Sacabambaspis
About
Sacabambaspis is an extinct prehistoric jawless fish living in the Ordovician period.[1] In August 2022, a reconstructed model of the animal displayed at The Natural History Museum of Helsinki, Finland[2] drew attention on Twitter due to its poor quality, inspiring fan art from Japanese internet users after June 2023.
Origin
This reconstructed model of Sacabambaspis in the Finnish museum began spreading on Twitter when user Kat Turk (@kat_scans)[13] posted images of the model on August 30th, 2022 (shown below). This tweet earned over 18k retweets and 111k likes in nearly a year.
Spread
In the spring of 2023, some Japanese internet users around Futaba Channel (2chan) noticed the allure of this Sacabambaspis model through @kat_scans' tweet. Suehirogari (スエヒロガリ), a doujin circle creating goods for entities getting popular on 2chan since the 2000s, released a figure of the model in March (shown below, left).[3] Sacabambaspis got featured at the Futaba School Festival (ふたば学園祭), an annual convention dedicated to the imageboard community held in early May, where participants left illustrations of the animal on the message board or cosplayed it (below, center). Besides, an online artist Basupisu (ばすぴす, @baspis_snt), released stickers of the animal for the short-messaging app LINE on May 9th[4] and started merchandising the animal on SUZURI, a Japanese e-commerce site for individuals, at the beginning of the following month (below, right).[5]
On June 8th, Epinesis, a Japanese blog for natural science, cited @kat_scans' tweet and introduced this reconstruction with the title "It's a hot topic that a reconstructed model of Sakavambaspis displayed at the Museum of Natural History in Helsinki, Finland looks so poor" on its website[6] and Twitter (shown below). This tweet earned over 83k retweets and 300k likes in its first week. Inspired by those pictures, many online artists started posting cute fan art for the animal on Twitter,[7] Pixiv,[8] and Nico Nico Seiga[9] under the hashtag #Sacabambaspis (#サカバンバスピス). This online trend of the distinct animal received its article on Togetter, a tweet-curating service, on the 11th.[10] Japanese online media ITmedia Netlab and KAI-YOU covered it on the 12th.[11][12]
フィンランドのヘルシンキ自然史博物館に展示されているサカバンバスピスの模型があまりに情けない姿をしていると話題に。博物館を訪れた1人は｢こいつを見つけて泣きそうになった｣とコメントしています。サカバンバスピスは両目が正面にあり、口は常に開いたままになっていて泳ぎが下手だったそう。 pic.twitter.com/qQQI1cJdRf
— エピネシス (@epinesis) June 8, 2023
The Epinesis tweet helped reintroduce the character to Western memers. On June 13th, 2023, user @sketchy_raptor[14] posted a meme with the character, gaining over 1,200 retweets and 5,600 likes in one day (shown below, left). On June 10th, user @_kerjacomot[15] posted art of the character that gained over 70 retweets and 170 likes in four days (shown below, right).
Various Examples
Search Interest
External References
[1] Wikipedia – Sacabambaspis
[2] Wikipedia – Natural History Museum of Helsinki
[4] LINE STORE – サカバンバスピスのいる生活 / 05-09-2023
[5] SUZURI – サカバンバスピスのいる生活 / 06-03-2023
[6] Epinesis – ヘルシンキ自然史博物館のサカバンバスピスの復元模型があまりに情けない姿をしていると話題に / 06-08-2023 (Japanese)
[9] Nico Nico Seiga – サカバンバスピス
[10] Togetter – 絶滅動物『サカバンバスピス』の模型の虚無顔が可愛いと評判になり、Twitterでファンアートやファングッズが続々と作られ始める / 06-11-2023 (Japanese)
[11] ITmedia NetLab – 古生代魚「サカバンバスピス」がTwitterで突如流行 → “憎めない愛らしさ”に、続々とファンアートが登場し盛り上がる / 06-12-2023 (Japanese)
[12] KAI-YOU.net – 「サカバンバスピス」知ってる？ クリっとした目が可愛い、Twitterで話題の魚 / 06-12-2023 (Japanese)
[14] Twitter – sketchy_raptor
[15] Twitter – _kerjacomot
