Top 10 Anime Scenes That Became Memes

“Death Note” (2006-07)
Light Yagami is one smart cookie, so much so that he managed to orchestrate a scheme involving mindwipes, murder and numerous other steps no other living being could come up with, all to secure his absolute victory over L. The highlight? The moment when the Death Note was returned to him and he had his old memories restored, declaring to himself that everything had gone exactly as it was supposed to. Naturally, this made it instant feed for trolls, where it spread to imageboards everywhere, notably next to stories of some succeeding in a ludicrous fashion with just their wits.

“Code Geass” (2006-08)
Turns out that Suzaku has a rather…interesting method of attacking his foes when outside of the Lancelot. Namely, he does a fair bit of spinning. While this somehow always proves to be effective when taking down enemies of the Empire, the internet couldn’t resist taking his little cyclone routine and applying some more…fitting music to it. He’s done it to Lelouch twice, it made a glorious return in Akito the Exiled, even the creators of the franchise decided they wanted in on the action and outplayed everyone in the Nunally in Wonderland OVA! Seems Suzaku is destined to live his life as a spinning top!

“School Days” (2007)
Makoto certainly deserved to get punished in some manner after he broke so many hearts, it just so happened that Sekai decided that it should involve a kitchen knife and a hell of a lot of stabbing. It’s a brutal way to go, and catapulted the series into infamy. However, given the events of the final episode happened to coincide with an actual murder of a similar nature, it was replaced at the last second with footage of a boat. Just…a boat. The juxtaposition is so overwhelming that it’s borderline hilarious. Just remember, when you see Makoto get his insides cleaved by the girl he cheated on, the only appropriate response is – nice boat.

“Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam” (1985-86)
Oh Char. You’re the meme that keeps on giving without losing any badass points along the way. While he made us all do a double take when he declared that he had never betrayed anyone in his life, our choice for the best Char-ism comes during his reunion with long-time rival Amuro, where he utters what appears to be the most chill insult of all time. While the truth of the scene is far more nuanced and doesn’t hold so much aggression, that didn’t stop the line from blowing up everywhere!

“Fate/stay night” (2006)
It’s amazing that among the college course that is Fate-verse lore, the one line that stands out above all is this little nugget of wisdom as seen in the franchise’s first, ill-fated outing. Yeah, there’s a bit more context to it, but come on! There must have been better ways you could have phrased this. Of course, there’s no way such a line was going to go ignored by the online masses, where it consequently invoked some equally philosophical responses such as water is wet, while also finding itself paired up among the pantheon of anime’s stupidest lines of dialogue.

“Bleach” (2004-12)
At the very least, this random bit of Bleach lunacy isn’t half as bad as its filler arcs or inability to get a proper ending. Just when it was getting off the ground, the scene involving Orihime twirling around a leek went viral, mostly thanks to the Loituma Girl Flash animation, where the endless spinning was accompanied by a scat singing section. Not even Aizen had this much staying power, and yet the busty ginger and her vegetable continue to endure thanks to an endless stream of remixes.

“Neon Genesis Evangelion” (1995-96)
Goes to show if your emotionally abusive father yells at you enough times to get in the robot, someone’s going to make a meme out of it, and beyond that a whole slew of mixtapes. Given Shinji’s reluctance to get in the EVA Unit and crush some Angels, the phrase “get in the f-ing robot” began to circulate online, becoming a household name, due in no small part to some mad lad turning it into a song with the original Evangelion opening serving as a backtrack.

“The Brave Fighter and Sun Fighbird” (1991-92)
You’ve got two ways of looking at this little gem here. On the one hand it’s an android slowly learning more about the world and mistakes one flying creature for another. On the other hand, out of context, this scene is the pinnacle of comedic stupidity. It wasn’t long before copycats began cropping up everywhere, from other anime characters making the same error about the existence of this mysterious pigeon, all the way to Eren asking if it’s another Titan. When an anime meme is milked to death by normies - you know you’ve made it to the mainstream.

“JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure” (2012-)
One of the few shining stars that managed to take something born of the modern anime scene into the mainstream, only JoJo could possibly have achieved something so monumental yet ridiculous simultaneously. Given how unique JoJo’s “to be continued” endings are, what with their freeze frames, random colour change and iconic musical interlude, it didn’t take long for the internet to apply these to other clips online, often when shit is about to hit the fan for some unfortunate soul. They might not be having a good time, but we sure as hell are!

Before we reveal our number one pick, here are a few honourable mentions.

Devilman Run
“Devilman Crybaby” (2018)

But You Didn’t Do Anything
“Sailor Moon” (1992-96)

Orga’s Death
“Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans” (2015-17)

“Dragon Ball Z” (1989-96)
Before there were memes, there was this scene. The legendary moment where Vegeta discovered that Goku’s power level was beyond anything he had seen before, crushing his own scouter in irritation. Since then, this meme has been remixed, revisited and regaled well over nine thousand times itself, to the point where we’re pretty sure as long as Dragon Ball still lurks within the public consciousness, this meme will never truly die. Give it a few years until Dragon Ball Kai-Kai comes out and this scene will whip up a fresh storm once more!