About
Geki Oko Punpun Maru (Japanese: 激おこぷんぷん丸 or 激おこプンプン丸) is a neologism meaning “Very Angry”, which was coined by Japanese Gyaru.[1]
In the spring of 2013, Japanese internet users had been creating parody photo collages, illustrations and 8-bit style video games by getting inspiration from this laughable but impressive expression.
Origin
Japanese Gyaru had been using “Oko”, a shortened form of a verb “Okoru” (Get Angry), since around 2011. And this word had been ranked in the 6th place in 2011 Gal’s vogue word award held by a Japanese fashion research service Gal Reseach Press.[2] However, ordinary Japanese people hadn’t noticed neither this term nor its derivative “Geki Oko Punpun Maru” till the beginning of 2013. It finally began spreading whole of the web by one tweet by Twitter user Yuto.com™ (@yuto_com_tm) on March 2nd, 2013.[3] That was a list of six stages of anger in Gyaru words (shown below).
ＧＡＬが怒った時に使う言葉【弱め】おこ【普通】まじおこ【強め】激おこぷんぷん丸【最上級】ムカ着火ファイヤー【爆発】カム着火ｲﾝﾌｪﾙﾉｫｫｫｫｵｵｳ【神】げきオコスティックファイナリアリティぷんぷんドリーム←New
— Yuto.com™ (@yuto_com_tm) March 2, 2013
Translation:
Gal words of anger:
Weak: Oko (Angry)
Normal: Maji Oko (Really Angry)
Stronger: Geki Oko Punpun Maru (Very Angry Punpun Boy)
Strongest: Muka Chakka Fire (Angry Fire Burst)
Explosion: Kam-chakka Infernooooooh (Come Fire Inferno)
God: Geki Oko-stic Finaleality Punpun Dream (Very Agnristic Finaleality Punpun Dream)
Interpretation
- “Oko” and “Muka” are a shortened form of verbs “Okoru” (Get Angry) and “Mukatsuku” (Get Annoyed). Both of them sound mild and cute.
- “Punpun” is a comical onomatopoeia of anger expressing like steam coming out from one’s head. It is mainly used expressing anger of children or young girls.
- “-Maru” suffix is for formatting terms to classic personal names (eg. Orochimaru in Naruto, Sesshomaru in Inuyasha, Shameimaru in Touhou Project, etc…).
Spread
The ridiculously incoherent sense of language of this Gyaru’s wordplay fascinated many Japanese internet users. In particular, the 3rd-stage word “Geki Oko Punpun Maru” soon went viral because it had so nice ring to it. This tweet had earned near 20,000 retweets and 10,000 favorites within its first two months. And Its online popularity was covered by several online news media[4][5] as well as a Japanese morning news show on April 4th, 2013 (shown below).
Moreover, it didn’t end in a mere vogue word, but derived to other online creations by people’s playful mind.
Six Stages of Anger Parodies
The Gyaru’s laughable six stages of anger in the tweet firstly caused a photo collage fad of reproducing its ridiculous changes in the same manner of Tree Swing Cartoon Parodies. Naver matome Archives have dozens of photos collages by Twitter users.[6]
On the other hand, online illustrators communities also reacted to this meme’s bandwagon by their favorite template-based illustration method like Expression Meme. Several blank templates were posted to both pixiv and niconico Seiga. Both sites have more than 200 illustrations tagged as “Geki Oko Punpun Maru”, “Six Stages of Anger” (怒りの六段活用) or “Six Geki Oko Variations” (激おこ六段活用) in total.[7][8]
Video Game
Another creative movement came from the name of “Geki Oko Punpun Maru”, which has quite nostalgic note reminding middle-aged people of classic NES games like Ninja JaJaMaru-kun[9] or Kaiketsu Yanchamaru.[10] The movemnt was ignited by title screen image of NES game “Geki Oko Punpun Maru”, which was set up that it was released in 1985. This image was posted by a Twitter user Hiromu (@hiromgogo) on April 12th, 2013 (shown below).[11]
ファミコンソフト「激おこぷんぷん丸」1985年発売twitpic.com/cip39j
— ヒロム (@hiromgogo) April 12, 2013
In addition to this tweet, since a Japanese video game composer Manabu Namiki[12] and chiptune musician Professor Sakamoto made songs in this imaginary video game[13][14], people started the pletend play of recalling memories and digging out archives of this game that they had really played in 1980s.
Title Theme by Manabu Namiki
Stage 1 BGM by Professor Sakamoto
These milestones triggered creative chain reaction among amatuer/professional creators. They had continually uploaded source many materials of this game to Nico Nico Douga[15] and Soundcloud.[16] Then, it finally reached to the release of playable “Geki Oko Punpun Maru” game for Windows/iOS/Android, which is consisting by consolidating those individual creations and comments from viewers.[17] Of course, the developer said “It’s very happy that we’ve got an opportunity to port this 1985 video game.”.
This creator’s completely unexpected but happy collaboration via social networks was reported by Japanese online news sites[18][19][20] as well as Twainanese online otaku news site 宅宅新聞.[21]
Notable Examples
Photo Collages
Illustrations
Video Games
Song Collection
Art works
Box Art, Instruction Card and Guidebook Cover
Another Version (Downloadable from the original video page[22])
Search Interest
External References
Editor’s Note: Registration is needed to browse the original videos listed in this section.
[2]modelpress – 2011年「ギャル流行語大賞」発表 / 12-02-2011 (Japanese)
[3]Twitter – yuto_com_tm: ＧＡＬが怒った時に使う言葉 【弱め】おこ 【普通】まじおこ … / Posted on 03-02-2013 (Japanese)
[4]J-CAST news – 「激おこぷんぷん丸」「ムカ着火ファイヤー」 ギャル語から派生、「怒りのレベル」表す造語が大人気 : J-CASTニュース / 03-20-2013 (Japanese)
[5]ITmedia news – 怒ったときに使ってみよう ギャル語「激おこぷんぷん丸」が流行 / 03-27-2013 (Japanese)
[6]NAVER Matome – 【激おこ】Twitterで増殖中！おこ顔のネタ画像【激おこぷんぷん丸】 (Japanese)
[7]niconico Seiga – Search results for 激おこ六段活用 OR 怒りの六段活用
[8]pixiv – Search results for 激おこ六段活用 OR 怒りの6段活用 OR 激おこプンプン丸 OR 激おこぷんぷん丸
[9]Wikipedia – Ninja JaJaMaru-kun
[10]Wikipedia – Kid Niki: Radical Ninja
[11]Twitter – hiromgogo: ファミコンソフト「激おこぷんぷん丸」1985年発売 http … / 04-12-2013 (Japanese)
[12]Wikipedia – Manabu Namiki
[13]Twitter – manabn: 【リンクミスで聴けなかった方、スミマセン。再ツイート】ファミ … / Posted on 04-12-2013 (Japanese)
[14]Twitter – pskmt: ついカッとなってやった … / Posted on 04-12-2013 (Japanese)
[15]niconico Video – Search results for 激おこぷんぷん丸
[16]Soundcloud – Search results for 激おこ
[17]激おこぷんぷん丸iPhone版 | Who made him angry!? (Japanese)
[18]ITmedia news – あの「激おこぷんぷん丸」がファミコン風ゲームに!? 幻のタイトル画面＆BGMがTwitterに投稿される / 04-12-2013 (Japanese)
[19]Impress INTERNET Watch – 【やじうまWatch】「激おこぷんぷん丸」の二次創作が花盛り。ゲームに加えテーマ曲まで登場 / 04-22-0213 (Japanese)
[20]web R25 – 激おこぷんぷん丸 画像でもブーム / 04-24-2013 (Japanese)
[21]宅宅新聞 – 日本鄉民惡搞《激怒噴噴丸》辣妹用語也能變成遊戲！… / 04-21-2013 (Mandarin Chinese)
[22]niconico Video – 激おこぷんぷん丸をやったこと無い俺が想像で作ってみた / Posted on 04-21-2013