Tropes Media Browse Indexes Forums Videos Ask The Tropers Trope Finder Media Finder Trope Launch Pad Tech Wishlist Reviews Tools
Cut List New Edits Edit Reasons Launches Images List Crowner Activity Un-typed Pages Recent Page Type Changes Changelog
Tips
Creating New Redirects Cross Wicking Tips for Editing Text Formatting Rules Glossary Edit Reasons Handling Spoilers Word Cruft Administrivia FAQ
Tropes HQ
About Us Contact Us Advertise DMCA Notice Privacy Policy Report Bug
Go Ad-Free Changelog
  • Show Spoilers
  • Night Vision
  • Sticky Header
  • Highlight Links
 

Follow TV Tropes

Following

Ascended Meme / Anime & Manga

Go To

  • Attack on Titan:
    • Many people liked to make fun of how Armin and Christa looked very similar. Come Chapter 53, he has to dress up as Christa while Jean is dressed as Eren again in order to lure out a group of kidnappers.
    • Funimation decided to keep in Levi's "Big-ass trees" line from the subs that reached memetic levels in Episode 18.
  • Leekspin showed up in the Bleach card game.
    • In the preview of Episode 245, Ichigo wonders why Kenpachi's Zanpakuto hasn't materialized yet. Renji gets to answer his question by actually saying... this. See the Memetic Badass page for more info — it's not exactly like the original meme, but it gets close.
  • A Certain Magical Index and Squid Girl's title characters have often been noted to be very similar. Index-tan episode 3 played on this idea by giving the Fun Size Index many of Ika's characteristics. Which works on more than one level, because a fun-size Ika also has a precedent.
  • Code Geass:
    • Pretty much the whole Nunnally in Wonderland can qualify as this, for the numerous fan theories and memetic mutations that exist in the fanbase.
    • Somebody made a gag comic in which the Emperor delivers a speech about breasts,note  and then Norio Wakamoto, the Emperor's voice actor, made a Gag Dub of said comic and released it to the public.
  • Dragon Ball:
    • The "Over 9000!" meme has been referenced many times, which would just be a Fandom Nod to the popularity of the scene, but one DVD box set features a picture of a screaming Vegeta next to the caption "OVER 900 MINUTES OF UNCUT ACTION!", fitting the meme of putting the line against anything. Dragon Ball Z Kai used a more angry and subdued "over 8,000" for the scene in the uncut version, but for the TV broadcast version Chris Sabat decided he wasn't happy, so he went back and retook the scene with the original line and all of its hamminess intact.
    • The Dragon Ball SD manga (a cut-down and self-referential retelling of the original Dragon Ball) references Yamcha's death in DBZ in a scene where Oolong reflexively transforms into a Saibaman ("I was trying to think of what form could beat that guy, and I turned into this..."), which causes Yamcha to faint in fear, taking his iconic death pose.
    • Yamcha's death pose has become a limited-release figure. It's also how Yamcha wins the baseball game Beerus and Champa set up between Universe 6 and 7, he survived collateral damage from a fight between two Gods of Destruction to get a home run. Promptly Lampshaded by Krillin, Piccolo and Gohan:
      Krillin: Hey, the way he's lying in that crater kinda rings a bell.
      Piccolo: Yeah, a very painful bell.
      Gohan: Don't remind me...
    • The English dub of Kai: The Final Chapters featured a cameo performance by Team Four Star as the actors in the Bad "Bad Acting" re-enactment of the Cell Games. Numerous memes are referenced, including "My power is maximum!", "Push-ups, sit-ups, and plenty of juice!", and, of course, "Over 9000!" Toei Animation was evidently unimpressed, and the voices were replaced with that of the original DBZ dub for the [adult swim] broadcast and home video, but Abridged!Krillin's voice can still be heard at the end telling viewers to buy Mr. Satan merchandise.
    • As the Tournament of Power in Super progressed, fans began to notice just how much Android 17 contributed to Universe 7's efforts and were quick to dub them U7's MVP. Not only did 17 go on to win the whole thing, even surviving a Heroic Sacrifice in the process and continuing the fight against Jiren during U7's Darkest Hour, the official Dragon Ball website became the "Android 17 Official Site" for April Fools' Day 2018 "in recognition of Android 17's great efforts in the Tournament of Power."
      • The American YouTube channel for Bandai Namco Entertainment takes this further when they refer to Android 17 as "Universe 7's MVP" for his Dragon Ball Fighter Z DLC reveal trailer description.
    • Another cross-media example comes from the English dub of Super Episode 71. When Hit arrives to fulfill his contract and assassinate Goku, he says it's "Time to make the donuts", a line easily recognizable by Xenoverse 2 players.
    • Immediately before the Tournament of Power in Super, when Vegeta is about to enter the Hyperbolic Time Chamber for some additional training, Mr. Popo warns him that if he breaks the chamber again, he'll be banned from ever using it. While giving the warning, the camera suddenly zooms in on Popo's pitch-black face showing only his eyes, a direct reference to Abridged!Popo who is The Dreaded, and is frequently depicted that way whenever another character provokes him.
  • A Funny Background Event in Fairy Tail had a minor character named Max with his pants down and a broom sticking out his rear in the wake of a party. Fans latched onto the image and Max/Broom became one of the more unanimously agreed on pairings in the manga. About 100 chapters later, a similar incident was spotted after an explosion, and it has since been common to see Max running around in the background with a broom in hand.
  • Fullmetal Alchemist:
    • The fandom started using the number 503 to represent the Ed/Winry pairing, based on a brand of jeans of the same number produced by a company called Edwin. In a later chapter of the manga, the creator gives a nod to this, as Ed is shown to be staying in hotel room 503.
    • People started calling the second Greed "Greedling" to tell him apart from the original Greed in conversation, and because the human used to create him was called "Ling". When Ed meets him again, he decides he's going to call him this.
  • The Gundam fandom has a famous meme about something red being three times faster, coming from original series ace Char 'The Red Comet' Aznable having an Ace Custom said to be three times fast than usual with no visible difference but being red. Gundam 00 seemingly made this reality when Setsuna's Gundam turned red on acquiring its Super Mode, with the technician staff stating "It goes about three times faster now!"
    • This has been an Ascended Meme for quite a while, as ever since the original series they quickly put out a truckload of tongue-in-cheek meme-beholden merchandise, like Char's Custom Laptop, or Char's Custom Sneakers. Guaranteed to go three times faster. There was even a Char custom credit card in Japan which actually earned three times the reward points for every thousand yen spent.
    • In Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack, Gyunei tells Quess that everyone thinks Char is into young girls.
    • Ribbons, the villain of Mobile Suit Gundam 00 got a invokedFan Nickname of the Evil Amuro, because the two characters share a voice actor. In the movie, the man who is seen talking to Aeolia Schenberg at the end and who likely contributed the genetic data for the Ribbons line of Innovades... also has the same voice actor and bears the name "E.A. Ray." In fact, Ribbons and Amuro get to fight each other in Super Robot Wars Z2: Saisei-Hen. This has ascended again with Gundam Build Fighter Battlogue Episode 1, which has Char fight Ribbons, and has Char immediately hate him just because he recognizes his voice, only to later swap Ribbons for Amuro and explain the identical voices away with Amuro calling it coincidence.''
    • A further Gundam 00 one. Graham Aker's masked samurai persona was nicknamed "Bushido Bob" and similar names well before Graham identified himself as Mr. Bushido, even adding "That's just what they decided to call me."
    • Another infamous meme from the first series has Dozle Zabi's declaration about how when "the Big Zams are mass-produced, the Federation will be beaten in no time". Cue the G-Generation games, where a Mass-Produced Big Zam is actually a unit you can use.
    • The franchise's crossover game Dynasty Warriors: Gundam have some of these as well:
      • G Gundam's "With the help of Kyoji" meme has ascended as well, in Dynasty Warriors: Gundam players can have Kyoji and the Devil Gundam as assist units, making it possible to overtake a field or beat an enemy with, well.. THE HELP OF KYOJIIII!
      • Also, one from Gundam Wing: Duo Maxwell (through his English VA) reacts to the destruction of his Gundam with a really epic Big "NO!" that the fans have loved ever since. It became his death cry in the third game, in both the Japanese and English versions! When he respawns, he says he could have handled that more gracefully.
      • In the second game, Emma Sheen participates in a training simulation based on the Battle of A Baoa Qu. No fewer than three Big Zams show up in the fight. Emma comments that with Mass-Produced Big Zams, Zeon might have actually won.
      • In the fourth game, there is, naturally, a story scenario about Dozle mass-producing Big Zams. He still loses the war though.
    • When Gundam Build Fighters featured dozens of background cameos by other Gundam characters, including many who suffered tragic deaths, fans joked that it was the Gundam-verse's version of Valhalla. Late in the show's run, Minami Fuji (who plays Mao Yasaka) said on Twitter that according to the show's director, all Gundam characters exist and lead peaceful lives in the world of Build Fighters.
    • The term "Space Rat" has led to fans depicting Tekkadan members from Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans as literal rats, it ends up officially adapted by Megahouse and spawns the Orphanchu spin-off series.
    • A long-running Black Comedy meme in Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam is "Kamille is a vegetable's name!", playing off of his fate at the end of the series. In Food Wars!, Soma uses his food carving skills to make a miniature Zeta Gundam out of... carrots.
    • The episode "Cucuruz Doan's Island" was often mocked in the fandom for its very poor-quality animation, with the titular character's Zaku getting the worst of it. When the episode received a film adaptation, Doan's Zaku is noticeably redesigned compared to a standard Zaku, with lankier limbs and a long drooping "snout", similar to the animation errors. In-universe, this is because Doan has had to repair it in patchwork fashion due to being a deserter, resulting in it looking off.
  • An Hetalia: Axis Powers fandom joke was that Spain was known for having a nice ass in comparison to the other characters. The author focused on that aspect of Spain the most as seen here.◊
  • Episode 7 of The Idolmaster introduces a "Nonowa" toy, based on fanmade parodies of Haruka's habit of looking up and to the right when in thought.
  • After Chapter 137 of Kaguya-sama: Love Is War featured Karen pass out upon witnessing Kaguya and Shirogane's first kiss, it became something of a Running Gag in the fandom to claim that she had died of pure happiness (something that was perpetuated by the fact that she was absent from the series for the next 10 months). When Chapter 114 of spin-off series We Want to Talk About Kaguya (which covers those events) finally came out two years later, the cover page depicts Erika as an angel telling Karen that it isn't her time yet.
  • In the third season of Kyo Kara Maoh!, Greta names her pet bearbee Yuuram, after her adoptive dads. It's the fandom's Portmanteau Couple Name for Yuuri and Wolfram.
  • The outrage displayed by some readers at Rin of Laid-Back Camp breaking her spaghetti in half (because the pan she uses is small) gets a nod later on, when she makes another pasta dish outdoors and looks around for any Italians who might see her breaking the pasta.
  • Lucky Star: Because of Miyuki's tendency to know everything and recite it with little provocation, the online community nicknamed her Miwiki. In the Lucky Star OVA, Konata herself referred to Miyuki at one point as Miwiki-san.
  • One of the most common Made in Abyss scanlations on the internet has a penchant for adding cheeky, over-descriptive sound effects. This has included such gems as "loli spilling noises"◊, "muffled shota suffering", and perhaps the most well-known, "the rumble of scientific triumph"◊. Come the release of the sequel movie and its OST, it turns out one of the songs played during the climax is officially named The Rumble of Scientific Triumph.
  • With Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Sound Stage The Movie Side F, the popular meme known as "Befriending" amongst English-speakers has been given a nod, as Arf jokingly explains to an increasingly worried Erio and Caro that the only way to make life-long friends is to blow them up first.
    Caro: Is there some secret to maintain such a long-lasting friendship?
    Fate: Hm...I wonder what it is...We’re all just doing what we usually do.
    Arf: Maybe it’s that? You first met by blowing each other up, and everything after that was pretty simple.
    Fate: Huh?
    Arf: They say it was that way with Nanoha and Arisa. It was the same with Fate and Nanoha too!
    Fate: Ah... The same with Signum too.
    ...
    Caro: So, the most important part is that you went all out on each other? Huh, oh no, Erio, what should we do! If it's that the case, we haven't hit each other that much at all!
    Erio: Um, yes, we did. At the escalators, when Caro fell and we slammed into each other.
    Caro: Oh...So that's fine then?
    Arf: I think for you two, that's good enough.
  • The "don't lewd the dragon loli" meme in Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid gets referenced during the first DVD short, which featured Kanna (and Tohru) getting arrested for public indecency. note 
    • Then Lucoa gets arrested for public indecency in the second short.
  • During the Fourth Shinobi War arc of Naruto several readers started calling Kabuto's resurrected army as "Zombie" Ninjas (technically they are not, although the fact that they come out from a summoned coffin certainly helps); later in the anime's Recap Episode 296, they are called "Zombies" by the main characters.
  • Neon Genesis Evangelion fanon pegged Shinji as a Supreme Chef, contrasting with Misato's Lethal Chef quirks. In Rebuild of Evangelion, we see Shinji cooking as well as the product of his work... and according to everyone in the movies, his food is really good.
  • In Nisekoi, a certain "Y-san" from Chiba Prefecture kept sending in hundreds of mail-in votes for Marika Tachibana for about five or six popularity polls. The Nisekoi author acknowledged Y-san's dedication and Marika herself thanked Y-san for his efforts. Fast forward to the ending, after Marika is rejected by Raku Ichijou, she ends up on a date with someone from Chiba Prefecture. Y-san might very well have gone Beyond the Impossible and earned a date with his waifu. Full story details here.
  • In Noir, the first of Bee Train's Girls with Guns trilogy, Kirika's combat skills led to fans describing her as a "witch". In the third series, El Cazador de la Bruja, Ellis is a literal witch.
  • During the Haiyore! Nyaruko-san F OVA, Nyaruko mentions the incredibly viral line from the first season's intro (and slightly less viral line from the second season's intro) during her delusions of marrying Mahiro.
    Nyaruko: "Oo" will be "Nya"! "San" will be "Pinch"!
  • Pokémon: The Series:
  • Puella Magi Madoka Magica:
    • One of the most common Crack Pairings in the fandom was that of Mami and Charlotte; unusual, given that they shared about thirty seconds of screentime and that Charlotte is a giant monster who devours Mami. Come Rebellion, and the two have become roommates in a Lotus-Eater Machine situation, and Charlotte even gets a human form by the end of the film for more personal interaction.
    • "I don't understand this at all!" ("Wake ga wakaranai yo!") is a line attributed to Kyubey, spoken in a deadpan tone a few times when he fails to understand why humans would consider certain experiences or revelations traumatic. It was picked up by Fanon as a response to all the Non Sequitur Madoka online Parodies. Come Rebellion, and a mass of Incubators scream it in unison as the Magical Girls destroy their isolation field, ruining their plan to bring the Witch System back.
    • "Nakazawa-kun," the male student who exists only for the "teacher angrily asks how eggs should be cooked" gag, was apparently popular enough to reappear for a similar joke in Rebellion. And if you pay close attention, you'll notice he is one of the few real people in the labyrinth, along with the magical girls, Madoka's family, and a few other people who have much bigger roles than Nakazawa ever did. A brief shot at the end — edited in after the movie was out of theaters — shows him getting airlifted out by Madoka's familiars, along with Hitomi and Kyousuke.
    • The Headless Mami meme was created after the conclusion of the third episode. Come the release of the Compilation Movie, the developers made special tickets that were perforated right along Mami's neck.
      • There was also a USB-stick merch item shaped like Mami. To use it, you needed to pull off the cap shaped like her head.
  • Dub-only example in The Quintessential Quintuplets. The Spanish-speaking fandom often refers to the Nakanos as "Las Quintidiosas" ("The Quintugoddesses"). When the anime was dubbed for Latin America, the preview of Episode 7 has them calling themselves "Las Quintidiosas que no reprueban" ("The Quintugoddesses who cannot flunk").
  • In Reborn! (2004), Hibari's bird was nicknamed "Hibird" by the fans and subsequently later used officially by the author.
  • The School Days OVA featured a "Nice Boat" labeled as such. Series creator Overflow have also labelled their booths at conventions as "Nice Boat" as well.
  • Strike Witches:
    • The series is often mocked for its protagonists' lack of pants. The Funimation advertisement for the series has the tagline "Winning the War on Pants" and refers to it as a "brief" series. Rightstuf touted its "high-flying, no-pants-wearing action."
    • Another meme strikes in Season 2. Minna somehow got quite the reputation for clenching her butt, and a meme formed that she could break anything with it. In Season 2, Episode 7, this is exactly how she ends up destroying a Neuroi bug that had been plaguing the base.note 
  • Umineko: When They Cry used Eva-Beatrice's invokedFan Nickname "Evatrice" in one of the episode previews in the anime.
  • The Flavor Text of Alligator's Sword in Yu-Gi-Oh! "'ey, dis mighty lissard man can swing his sword so fast, dat it's more dan da speed a sound!"
    • Later, Legendary Collection 4 would print more classic Normal Monsters that had never before been released in English with flavor text written in Joey's Brooklyn accent.
    • In another reference to the anime, specifically the notorious incident where Yugi ordered his Giant Soldier of Stone to "attack the moon!", the TCG released the Attack the Moon! card.
      • And sure enough, you can use Giant Soldier of Stone to trigger the spell.
    • For a slightly more tenuous connection, it's possible that the entire Pendulum Summoning mechanic — which allows a player to summon more than one high-level from their hand in a single turn — is at least in part a reference to the original Signature Scene of Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series, which has the Pharaoh calling out Kaiba for doing...exactly that.
    • Wayne Grayson, the voice of Joey Wheeler, has adopted his character's catchphrase, Brooklyn Rage, from The Abridged Series.

Previous

Index

Next

  • Show Spoilers
  • Night Vision
  • Sticky Header
  • Wide Load

Important Links

Ask The Tropers Trope Finder Media Finder Trope Launch Pad Tech Wishlist Reviews Go Ad Free!
Crucial Browsing
Resources
Top