Forget getting carried like a bride or a princess, the new thing, it seems, is getting hauled about like a bag of rice.
This is called “okome-sama dakko” (お米様抱っこ), and it’s become a topic online after Mikazuki Augus from Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans busted it out:
Hardly a first, but there you go.
“Okome-sama dakko” is wordplay on what the Japanese call “ohime-sama dakko” (basically, “carrying a princess”). This is what ohime-sama dakko looks more or less like:
In the West, people have traditionally carried the bride across the threshold like this.
Anime characters, however, have been carrying each other around like bags of rice. Here, let nationwide Japanese morning show Zip! explain:
As you can see, the dude is carrying a bag of rice in one photo and carrying a person in a similar fashion in the other. In English, we’d probably call this the “fireman’s carry.”
This can also refer to carrying the cut rice sans bag.
It’s not just male characters carrying female characters like this! The trope, which certainly isn’t new, is already spawning more and more fan art online.
Top image: hitomyann7
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