That Was a Grown-Up Kiss

About

That Was a Grown-up Kiss refers to a scene from the anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion in which character Misato Katsuragi kisses protagonist Shinji Ikari, a minor, to convince him to get into the EVA one more time. Online, the scene has been parodied in memes, with users replacing Misato and Shinji with other characters.

Origin

On July 19th, 1997, anime science fiction film The End of Evangelion, the ending of the anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion, premiered.^[1] In one scene of the film, character Misato Katsuragi kisses protagonist Shinji Ikari, a minor, to convince him to get into the EVA. During the scene, Misato Kisturagi comments, "That was a grown-up kiss. We'll do the rest when you get back." (alternatively "That's how grown-ups kiss. We'll do the rest when you get back."

That was a grown-up kiss. We'll do the rest when you get back.

Prior to April 8th, 2014, Tumblr user wrrprimary posted two juxtaposed GIFs from Neon Genesis Evangelion, one in which Misate promises not to lay a hand on Shinji and the other in which she kisses him. The post, which has been deleted but reblogged^[2] by another user on April 8th, 2014, received over 16,000 likes and reblogs in nine years (post shown below, left; GIF shown below, right).

Spread

On January 16th, 2021, Twitter^[3] user @pcste5je posted the earliest found redraw of the meme, a fan art in which Bowser kisses Shinji (post no longer available; image shown below, left). One year later, on January 16th, 2022, Redditor andmog posted an Kramer, What's Going on in There meme referencing the scene that received over 2,300 upvotes in the /r/evangelionmemes^[4] subreddit in two years (shown below, right). On January 17th, Twitter^[5] user budgorj1 reposted the meme, with the tweet garnering over 1,000 retweets and 4,700 likes in two years.

On May 7th, 2021, iFunny^[6] user TriggerWarning posted a Breaking Bad meme referencing the scene that received over 260 smiles in two years (shown below, left). More memes based on the scene and referencing were posted on social media in the following years; for example, on December 9th, 2022, Redditor vxcZbN posted a JoJo's Bizarre Adventure meme that gained over 10,100 upvotes in the /r/ShitPostCrusaders^[7] subreddit in eight months (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References