Memes, #5 - Anime Memes

Sometimes, Anime makes a meme right there in the subtitles. Other times they just provide a template that you can use for anything. Sometimes they’re obvious, but occasionally you need to be in on the joke.

I’m detecting a theme here....

Manga is included. Here we see an innovative solution to the Trolley Problem.

From a show about a girl’s high school motorcycle club, but the sentiment is universal.

(Not the original subtitles)

Cat Girls are a big thing:

Cat girl maids shooting fish out of a Mortar? Why not?

It’s very important to know that Catgirls are NOT Furries.

While we’re on scales:

(That roughly breaks down to Girls comics, Boy’s comics, Teen boys, Suggestive, and Downright Lewd).

Probably the single most popular Anime this year was “Friren: Beyond Journey’s End” (Sousou no Frieren in Japanese). Frieren is a 1000 year old elf who 100 years earlier had been in a party of heroes who defeated the evil Demon Lord. Being virtually eternal, she is suddenly confronted with the fact that she did not appreciate how short the lifespan of her human companions was, and nominally goes on a quest to visit a place where she can speak to the dead. But there is a lot of adventure along the way.

She also has a weakness for finding original magic tomes, and as a result is always falling for Mimics (remember those from D&D?). It’s a great running gag.

Along the way she acquires an apprentice, Fern, who is a lot more straightlaced and stern than Frieren, who is already pretty stoic, normally.

Fern takes the potion and pours it over Frieren’s head.

It also leads to a nice reaction image if you ever need a sly grin.

And also some parodies. Although for background, you may have heard that the Catholic Church is having some kind of Jubilee event in 2025, and they created this mascot character, Luce, who is supposed to represent a pilgrim. I suppose that leads to dueling Icons. This is an illustration, not a screenshot! But it’s very much in character.

Of course, the Internet made all kinds of lewd images of Luce, but some wholesome ones too. Here’s Luce with the Doom Guy. (Which is a kind of reference to a funny animated music video crossing Doom with Isabel from Animal Crossing.)

Speaking of crossovers, a famous bit from Sailor Moon recast with Frieren characters.

Honestly, I don’t know what inspired this, putting Fern in the present day….

(On the cerial box is one of the Demons Frieren defeats during the adventure).

It’s not uncommon to see comics that reflect on Anime, like the famous “Evangelion” (Which for some reason is pronounced with a hard G)

(The inside joke is the blue-haired girl is one of a tank full of clones).

The Japanese sure love guns, maybe because they can’t have them?

(Anya from “Spy x Family” could be a topic by herself! BTW, you don’t pronounce the X in Japanese titles.)

Remember, Anime isn’t just for kids like cartoons in the US. So things are gonna start getting a little rude from here down.

Whups, out of space. Maybe next time.