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Memes

The origins of the ‘Atakichi No Eleven Redraws’ meme

How a screenshot from a fifty-year old anime sparked a wave of creativity throughout French Twitter.

Photo of Mike Hadge

Mike Hadge

Akakichi no Eleven Redraws

Akakichi no Eleven Redraws (aka “Hand on shoulder meme”) is a frame of 1970s soccer-based anime Akakichi no Eleven. The frame consists of a large-chinned man reassuring another character in the shot, smiling while placing a hand on his shoulder.

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The image became extremely popular among French Twitter/X users in late 2023, especially as a reaction image. It was sourced in early 2024, which led to users redrawing the image with characters from other areas of pop culture. 

Meme origins

Akakichi no Eleven Redraws first sprung up on the internet in late 2023, when a frame from Akakichi no Eleven became popular among French Twitter users as a reaction image. On November 24th, 2023, for instance, the screenshot was utilized by X user @latour0_. 

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Akakichi no eleven redraw meme initial post
X/latour0_

On January 5th, 2024, Twitter user @FullSaphir announced that their investigation into the image’s origins yielded an answer: the soccer anime Akakichi no Eleven. The tweet, featuring a GIF of the moment, saw over 890 retweets and 6.4k likes in the next five days. 

Akakichi no Eleven, which was based on a popular manga, debuted as a TV series on Nippon Television on April 13, 1970, and ran for fifty-two episodes.

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Meme spread

Akakichi no Eleven entered its redraw phase after @FullSaphir’s origin tweet in January 2024, as the template provided ample chance to get creative with the format. And it happened fast, as less than two hours after @FullSaphir’s tweet on January 5th, user @fh4dr posted a redraw on Twitter with Dragon Ball characters. The post gained over 3.3k retweets and 25k likes in the new five days. 

Akakichi no eleven redraw meme Dragon Ball variation
X/fh4dr
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Many other redraws went quite viral on Twitter over the next few days. For example, on January 5th, Twitter user @DItekki posted a redraw featuring Attack on Titan characters. The post gained over 650 retweets and 6.7k likes over the next five days.  

Akakichi no eleven redraw meme Attack on Titan variation
X/Ditteki

Two days later, on January 7th, 2024, Twitter user @fh4dr posted another redraw example, this time featuring Naruto characters. The post gained over 1.2k retweets and 15k likes in three days. 

Akakichi no eleven redraw meme anime variation
X/Ditteki
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The trend was then celebrated on /r/animemes on January 7th by Redditor Le-Vagabond27, whose montage post, featuring the original clip, gained over 2.8k points over three days. 

Meme examples 

Akakichi no eleven redraw meme template
X/fh4dr
Akakichi no eleven redraw meme Emmanuel Macron variation
X/fh4dr
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Akakichi no eleven redraw meme Dragon Ball variation
X/@DItteki
Akakichi no eleven redraw meme Evangelion variation
X/@DItteki
Akakichi no eleven redraw meme pinocchio variation
X/@DItteki
Akakichi no eleven redraw meme Naturo variation
X/@_NAATSUU
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Akakichi no eleven redraw meme of One Piece by ManMarkedByFlames
X/@_NAATSUU
Akakichi no eleven redraw meme Gojo version by FishComplex6549
X/@_NAATSUU
Akakichi no eleven redraw meme toga anime variation
X/FruitJuicante
Akakichi no eleven redraw meme number 4 reddit
X/FruitJuicante
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Akakichi no eleven redraw meme anime by AngryTastesOk
X/FruitJuicante

More anime memes:

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