films[49] (such as the 2015 PSA commercial called "Mottainai"[52] by AC Japan and NHK[51]).
Related Memes
Life, Uh, Finds a Way
"Life, Uh, Finds a Way" is a memorable quote uttered by the character Dr. Ian Malcolm in the 1993 science fiction adventure drama film Jurassic Park. Online, the quote has been both genuinely celebrated for its profound nature and parodied in the form of the phrasal template “(X) Finds a Way” such as KyoAni Finds a Way, as well as being used as a response to the Keit-ai copypasta.
Various Examples
Search Interest
External References
[1] 4chan Archive – Typical Keit-Ai Thread / 9-11-2012
[2] FoolFrame – Write an Anime Plot / 4-13-2011
[3] FoolFrame – First Keit-Ai Post / 6-11-2011
[4] FoolFrame – Hataki Is Keit-Ai's Original Author / 1-27-2012
[5] FoolFrame – Keit-Ai Meetups / 11-5-2012
[6] Wikia – Keit-Ai Project Wiki / 11-6-2012
[7] DesuArchive – Yuri-Ai / 9-24-2015
[8] DesuArchive – Mir-Ai / 1-29-2016
[9] FoolFrame – Search Results for Keit-Ai / Retrieved 4-3-2016
[10] DesuArchive – Search Results for Keit-Ai / Retrieved 4-3-2016
[11] FoolFrame – Search Results for Keit-Ai Copypasta / Retrieved 4-3-2016
[12] DesuArchive – Search Results for Keit-Ai Copypasta / Retrieved 4-3-2016
[13] MyAnimeList – Kimi no Na wa / 8-26-2016
[14] FictionPress – Keit-Ai: Tomoyuki x Seiko / 7-7-2014
[15] YouTube – Mirlo / 11-3-2015
[16] YouTube – Gabriel De Angeles / 3-31-2016
[17] FunnyJunk – FunnyJunk Reacts to the Keit-Ai Meme / 12-4-2015
[18] Tumblr – Keit-Ai (Kimi no Na wa) the Movie Released / 12-11-2015
[19] Tumblr – Troll Anime Chart for Spring 2016 / 11-8-2015
[20] Reddit – Reddit's Reaction to the Keit-Ai Preview / 11-7-2015
[21] Reddit – Another Reddit Post about the Keit-Ai Preview / 2-21-2016
[22] Twitter – Tweet about the Keit-Ai German PV / 4-15-2016
[23] Twitter – Keit-Ai with Video Games / 7-21-2017
[24] Sufficient Velocity – Cellphone Quest / 3-25-2016
[25] Rebrn – A Guy Falls in Love with a Very Traditional and Conservative Girl / 11-18-2015
[26] Strawpoll – Anime of the Year 2015 / Retrieved 4-3-2016
[27] Poal – Suggestion for New Boards / Retrieved 4-3-2016
[28] MyAnimeList – If You Could Fund the Creation of Any Anime… / 8-17-2013
[29] MyAnimeList – Anime Thought of the Day / 11-11-2015
[30] Imgur – Facebook Finds a Way / 4-8-2016
[31] 4chan Cup Wiki – /a/ Roster / 4-14-2016
[32] 4chan Cup Wiki – Explanation of What the 4chan Cup Is / Retrieved 5-16-2016
[33] Google Docs – Keit-Ai Project Signup / 4-12-2013
[34] Archive of Our Own – Keit-Ai – Calling Me / 8-24-2016
[35] FanFiction.net – Cellphones / 3-24-2012
[36] Livedoor Blog – 4chan Thread Translation Blog / 4-18-2016
[39] Kawaii.io – If You Were to Write Your Own Manga… / 7-28-2015
[40] Novel Updates – Please Tell Me This Isn't Real / 1-14-2016
[41] Beast Layer – Forum Game – Come Up with an LN Title / 1-5-2016
[42] 9gag – Is anyone familiar with this anime? / Retrieved 6-9-2016
[43] Clyp – Luluco Finds a Way / 6-26-2016
[44] Webtoons – Keit-Ai Webmanga / 8-3-2016
[45] Internet Movie Database – Keit-Ai: Find a Way TV Series / Retrieved 9-1-2016
[46] MyAnimeList – Let's talk about Keit-Ai / 8-23-2016
[47] Angry Anime Bitches – Thoughts on Kimi no Na wa / 11-30-2016
[48] Facebook – NOICE / 10-19-2017
[49] Quora – How were the fake trailer and two episodes of Keit-Ai created? / 1-30-2017
[50] Candid – I just wrote a plot for an anime / 2-2-2017
[51] Advertising Council Japan – フリする女の子 (ACジャパン・NHK共同キャンペーン) / 7-1-2015
[52] MyAnimeList – Mottainai / 7-1-2015
[53] TV Tropes – Keit-Ai / 2-13-2017
[54] Reddit – Out of the Loop on the Keit-Ai Copypasta / 12-17-2016
[55] Archive of Our Own – Keit愛 – A Springles story / 1-18-2018
[56] Facebook – 9.5/10 It's OK / 3-27-2016
Top Comments
Ice Cream Yay!
Feb 24, 2016 at 09:06AM EST in reply to
Ice Cream Yay!
Apr 13, 2016 at 07:42AM EDT