Majima Everywhere

Submission 16,591

Part of a series on Yakuza / Like a Dragon. [View Related Entries]

About

Majima Everywhere refers to a series of memes about the Yakuza Kiwami gameplay system which has supporting character Goro Majima ambushing protagonist Kazuma Kiryu in a large variety of ways, including climbing out of manholes and trashcans and disguising himself as a zombie. The game mechanic inspired fan art and memes, while an image of Majima climbing out of a sewer saw frequent use as an exploitable. The memes and fan art often have Goro Majima shouting "Kiryu-chan!" to Kiryu.

Origin

On January 21st, 2016, the video game Yakuza Kiwami, a remake of the 2005 video game Yakuza, was released in Japan,^[1] with a worldwide release following on August 29th, 2017. The game introduced a new gameplay system called "Majima Everywhere" that has supporting character Goro Majima frequently challenging protagonist Kazuma Kiryu to fights. As a part of the system, Majima disguises himself in a variety of ways or hides in various places to ambush Kiryu (demonstration video shown below).

On June 13th, 2017, a trailer for Yakuza Kiwami premiered at E3 2017,^[2] presenting the "Majima Everywhere" system.

Prior to August 26th, 2017, an unknown user created the first known meme which referenced the mechanic, a Kenshiro Hiding in a Haystack meme (shown below). On August 26th, 2017, Twitter^[3] user @Pyro_Jackkun made the earliest found repost of the GIF.

Spread

In the following month, the image was widely circulated, including a September 17th repost on Imgur.^[4] On September 29th, 2017, YouTube^[5] user LunarRoses uploaded a video version of the meme (author unknown) that gained over 194,000 views in four years.

On September 2nd, 2017, Tumblr^[6] user kefka-palazzo posed a transparent PNG of Majima climbing out of a manhole (shown below). The image was later used in multiple memes, with users editing Sewer Majima into various images (example shown below, right).^[7]^[8]

Starting in 2018, fan art and memes about Majima Everywhere system were posted online on Tumblr, Reddit and other sites. For example, on January 19th, 2018, Tumblr^[9] user majimemegoro posted an It's More Likely Than You Think meme that gained nearly 4,000 likes and reblogs in three years (shown below).

In the following years, the meme maintained moderate popularity online, mainly through fan art, references and the use of Sewer Majima exploitable.