One of this year's most talked about new anime series is Attack on Titan. It's not only talked about, though. The show is apparently inspiring a new photo meme in Japan.
Originally a manga, Attack on Titan tells the story of a wall city that's being attacked by human-eating giants. The anime's opening is utterly mental, and it's inspiring all sorts of video parodies.
The show seems to have captured the imagination of Japan's youth. Since late April, photos of "Pretend Attack on Titan" (進撃の巨人ごっこ or Shingeki no Kyojin gokko) have been popping up online. Using perspective tricks, this photo trend usually depicts teens pretending to hold or even eat other kids. There are also photos of teens "attacking" giant classmates. Over the past few days, the number of pics has really begun to take off.
There was an Attack on Titan iPhone app released recently in Japan. It features "digital photo stickers" and could have helped inspired this meme. That, or this is just something for Japanese teens to do in the wake of the Dragon Ball and Harry Potter photo memes. Kinda seems like Japanese kids have a new photo meme on a weekly basis!
Right now, Twitter is blowing up in Japan with loads of people saying they want to do "Pretend Attack on Titan". And as these photos show, the trend seems to be going viral.
These kind of perspective tricks have been around as long as there have been cameras. Forever! That's not what's interesting. What's interesting is that, unless this is clever guerrilla advertising, the trend reveals just how popular Attack on Titan is.
Photos: chanman1993, 2525_1919, reeeee0722, hitsuemi, haru_matchotcho, fuuuuu0424, akazukinpanda, hhh973, keita1591, enntyukeidannsi, risanyannn, doyaboss, murai71, jecmsh, sanpeiz, tyairomatu, masanyama_m, zeppekikobito, iittto, 72k_giggle, 017chaitea, 1212_yukiiii via まとめ, OOR0522, yu_u_ki_m1tan00, manasugi27
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