Oto Wakka

About

Oto Wakka (Japanese: おとわっか) is a 2022 MAD video featuring Wakka from the Japanese video game Final Fantasy X. In May 2022, a very dirty phrase from the video, "Tidus's Dick Feels So Good!" (ティーダのチンポ気持ちよすぎだろ!), became a buzzword among Japanese internet users and inspired many user creations while getting criticized as homophobic and shut down by Square Enix, the game's developer.

Origin

According to Wikipedia^[1], Nico Nico Pedia^[2], and Pixiv Encyclopedia^[3], Niconico user Rug Mat (ラグマット) posted "[Collab] Oto-Wakka" (【合作】おとわっか), to Niconico^[4] and YouTube^[5] on May 7th, 2022, which was a collaborative MAD video utilizing a Niconico medley "Oto-Med" (おとめっど)^[6] composed by Niconico/YouTube user Ryun in 2019. Also, it was an updated version of their video "Collab "Final Fantasy X " (合作『Final Fantasy X』)^[7] posted and taken down due to violating the community guidelines for adult content on the 4th. The creators featured Wakka and his online persona as gay, described below. The key section begins at 1:57, where Wakka sings a parody of "Connect", the opening theme song for the anime Puella Magi Madoka Magica with Utau and the human-powered Vocaloid technique to praise the game's protagonist, Tidus's D.

Transcript & Translation (The Connect part)

Tida no Chimpo Kimochi Yosugi Daro! Chimpo Kimochi Yosugi Daro!
Tidus's dick feels so good! (His) dick feels so good!

This phrase is also a pre-existing online joke and a parody of a copy in an official banner ad for Dissidia Final Fantasy NT^[8], "Tidus's Combo Feels So Good!" (ティーダのコンボ、気持ちよすぎだろ!, Tida no Combo, Kimochi Yosugi Daro!), displayed between late 2017 and early 2018 (shown below).

Backgrounds & Precursors

According to research posted on Hatena Anonymous Diary in May 2022^[9], Futaba Channel (2chan) users have treated Wakka as disgusting, dirty, or sometimes gay in their photo collages and copypastas since 2016. In particular, 2chan/YouTube user Ebon Ju^[10] is famous for contributing to Wakka's dirty image through his nonsensical videos after 2017 and is often called the honorific title "Master Ebon Ju" (Ebon Ju老師). Those 2chan users' activities since the 2010s have affected Wakka's online reputation and parody creations for him, like this MAD video, beyond the anonymous imageboard community in later years.

Spread

Just after the first collab MAD posted on the 4th, the phrase "Tidus's Dick Feels So Good!" went viral on Twitter via video tweets clipping the "Connect" part from the video. These inspired parodies and covers. Its view counts reached nearly 1 million on May 25th when Automaton published an article about the video's rapid-growing popularity on the web.^[12]

On June 5th when Japanese gossip news media Maijitsu Entertainment published an article that picked up Oto Wakka and introduced SNS users' voices criticizing it was discriminating against gay people while citing Inmu, or A Midsummer Night's Lewd Dream, as Niconico's representative toxic culture when it came to mocking at sexual minorities.^[13] The following day, Square Enix, the game's developer, took down Oto Wakka on Niconico and its several reprints on YouTube on the grounds of copyright infringement. Several online news media reported the video's deletion, some of which followed Maijitsu's critical tone.^[14][15][16] Automaton also updated its article and apologized on the 7th.^[12] The original Oto Wakka video earned over 3.1 million views and 170k comments, including many Shift-JIS arts, until the deletion. Its deletion led to internet users continuing to post reprints of the MAD video or its clips on Niconico^[17], YouTube^[18], and TikTok.^[19]

Aftermath

On May 10th, Sho Watanabe (渡辺翔)^[20], the songwriter for "Connect", posted a tweet that seemingly mentioned the Oto Wakka parodies using his song. He also reacted to a video tweet reproducing Oto Wakka by popular online pianist Yuyu-Uta^[21] on June 1st.^[22]

ここ最近自分をエゴサすると替え歌がやたらヒットするんだけどTwitterは今日も平和だなって微笑ましくなる。

— 渡辺翔　sho watanabe (@watanabesho) May 10, 2022

Recently, I've found many parody songs through egosearching. They make me smile and feel Twitter is peaceful today, as always.

On June 4th, Yorozoo News, an online section in the Japanese sports newspaper Daily Sports, reported that Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster on Steam jumped to the 2nd rank in the sales chart recently and mentioned the Oto Wakka phenomenon boosted it.^[23]

The "Top 100 Internet Buzzwords 2022" award, held by Niconico and Pixiv between November and December, nominated the word "Final Fantasy", despite the franchise bringing no notable topics that year officially, and ranked 25th in the general and 3rd in the Niconico section.^[24] Japanese gossip news site Getnews awarded "Oto Wakka" the silver and the gold prize in their "Internet Buzzword Award" for the first half of 2022^[25] and the entire year^[26], respectively. In the fan poll for the 35th anniversary of the Final Fantasy series held by Niconico in December, Wakka ranked 2nd in the character section.^[27] English game news media The Gamer reported popularity of Oto Wakka affected this result.^[28]

On December 9th, the official Twitter account of Japan Self-defence Force Osaka Provincial Cooperation Office praised the curry rice of Japan Maritime Self-defence Force, which has a custom of serving curry rice every Friday during voyages, with an illustration which caption could read, "JMSDF's curry tastes so good!" (海自のカレー美味しすぎだろ!) (shown below). News outlet by Getnews assumed the official body's tweet got inspiration from Oto Wakka.^[29]

ＴＧＩＦ！金曜カレーの日！また海自でカレー食べたい！（Ｓ）#自衛隊 #大阪地本 #カレー pic.twitter.com/aFnLo8qNLY

— 自衛隊大阪地方協力本部＠公式 (@osaka_pco) December 9, 2022

At RTA in Japan 2022 Winter, an online charity speedrunning event streamed on Twitch on December 31st, 2022, runners playing Final Fantasy X HD Remaster cautioned viewers, "Please stop comments insulting specific characters or being dirty. We don't explain in detail, though." Chat moderators then blocked some phrases in Oto Wakka and banned people who tried, according to comments in the archived video.^[30]

Related Memes

On Twitter, users posted lots of pictures parodying the Connect scene made by "Tidus's Dick Feels So Good! Generator" (ティーダのチンポ気持ちよすぎだろ！ジェネレーター)^[34], created by Torishima (@izutorishima)^[35] on June 6th.^[36]

Puni Puni Wakka-san

Puni Puni Wakka-san (ぷにぷにワッカさん)^[37] refers to a series of MAD videos derived from the Loki part in Oto Wakka. The phrase "Puni Puni Wakka" (lit. "Chubby Wakka") was originally a remark by Rikku in Eternal Calm^[38], the cinematic section first included in a bonus DVD for Final Fantasy 10 International released in 2002. In Oto Wakka, the phrase was shouted by Marika Matsumoto^[39], the voice actor for Rikku, toward to Kazuya Nakai^[40], the actor for Wakka, in a supplemented video included with the April 2004 issue of the monthly video game magazine Famitsu Wave DVD. On May 25th, 2022, Niconico user Kagami Mochi (鏡餅) uploaded a video titled "MOTHER", which featured this phrase and "Pollyanna," the audio track from EarthBound/Mother2 (shown below). This video earned over a half-million views and a hundred following works by the end of that year, making the meme a popular subgenre in the Oto Wakka phenomenon.^[41]

Wakkaspeak

Wakkaspeak (ワッカ構文)^[42] refers to a form of copypasta derived from Yamada Temple. This text made of cut-and-pasting Wakka's speeches in the video game became a template for expressing anger or complaining jokingly on social networking services and online communities.

Transcript:
Nande Jiin ni Kikai ga Andayo
Oshie wa Dounatten'da Oshie wa
Omaera Kinjirareta Kikai wo Heiki de Tukatten' Ja Nee Ka
Wakatten' No Ka?
"Sin" ga Umareta no wa Ningen ga Kikai ni Amaeta Sei Daro Ga
Kane Ton'no Ka Yo!?
Kusottare!

Translation:
Why there is a machina in the temple?
The teachings! What about the teachings!?
You use the forbidden machina! You know what that means? Sin was born because people used machina!
We gotta pay!?
Fuck off!

"You're The One Having The Baby, Wakka-san!"

"You're The One Having The Baby, Wakka-san!" (ワッカさんが産むんだよ)^[43] is a phrase from a nonsensical text in Ebon Ju's 2021 video^[44], made from editing "You're not even the one having the baby!" (ワッカさんが産むわけじゃないんだよ), which Yuna said to Wakka in Eternal Calm. This phrase spread widely after being featured in the last part of Oto Wakka by the human-powered Vocaloid technique. It made Ebno Ju's script turn into a sort of creepypasta that occasionally received text-to-speech videos on Niconico^[45] and gave Yuna another online persona trying to force Wakka to have Tidus's baby, like a crazy Fujoshi.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References