Kaneki Profile Picture

About

Kaneki Profile Picture refers to a manga panel of Tokyo Ghoul:re main protagonist Ken Kaneki throwing back his head, with his hair obscuring his eyes. Online, setting the panel as the profile picture became associated with attempting to convey the feelings of pain, self-pity and resignation in the face of being unwanted or rejected, with memes about "kaneki avis" and "kaneki pfps" gaining popularity starting in late 2019. The meme is closely associated with UNRAVEL / Donny's Theme.

Origin

On May 28th, 2015, chapter 30 of Tokyo Ghoul:re manga series, created by Sui Ishida, was published in Weekly Young Jump.^[1] The chapter ends with Hinami Fueguchi resolving to not give up on her older brother Ken Kaneki, with the last panel showing Kaneki throwing his head back as if in resignation (panel shown below).

While the panel has been used as a profile picture before, its association with feelings of pain and self-pity did not gain widespread recognition until late August 2019, with the budding meme popularity of Tokyo Ghoul anime theme song UNRAVEL, also known as "Donny's Theme", being a major contributing factor.

On August 30th, 2019, Twitter^[2] user @AnimeWifeLover tweeted the image, writing: "just found out my healslut gf played support for another guy." The tweet received over 60 retweets and 220 likes in nine months (shown below, left). On September 6th, 2020, Twitter^[3] user @BitchAssBowie joked about Twitter accounts using the panel as their profile picture, with the tweet gaining over 40 retweets and 250 likes in nine months (shown below, right).

Spread

The meme reached more recognition when on October 13th, 2019, Twitter^[4] user @BitchAssBowie posted a mockup tweet which imagined the official Fortnite Twitter account setting the image as the profile picture. The post received over 1,100 retweets and 5,000 likes in eight months (shown below, left).

Between December 1st and 2nd, Twitter user @chopstick made a series of joke tweets,^[5][6][7] writing "I jus shot my shot," "Maybe she just fell asleep aha," "Maybe shes just busy," with the last tweet^[8] being the Kaneki manga panel accompanied by #NewProfilePic hashtag. On December 2nd, 2019, Twitter^[9] user @HolUpKnight posted screenshots of the tweets, gaining over 1,700 retweets and 7,200 likes in six months (shown below, right).

On January 10th, 2020, Redditor^[10] harambeazn posted an inquiry about the meme in /r/TokyoGhoul subreddit, gaining over 620 upvotes in four months.

Starting in February 2020, the manga panel became a popular subject of parodies. For example, on February 3rd, 2020, Twitter^[11] artist @TyroneStash posted a Guy Fieri parody of the image, gaining over 10,400 retweets and 38,400 likes in three months (shown below, left). On May 28th, 2020, Twitter^[12] user @BobaFettNotDead posted a JoJo's Bizarre Adventure parody that received over 410 retweets and 2,700 likes in one day (shown below, right).

Related Memes

UNRAVEL / Donny's Theme

UNRAVEL is a song by Japanese musician TK that is used in the opening credits of the 2014 anime series Tokyo Ghoul. Starting in March 2019, the song has often been used in videos that chronicle a person's downfall by presenting their posts and comments. On iFunny, the song is known as Donny's Theme.

Crying Aya Asagiri

Crying Aya Asagiri refers to a viral panel from Magical Girl Site manga series which depicts that main protagonist Aya Asagiri crying. Online, the panel gained popularity as a part of several meme formats, including Sorry for Having X and Babe Please Have Sex With Me, and has been used in conjunction with Kaneki Profile Picture.

Various Examples

Template

Search Interest

External References