Interest

Pop Team Epic Namesake Racehorse Sprints to 1st Place

A racehorse with the distinctive name "Hell Shake" has attracted buzz in the Japanese racing world. Hell Shake and his jockey Takayuki Yano blazed to victory at a race at the Kawasaki Racecourse on Monday. The name is, of course, a reference to the "Hellshake Yano" meme from Pop Team Epic.

The Kawasaki Racecourse's official Twitter account went out of its way to congratulate the three-year-old colt and his jockey for their win. Hell Shake left the ground running and led the entire way, leaving no room for his competition even to catch up.

Notably, this was Hell Shake's second consecutive win. He also came first at another race at Kawasaki on February 3.

It is not a coincidence that Hell Shake's jockey has the surname Yano. The Yamaguchi Stable, which raised the horse, actually put out a recruitment notice last year specifically asking for a rider named Yano. Fortunately, that is a common Japanese surname.

Hellshake Yano refers to an iconic skit from the seventh episode of the anime's first season, titled "Hellshake Yano." Popuko talks to Pipimi, but Pipimi zones out. Pipimi daydreams about a band member named Yano whose bandmates suddenly can't attend an imminent concert because the trains stopped. Yano's manager wants to cancel the show, but Yano decides to go on stage and wow the crowd with his guitar skills alone. Unfortunately, Yano breaks a guitar string during his solo. Yano doesn't want to give up, so he uses the five remaining strings and then tunes his guitar to make it work. Yano's manager remarks that Yano's performance is "rocking the heart of hell." Yano acquires the name Hellshake Yano, and the crowd continues to go wild at his performance. Suddenly, Pipimi snaps out of it as Popuko asks her if she's listening. Pipimi apologizes and says, "I was thinking about Hellshake Yano." This caused the phrase "I was thinking about Hellshake Yano" to trend on Twitter.

There was a time when everyone was thinking about Hellshake Yano. It was one of the biggest buzzwords of 2018, and its creators even brought their rock and roll character to the Animelo multi-day concert. Even the Sanrio mascot, Cinnamoroll, made a reference to it on his Twitter account.

After the return of the Pop Team Epic anime last year, two-time Grammy Award Winning artist Thundercat strummed a cutout of the Hellshake Yano guitar, reviving the meme.

[Via Otakomu]