Random Memes Seen in Anime

It’s fun to pay attention to the visual memes that show up in anime series. For example, if a boy is waiting for a girl so they can go on a date, when she shows up she’ll nearly always say, “Did you wait long?” and he’ll reply, “No, I just got here a moment ago” (even if he’d really been waiting for an hour). If a boy stares at a girl for too long, she’ll probably ask, “Is there something stuck to my face?” Then there’s the fairly common meme of a boy who can’t bring himself to call a girl he’s just started dating by her given (first) name — something that implies an extremely intimate relationship in Japanese — instead shyly using her family name or an honorific title like “Morishima-senpai.” This trope shows up anime series like Amagami or in eroge like our own School Days, and it’s a cute reminder of how different Japan can be from the rest of the world.

“Did you wait long?” “No, I only just arrived.”