Anime meme phrases: Do you know some?

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sensei
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Anime meme phrases: Do you know some?

Post by sensei »

In my AnimeNEXT presentation next weekend, I'm talking about similarities between otaku and bronies (adult fans of the new "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" series). A meme phrase is something that people "in the know" would immediately recognize as having special significance and "outsiders" would either not know or would understand only in the normal sense. One example from the "brony" community is "It needs to be about twenty percent cooler."

That alludes to a much-loved moment in a well-liked episode, in which the ponies are being fitted for fancy dresses. Rainbow Dash, the most clearly boyish of the centrals, is being especially difficult during the fitting.

I've found it used commonly in brony blogs and forums, often in parodied forms that only a brony would recognize and trace back to its origin.

I thought immediately of the well-known gamers' meme-phrase: "All your base are belong to us!" And I remembered how certain phrases from CCS became meme-phrases among the emerging CCU (Cardcaptors Uncensored) community, notably "I'll explain it to you when you get a little older." (Tomoyo to Sakura after she's come a little too close to expressing her yuri attraction to her best friend.)

I'd like to use a wider range in my talk to illustrate the point of similarity. Can anyone suggest meme-phrases from Sailor Moon, DBZ, Cowboy Bebop, Naruto, Bleach, Inuyasha (I thought of Miroku's "Will you have my children?"), or any other currently popular manga/anime? Some catch-phrase from the series that its fans would immediately recognize and appreciate but which would be puzzlingly opaque to others?
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Re: Anime meme phrases: Do you know some?

Post by JWR »

Well in Ranma 1/2 Ranma uses the phrase to describe Akane stating that she is Uncute.

For Inu Yasha, when Kagome says "Sit Boy" that activates the bead necklace worn by Inu Yaha.
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Re: Anime meme phrases: Do you know some?

Post by cutiebunny »

A lot of the anime suggested were released prior to the age of memes. I mean, although those who have watched Sailor Moon are familiar with the "In the name of the moon" speech, it was never something that was turned into a meme. And, a lot of your younger fans do not watch "old" 1990s anime; Most current fans won't watch anything over a year old, let alone something in the past decade. The common belief is that anything "old" is lame because the concept has either been repeated with better animation or it was never good in the first place. So while something like Naruto might be relevant for most attendees of your panel, something from Cowboy Bebop or Kimagure Orange Road would not be something that most con-age attendees would understand.

If you haven't already, I would suggest typing in something like "anime meme" or even "meme" into google and seeing what you can come up with. If you see several variants of the same phrase (ie. Futurama's "Shut up and take my money!" or Death Note's "The cake is not a lie."), then those might be ones you might want to incorporate into your presentation. Also, I recommend knowyourmeme.com which is a site chock full of memes and the history behind them (yes, people research this stuff...)

Some other anime memes I can think of off the top of my head are "So I heard u liek Mudkips?" and anything along the "....why u no be...?" line.
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Re: Anime meme phrases: Do you know some?

Post by Keropi »

I see anime memes referred to repeatedly on anime message boards, but I didn't give them much thought so I didn't really commit them to memory. That "Know Your Meme" webpage is referred to a lot by anime fans, but I can't find a good list of anime memes there. I only see individual memes.

This page has got a few:
http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/subcultures/anime--2

1. "It's Over 9000" referring to Dragon Ball Z

2. "Mai Waifu" --- my wife

3. "Nice Boat" --- referring to romances that could go bad and have murderous events in them (School Days)

4. "My Body is Not Ready" -- referring to the adult anime phrase. People often say this when they are about to watch something (an anime episode) they really want to see. :emb

I'm sure there's a good webpage out there somewhere.

EDIT:

Ah, it was already mentioned above.
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Re: Anime meme phrases: Do you know some?

Post by JWR »

One famous one is from Mahoromatic, "Ecchi nano-wa ikenai-to omoimasu!" I think dirty thoughts are bad!
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Re: Anime meme phrases: Do you know some?

Post by sensei »

Thanks all! This gives me some good sources for fairly recent series (though I think Evangelion is probably well-known enough to include). I don't want this to spin out of control, but I do want to create a moment of recognition among a wide range of audience members on both sides.

My presentation just became 10% cooler (gotta push on to achieve the other 10% on my own...)

For great friendship!
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Re: Anime meme phrases: Do you know some?

Post by jcaliff »

I would tell you to go hang out on 4-chan, but that would just be cruel. :)
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Re: Anime meme phrases: Do you know some?

Post by GuyvarIII »

/hmm

The first two lines that come to me are:

“…three times faster…” -Gundam
http://s25.photobucket.com/albums/c95/G ... esChar.mp4

“Omae wa mo shindeiru.” -Fist Of The North Star
http://s25.photobucket.com/albums/c95/G ... inderu.mp4 (Gore -NSFW)
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Re: Anime meme phrases: Do you know some?

Post by iceman57 »

GuyvarIII wrote:“Omae wa mo shindeiru.” -Fist Of The North Star
http://s25.photobucket.com/albums/c95/G ... inderu.mp4 (Gore -NSFW)
Definitively one of the most epic oneliner that had been reused in several parodies.
You can add "Yuria" meme to the list:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFBNkmRcuAg (0:57)

Parodies:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAnsMrt-aQ8 (GTO)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5c-dJ13pKQ8 (Lucky Star)
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Re: Anime meme phrases: Do you know some?

Post by sensei »

Thank you all. I've gotten the presentation in (more or less) final form and will let you know how it goes. I've just put in a sampling of anime meme-phrase so that a variety of people attending will get the idea: I'm sure everyone will have their own favorites. Thanks, for the suggestion of the website, Keropi, which was helpful in providing some graphics (my presentations are always heavy on graphics).

I just want to clarify why the phrase "twenty percent" is such an immediately recognizable token of brony identity.
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Re: Anime meme phrases: Do you know some?

Post by Keropi »

After looking it up again, I realize what I said wasn't correct about that "My Body is (Not) Ready" meme. The actual story on that phrase is here:

http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/my-body-is-ready

But it's still funny when I run across it. I run across that phrase just about every day. It is mentioned in the context of something that someone is really anticipating seeing, doing or being involved with. :D

Let us know how your presentation goes!
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Re: Anime meme phrases: Do you know some?

Post by jcaliff »

I wonder if using the word "talent" as a euphemism for boob size a la the English dub of Sailor Moon qualifies.
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Hector called to all the people,"Come and share my treasure trunk!"
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Re: Anime meme phrases: Do you know some?

Post by sensei »

I thought about talking about the sly way in which bronies use "plot" to mean "buttocks." As in, "I watch MLP for the plot."
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