About
The Poka Poka series (Japanese: ポカポカしてるだけシリーズ, Pokapoka Shiterudake Series) refers to a series of hand drawn animated videos of one character pounding on another’s chest along with the fan-made remixed version of Hammer song from Super Smash Brothers series by Nintendo.
This animation is one of the popular templates for parodies among amatuer illustrators on the Japanese video sharing service Nico Nico Douga (NND).
Origin
“Poka Poka” (ポカポカ) is a Japanese onomatopoeia for a sound of pounding something mildly, which sounds very cute to the Japanese sensibility. And videos in this seires is made from combining two “Poka Poka” materials.
One, the action, is taken from just a 1-second footage in the opening movie of a Japanese TV anime series for a manga Seitokai Yakuindomo written by Tozen Ujiie.[1] It was aired from July to October in 2010. The other, an electro-pop tune playing in the background, is a vocal remixed version of Hammer song, which was composed by a famous NND user Satsuki Ga Tenkomori[2] and sung by moe voice actor/singer Nanahira in 2009.[3]
“Poka Poka” Beating in Seitokai Yakuindomo
“Poka Poka” singing by Nanahira
The trigger of this series first combined these materials and reproduced the action by Akio Fudo and Michiya Kuon from a Japanese TV anime series for a video game Inazuma Eleven produced by Level-5.[4] This video was uploaded to NND on July 14th, 2010.[5]
Spread
The cuteness of this video was received favourably by other female amateur illustrators on NND due to a huge popularity of Inazuma Eleven among Japanese female Otakus and its quite convenient editing style. They soon began mimicking the style of this video with their favorite characters.
As of October 2012, the amount of videos in this series on NND is near 250.[6]
Notable Examples
For more videos, check out the videos section in this entry.
Gintama[7]
BLEACH[8]
Tiger & Bunny[9]
Minecraft[10]
Appearance Outside Japan
Non-Japanese people also have joined into this fad, though the number of them isn’t so many. They have occasionally posted their works to YouTube[11] and deviantART.[12]
Naruto
Professor Layton
Star Wars OC
South Park
Search Interest
[Not Available]
External References
Editor’s Note: Registration is needed to browse the original videos listed in this section.
[1] Wikipedia – Seitokai Yakuindomo
[2] niconico – さつき が てんこもり’s user page
[3] niconico Video – 【ハンマー状態】ハンマーを電波ソングにしてみた / Posted on 10-11-2009
[4] Wikipedia – Inazuma Eleven
[5] niconico Video – 【手描きイナズマ】あきおちゃんがポカポカしてるだけ / Posted on 07-14-2010
[6] niconico Video – Search results for ポカポカしてるだけシリーズ
[7] niconico Video – 【描いてみました】銀魂でポカポカしてるだけ【バラエティパック】 / Posted on 11-20-2010
[8] niconico Video – 織姫がポカポカしてるだけ【手描き鰤】 / Posted on 09-23-2010
[9] niconico Video – 【手描き】おじさんがポカポカしてるだけ【Ｔ＆Ｂ】 / Posted on 04-26-2011
[10] niconico Video – スノーゴーレムがぽかぽか(じたばた)してるだけ / Posted on 09-30-2012
[11] YouTube – Search results for "poka poka" OR pokapoka OR ポカポカ