Awesome / Keit-Ai

"Hijinks ensue as the two tell each other their darkest secrets to conquer the hearts of their other selves." - Keit-Ai Webcomic

• For a nonexistent anime and manga, the tracks chosen for the mock Keit-Ai OST sure are some of the catchiest DECO*27 (and otherwise) Japanese pop songs around. This includes an opening and two endings.
• The mere idea that an oft-repeated meme copypasta on a Mongolian Spearfishing Forum was able to produce fan fiction stories, fan◊ art◊, an opening theme and two ending themes, tons of references on various sites, a Google bomb, a fairly popular webcomic, and fake anime from various fans of the concept is quite the achievement in its own right. Meme magic indeed.
• According to Google Trends:
  • Keit-Ai spamming started gaining momentum around the time the fake anime preview^note taken from a public service commercial made by CoMix Wave Films or Makoto Shinkai's animation studio was released.
  • Meanwhile, the video itself netted tens of thousands of views and was followed up by a fake anime episode^note made by putting together clips from CoMix Wave Films or Kyoto Animation commercials as well as a compilation of episodes from the anime Keitai Shoujo that ran with the same theme.
  • The Keit-Ai meme then latched upon the growing hype behind Your Name or Kimi no Na wa by Makoto Shinkai with the release of its first teaser image on December 2015.^note Anons from /a/ quickly meme'd that Shinkai "made" Keit-Ai, which was then followed by an edited version of the textless image.
  • Keit-Ai's popularity then first peaked on January 2016, leading to the creation of its Know Your Meme page soon after on February 2016.
  • It gained the height of its popularity around the time hype for Your Name reached its fever pitch on June 2016.^note The film itself was released the following month.
• Although Keit-Ai's association with the hit movie is dubious at best^note some anon made a troll edit of a textless Your Name teaser poster that claimed it was Keit-Ai the Movie, so now everyone at 4chan refers to it as such, anons were tickled pink when against all odds, Your Name by Makoto Shinkai became the highest grossing anime movie of all time on January 2017, beating Spirited Away by Hayao Miyazaki.^note It has since been surpassed by Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Mugen Train in 2020 and again by Spirited Away care of inflation, thus making it the third highest grossing anime film of all time as of 2021.
  • They could now "claim" that they've meme'd a copypasta into becoming the highest grossing anime movie of all time completely by accident. Perhaps a Deus ex Machina is at play here too, like in the copypasta?
• A Your Name and KanColle fan fiction, Kimi No Na Iowa, has a Keit-Ai reference in it.^note To be more specific, Makoto Shinkai exists in the work's universe. He never succeeded in turning If I'd Known It Was a Dream into Your Name, with his sixth movie remaining a cult hit and his seventh being Keit-Ai instead of Weathering With You.
  • In Chapter 9 of the fanfic, Alice mentions that Shinkai got an Oscar nomination for Keit-Ai in this universe, almost certainly a jab at the infamous Award Snub of Your Name in our reality.
• Keit-Ai finds a way again, this time with Kimi no Na wa finally receiving a proposed live-action adaptation produced by J. J. Abrams! Yes, it's in Development Hell, but still!
  Anon: Where were you when /a/ memed hard enough to turn a pasta to the best selling anime movie AND a Hollywood flick.
• According to the 4chan archive known as "Desuarchive", anons have posted about and mentioned Keit-Ai on 4chan for over 9,000 times.^note Or to be more specific, around 17,106 times since 2011 as of 2021.
  • As for the "A boy falls in love. Unable to confess..." copypasta itself, it's been posted over 6,000 times at the time of this writing.
• On April Fools' Day in 2021, Harper Anime Reviews talked about a familiar yet forgotten masterpiece known as Keit Ai. This time, the boy and the girl are named Takumi Naramura and Sakura Hanazuki respectively.
• On June 11, 2021, Keit-Ai celebrated its 10-year anniversary since it was first posted◊ on 4chan. Yes, it's actually Older Than They Think.

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