Urusei Yatsura Intro Animation Meme

About

The Urusei Yatsura Intro Animation Meme is a series of animation memes that recreate the intro theme of the 1980s anime series Urusei Yatsura with different characters. The trend was popularized on TikTok in mid-June 2024 and gained viral spread to YouTube.

Origin

The theme song for the 1980s anime series Urusei Yatsura is "Lum no Love Song" by Yuko Matsutani (shown below).

On January 26th, 2024, TIkToker^[1] @discoanimedisco posted the theme song along with its accompanying animation, garnering over 1.5 million views in six months. That June, TikTokers began to use the original sound to post recreated versions of the opening theme, replacing the characters. Although unconfirmed to be the first, the earliest known example was posted by TikToker^[2] @zombozled on June 15th, 2024, replacing the characters with ones from Dungeon Meshi, garnering over a million views in a month (shown below).

Spread

The trend continued to spread throughout June 2024, continuing into July and spreading to YouTube. On June 18th, 2024, YouTuber^[3] ToonyCryptid posted a version of the meme that gained over 75,000 views in two weeks (shown below, left). On June 22nd, YouTuber^[4] Frune` posted a version referencing Sonic the Hedgehog that gained over 76,000 views in a week (shown below, right).

On June 24th, TikToker^[5] @0nqauksvksyqlw0 posted a version of the meme recreating the theme animation with the Duolingo owl, garnering over 1.5 million views in a week (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References