Someone turned Spongebob Squarepants into anime and it’s captivating
When meme culture meets Japanese animation.
Two cultures have collided.
In recent years, Spongebob Squarepants has become a staple for meme-makers online, and now amateur Canadian artist Asif Intesar has meshed the yellow children’s character with another art form – by recreating the show’s intro in the style of Japanese anime.
He made the piece alone over two months, meticulously drawing every frame on paper before scanning them into a computer to colour and animate them – learning how to use the software using online tutorials in the process.
“It was a lot of work because it was a ‘one man team’,” Asif told the Press Association. “However, I will give voice credit to my little brother who says ‘aye aye captain’ in the beginning of the video.
In the video, it is Asif who says, in Japanese, the famous line “are you ready kids? I can’t hear you!” from the children’s TV show.
“Basically I’d write something like ‘Once there lived an ugly barnacle. He was so ugly that everyone died’. This is literally a quote from the Spongebob TV show.
“I would also write random things like ‘I love Attack on Titan’ (which is a popular manga series) and I’d include names of my favourite manga artists like ‘Masashi Kishimoto’ or ‘Hajime Isayama’.”
“When Narmak released his video, it was honestly the coolest meme-inspired video I’ve seen in a while,” said Asif. “The key was to make mine different enough to be its own thing.”
“Spongebob is a show that stands the test of time.”
Asif says he has “a lot” of future anime projects planned.
“I don’t want to make any promises on what anime opening I’m going to do next, but I’d love to do one for John Wick, 100Bullets (comic series), or even some video game series that I enjoy,” he said. “You’ll just have to wait and see.”
If you’d like to keep up with his work, check out his YouTube channel.
