About
Are They Still On Namek? is a catchphrase used by anime fans in order to reference story arcs from popular anime shows that seem to be dragging on for too long or that may contain too many perceived filler episodes, thus asking if a story has moved on or not. The sentence is directly related to popular anime franchise Dragon Ball Z, especially its story arc taking place on the remote planet Namek.
Origin
According to the Lurkmore page[1], the phrase was coined on 4chan’s/a/ (anime & manga) board around 2005 in threads discussing the Bleach anime and its Soul Society Arc, a storyline that was cut into two season, displayed over 43 episodes and first broadcasted between March 1st 2005 and January 10th 2006. Considered way too long for an arc by many users, they drew comparisons with Dragon Ball Z’s Namek Saga and especially the final 5-minute battle between Goku and Frieza that was originally cut into 10 episodes for a total 3 hour-long broadcast time.
While there is no archive of these events, One of the earliest use of the catchphrase outside 4chan was made on January 7th 2006 in a D-Addicts forum thread about the Naruto tv show[2].
Spread
On July 20th, 2007 a post in an IGN thread about random images highlighted a parody reusing the phrase[3]. In september of that year, a thread titled “Are they still on Namek?” was made on the stadium-arcanium website[4]. Another one, titled “Why are they still on namek?” was created in december in the Bleach sub-section of Naruto Forums[5]. On November 19th, 2009, a post about the meme and its relationship with the Bleach series was made in a GameFAQ thread[6]. The phrase became used as a prime example of the “Arc fatigue”[7] trope applied to Anime and Manga on TVTropes as well as being mentioned as a trivia on the Dragon Ball wikia page for “Namek”[8].
In June 2011, popular Youtuber and Abridge Series makers TeamFourStar released the 24th episode of their parody series Dragon Ball Z Abridged. In it, the character of Krillin (voiced by Lanipator) is making a reference to the meme (shown below).
Krillin: You know Gohan, it just occured to me.
Gohan: Yeah Krillin?
Krillin: We are STILL on Namek.
Gohan: What do you mean?
Krillin: Well I mean it feels like we have been here for like… a year.
Gohan: But we have only been here for six days!
Krillin: I know right!
On 4chan specifically, archives featuring the phrase can be seen as early as 2011[9]. On March 13th 2015, a thread with a picture of villain Frieza and the sentence “this thread will be deleted in 5 minutes” was posted to 4chan’s /v/ (video games) board. Prior to being archived, an anonymous user answered with the phrase “Are They Still On Namek?”[10]
External References
[1]Lurkmore – Are They Still On Namek?
[2]D-Addicts forums – Talk about anything Naruto
[3]IGN forums – ITT we post pictures like the “epic boobs” and “moms minivan” …
[4]Stadium Arcanium – Are they still on Namek?
[5]Naruto Forums – http://www.narutoforums.com/showthread.php?t=303071
[6]GameFAQ forums – Errand Boy/Spacy Girl is so hawt, right? spoilers
[7]TVTropes – Arc Fatigue
[8]Dragon Ball wikia – "Namek":dragonball.wikia.com/wiki/Namek
[9]Archive Moe – The gangrape continues. Srly[4chan archive. May Content NSFW Content]
[10]4chan – This thread will be deleted in 5 minutes.[4chan archive. May Content NSFW Content]