The ludic Japanese Twittersphere strikes again.
Japanese Twitter users like to play tag games where they post a picture of someone (typically someone famous or currently in the news spotlight) and then other users reply with pictures that show someone else (typically an anime character) adopting a similar pose.
The fun and humor lies in the challenge of finding a good match and the incongruity of the pairings. The meme’s latest incarnation involves Democrat Party presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
It started in early March with a tag appeared on Twitter asking users to pose pictures of Deremasu (the nickname of a social game, The Idolmaster Cinderella Girls, from The Idolmaster video game and anime franchise) with those of Ms. Clinton.
The results are quite amusing and entertaining. Much of the appeal revolves around finding and sharing a likeness to a certain pose or gesture with the female 2D characters that is coincidental (we’re not suggesting Ms. Clinton is doing this by design), yet funny. While aimed at fans of the original Idolmaster franchise, even the uninitiated can enjoy the montages.
きらりークリントン
#デレマスの画像を送るとそれに近いヒラリークリントンの画像が送られてくる pic.twitter.com/rAF70Sl9it
— 銀髪推進派 (@alpaka) March 3, 2016
Heck, one Twitter user even found a way to compare Clinton with wailing former Japanese politician Ryutaro Nonomura.
While this might all seem trivial or even disrespectful, given the continuing pantomime of the Republic candidates’ debates, this kind of online parodying and playfulness is perhaps the best response to an ever more absurd media circus.
And as Asiajin rightly points out, the Democrat and Republican candidates’ campaigns are hardly covered by mainstream Japanese news media, meaning that many people’s experience of them is filtered through social media.
The most prominent response so far in Japan to the rise (and rise) of Donald Trump has been Dr NakaMats’s new invention: a weaponized wig that the wacky Japanese inventor is suggesting the Donald can lob at his enemies. Absurd, yes, but perhaps not an inappropriate retort to what is taking place right now.
See more examples of the Clinton meme on Togetter.
