About

Sick Kaguya, also known as Smol Kaguya, refers to a series of images from an episode of anime series Kaguya-Sama: Love is War in which the main protagonist Kaguya Shinomiya is shown lying in bed with cold. Following the release of the episode, the still images gained popularity as reactions and exploitables in the anime community.

Origin

On March 9th, 2019, Kaguya-Sama: Love is War episode "Kaguya Wants to Give a Gift" premiered.^[1] In the episode, the main protagonist Kaguya Shinomiya comes down with a cold and is forced to stay in bed to recover by her assistant Ai Hayasaka.

On the same day, Redditor^[2] secondaidkit_ posted the first known meme using a cropped still image from the scene in /r/animemes subreddit, making a reference to Surprised Pikachu reaction image. The post gained over 5,300 upvotes in three days.

Spread

In the following days, the image, referred to both as "smol Kaguya" and "sick Kaguya" by /r/animemes users, was circulated in the subreddit. Other still images from the scenes in which Kaguya Shinomiya is shown in bed were also used.

For example, on March 9th, 2019, Redditor^[3] A_Startled_Racoon made a post which gained over 12,300 upvotes in three days (shown below, left). Another post, made by Redditor^[4] Mr_Ciapciok on March 10th, received over 14,800 upvotes in two days (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References