About
Special Feeling (Japanese: 特別な気分, Tokubetsu na kibun), also referred to as “Special Mood”, refers to a series of illustrations parodying a Japanese couple being interviewed during a snowstorm in Tokyo. It’s also referred to by the phrase “Being in the snow with my lover like this immerses me in a special feeling. I like it.” (恋人といる時の雪って特別な気分に浸れて僕は好きです), which was said by the man during the interview.
Origin
On February 8th, 2014, Japan was hit by one of the heaviest snowfalls since January 1994. Tokyo received 8.7 inches of snow, with Matsumoto getting buried with the heaviest amount at over 19 inches. Following the storm, Japanese TV stations repeatedly aired emergency news programs on the heavy snowfall in the Kantou and Touhoku regions.
Amongst all the disruptions and traffic paralysis, Japanese Twitter users found themselves being amused by a TV interview in front of Shibuya station, Tokyo, in which a young man embarrassed his girlfriend. The man told the interviewer that he enjoys being together with a loved one during a snow storm. The tweet by user @HOMOMANKO,[1] which showed a picture of the interview, managed to gain over 36,000 retweets and 15,000 favorites within the first few days. @HOMOMANKO also added an insulting comment to the interview in his tweet, in which he calls the man a “(F**king) Four-Eyes,” parodying Levi from the Japanese manga/anime Attack on Titan, who uses a similar insult in the anime.
黙れクソメガネ pic.twitter.com/KXJ1kP8zNF
— そらまる兵長(´へωへ`*) (@HOMOMANKO) February 8, 2014
Translation:
“Being in the snow with my lover like this immerses me in a special feeling. I like it.”
SHUT UP, F**KING FOUR-EYES.
However, a different tweet made on January 14th, 2013,[2] shows this screenshot was taken in another news report about a snow storm a year prior to the one striking Japan at that time, making the screenshot unrelated to the snowfall in February 2014.
Spread
Many viewers of the tweet felt consent in @HOMOMANKO’s insulting comment to the man due to the people who were forced to struggle with the heavy snow, likewise to singles who hold an intensely jealousy against couples. This caused the the screenshot to go viral on Twitter immediately, in spite of it being never related to a snow storm at that time. It also evoked people’s imagination to the couple’s illicit relationship that only the girl is wearing a ring on her wedding finger and she covers her face throughout the interview.
Following its large presence on the web, the screencap caused a large amount of image parodies to be created of the couple among Japanese amateur illustrators. Dozens of twitter posts containing parody illustrations were quickly posted and collected in Togetter[3] or Naver Matome[4] posts. In addition, more than 800 illustrations parodying the couple had been uploaded to Japanese illustrators communties pixiv[5] and Nico Nico Seiga.[6] Many of these image were also reblogged onto Tumblr.[7] In these illustration-sharing services, the common tag used on the parodies is “Special Feeling” (特別な気分), which refers to the emphasised text in the subtitles of the interview.
This online phenomena got its own article on Nico Nico Pedia[10] and pixiv Encyclopedia[11] and was also reported by several Japanese online gossip news media.[12][13]
On the English-speaking web, this fad on the Japanese Twitter was immediately covered by threads in 4chan’s /u/[14] (Yuri) and /a/[15] (anime & manga) boards and a news article by Crunchyroll published on February 9th, 2014.[16]
Notable Examples
Reflecting the popular trend in Japanese fan fiction with shipping in the years prior to the event, many illustrations in the series feature Yaoi[8] or Yuri[9] couples.
Left: Touhou Project | Right: Kantai Collection
Left: Neon Genesis Evangelion | Right: Kill la Kill
Left: The Avengers | Right: The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
Search Interest
External References
[1]Twitter – そらまる兵長(´へωへ`*) (HOMOMANKO)
[2]Twitter – lolikongauti: 絶対に許すな … / Posted on 01-14-2013 (Japanese)
[3]Togetter – 恋人といる時の雪って特別な気分に浸れて僕は好きです まとめ / Posted on 02-09-2014 (Japanese)
[4]Naver Matome – 「恋人といる時の雪って特別な気分に浸れて私は好きです」 パロディ画像まとめ / Posted on 02-09-2014 (Japanese)
[5]pixiv – Search results for the tag 特別な気分
[6]Nico Nico Seiga – Search results for the tag 特別な気分 (Japanese)
[7]Tumblr – Search resultsf for 特別な気分
[9]Wikipedia – Yuri (genre)
[10]Nico Nico Pedia – 恋人といる時の雪って特別な気分に浸れて僕は好きです (Japanese)
[11]pixiv Encyclopedia – 特別な気分 (Japanese)
[12]Togech – 「恋人といる時の雪って特別な気分に浸れて僕は好きです」冬のパロディ画像祭り！ / 02-09-2014 (Japanese)
[13]otakei.otakuma.net – 大雪ニュースに登場した「特別な気分」カップル→触発された絵師らによりパロディ画像大量発生 / 02-10-2014 (Japanese)
[14]FoolFuuka – /u/ – Yuri » Thread #1514778 / Posted on 02-09-2014 (4chan’s Thread Archive)
[15]FoolFuuka – /a/ – Animu & Mango » Thread #101807806 / Posted on 02-10-2014 (4chan’s Thread Archive)
[16]Crunchyroll – Japanese Couple’s Snow Storm Interview Inspires New Meme / 02-09-2014