Hide Your Power Level

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Part of a series on Dragon Ball. [View Related Entries]

Editor's Note: This Entry is hiding its power level to avoid being meme'd on.

About

"Hide Your Power Level" is an expression taken from the Shōnen manga and anime series Dragon Ball. Online, the expression is often used to describe a user who is hiding their affiliation, skills or hobbies (like video games or anime) to avoid being labelled negatively. The expression is commonly used on 4chan's /a/ board to describe users who hide their otaku interests and lifestyles to avoid being called a weeaboo or an otaku. The phrase has also been used to hide one's political affiliations, particularly among members of white supremacist political groups such as the alt-right.

Origin

In the series, the expression is used by several characters particularly during the namek saga with Krillin and Gohan suppressing their power level to avoid detection from Frieza's army as they attempt to find the dragon balls while Vegeta hides his power to suprise his enemies in battle as he also attempts to collect the balls for himself.
According to archive.moe, one of the earliest recorded uses of the expression was in 4chan's /a/ board on February 11th, 2008 in which a user discusses how they were hiding their interest in several japanese songs during a karaoke session with friends^[1].

Spread

On the 4chan archival site archive.moe, a search query for the phrase "Hide your power level" yields more than 5,500 posts from various sub-boards^[2]. Outside of 4chan, discussions about hiding power levels can be found in various sites such as friendly Players^[3], The Student Room^[4], Black Butler^[5], Mai Otaku^[6], IGN^[7], and MyAnimeList^[8]. On May 12th, 2010, The Ghostlightning wordpress blog posted an article titled "Hiding (Your Power Levels) in Plain Sight: Alternatives in Expressing Love for Your Hobby" which gained more than 105 comment in 5 years^[9]. On January 4th, 2011, Urban Dictionary user HHHHHHHHNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGGG submitted an entry regarding the expression^[10]. On March 28th, 2012, Youtuber SatorinKomeiji1 posted a video of his time in the Air Force where his room was inspected by a high ranking officer. The video gained more than 33.500 views in 3 years.

On October 25th, 2013, Return of Kings published an article titled "Hiding Your Power Level"^[11]. On November 29th, 2014, GoBoiano published an article titled "5 Sly Anime Gifts For Concealing Your Power Level This Holiday"^[12].