114514 vs. “electronic ibuprofen”: two very different ways a Japanese meme goes abroad
Two things from Japan made it across the sea.
One is small, round and adorable.
The other is 114514.
Yes, putting them in the same sentence feels like a typo. But if you look at Chinese and Korean internet culture, they make a surprisingly good pair.
First, a fair warning. Chiikawa is a mainstream character brand in both China and South Korea. Yaju Senpai is a big meme in China, but in Korea he is nowhere near Chiikawa’s level and mostly lives in Niconico-style and Inmu-style online circles.
So no, they are not two equally huge hits.
They are, though, a really clear look at how Japanese internet culture travels, and why some of it travels better than others.
1. Bilibili isn’t just “China’s Niconico,” but the two are close relatives
If you’re Japanese and Bilibili reminds you of Niconico, you’re not imagining it.
Chinese comment-over-video culture started on AcFun and early Bilibili, and a lot of it came straight from Niconico, videos and formats included. Bilibili’s own write-ups on the history of Chinese MAD videos say that audio-MAD videos from Niconico showed up there in 2009 and became one of the starting points of the early “guichu” scene.[1]
China then built its own version of guichu (鬼畜). Creators slice up a person’s voice and footage, loop it, cut it to music and wreck the original meaning for laughs. Bilibili reportedly set up an official guichu section in 2015.[2]
So calling today’s Bilibili “the Chinese Niconico” sells it short. It is a huge general video platform with years of its own culture.
Still, the shared DNA is real: scrolling comments, audio-MADs, and the habit of chopping footage into toys.
For Yaju Senpai, that’s perfect soil.
2. People don’t love Yaju Senpai because they relate to him. He’s just great raw material
Do not mix this up with Chiikawa.
Nobody watches Yaju Senpai and thinks:
“This guy has it hard too. I’ll keep going.”
At most you see the iced tea scene and think, “huh, rough day.”
What drives it is not sympathy for a person. It’s that he is absurdly easy to remix.
He has a face.
He has a voice.
He has short lines.
He has a few scenes you can’t forget.
He has the “theory” game, where you can link almost anything back to him.
And the biggest weapon: the number 114514 alone is enough for a joke.
Numbers need no translation.
In Chinese it’s 114514.
In Korean it’s 114514.
In Japanese it’s 114514.
You don’t have to know the source video or the story. Typing the number is a wink that people in the know recognize.
In March 2026, a Bilibili video rounding up Yaju Senpai and 114514 had about 390,000 views, so in China this is not just an old joke from the past.[3]
His overseas career is going great. Nobody asked him, though.
3. In China he sticks around because the meme costs almost nothing to “translate”
Most foreign jokes need a briefing before they land.
Who is this?
What show is it from?
How are these people connected?
Why is that line funny?
That’s usually where the joke dies. Explaining it kills it.
Yaju Senpai gets around most of that.
The face.
The voice.
The repetition.
The “theory.”
The nonsense edit.
Nobody asks you to understand the original story first.
In fact, the further it drifts from where it started, the more people can do with it.
That is a very good fit for Chinese guichu culture, which loves turning source material into something else.
So what went to China was less a person and more a ready-made pack of meme parts.
4. Chiikawa is the opposite: people get it, so it travels
Chiikawa crosses borders the other way around.
Its meaning arrives intact.
The characters are cute.
Their world is pretty harsh.
They work.
They take exams.
Their qualifications decide which jobs they can do.
They get paid for dangerous monster-hunting.
Trying hard doesn’t guarantee success.
They get scared and cry.
And still, the food is good.
They have friends.
Small good things happen.
In China, media reports have described Chiikawa as “电子布洛芬,” literally “electronic ibuprofen.” It doesn’t fix real life, but it takes the edge off a rough day.[4]
It would be lazy to say “young people in China and Korea have it hard, so a dark comic works for them.”
Chiikawa isn’t just dark.
It has unfair things, and it keeps small everyday joys right next to them.
That’s what works.
A story of pure despair is too heavy when you’re already tired.
A story of pure fluff gives grown-ups little to see themselves in.
Chiikawa puts “work, exams, fear, but lunch was great” on one cute face, and that balance is just right.
5. In China, Chiikawa is far past “popular online”
In China, Chiikawa has grown from memes into real stores and big events.
A 2024 pop-up in Shanghai was reported to have sold about 8 million yuan in three days.[5]
In 2026, Shanghai held another large Chiikawa exhibition, with a nine-meter balloon and limited designs built around Shanghai’s alley culture and local food.[6]
That matters.
It isn’t just Japanese merchandise set down in China.
Chiikawa is being placed into Chinese streets, food, photo habits and shopping.
It’s going from an imported character to one people can play with locally.
6. In South Korea, Chiikawa is mainstream. Yaju Senpai is for hardcore netizens
The gap is even clearer in Korea.
Chiikawa also goes by “먼작귀” (Meonjagwi) there, short for “뭔가 작고 귀여운 녀석,” which means roughly “some small, cute thing.”
A Seoul pop-up in December 2024 drew about 30,000 visitors in ten days, and by 2026 there was a permanent store. In September 2026, a Korean shopping and fashion service reported searches for “치이카와” up 522% year over year and “먼작귀” up 282%.[7]
The film that opened in Korea on September 30, 2026 drew 122,293 people on its first day and took the number one spot at the box office. The total after the second day was about 199,000.[8]
That is way past “only a few anime fans know it.”
Yaju Senpai is known in Korea as “야수선배” and 114514, and in 2025 a new “theory” post still appeared on a Niconico-related board.[9]
But the activity we can actually verify sits in a small, hardcore corner of the internet.
Saying Korean Yaju Senpai is as popular as Korean Chiikawa would be exaggerating.
It’s more fun to keep them apart.
7. What they share: one picture plus one line is enough
They look like opposites, but both are strong online for the same reason.
You don’t need a long explanation.
One image is enough.
A few seconds is enough.
One line is enough.
For Yaju Senpai: the face plus 114514.
For Chiikawa: a crying face, Usagi doing something bizarre, or one line from Hachiware.
You don’t have to watch the whole series. Stickers, short clips, screenshots, images and fan art are all ways in.
That makes both a natural fit for social media and video sites.
And in both cases the audience gets to carry the joke on.
With Yaju Senpai, people destroy the meaning and make something new.
With Chiikawa, people add their own meaning: “that’s literally me.”
One gets stronger the more it loses its context. The other gets stronger the more it moves into your own daily life.
That’s the part I find most fun.
8. “East Asia is stressful, so it took off” is too simple
Articles in China and Korea often talk about the strain of work, job hunting, exams and competition for young people. Coverage of Chiikawa’s popularity connects it to that daily-life feeling.[4][7]
But that alone can’t explain a hit.
For a character to spread, it also needs:
a local name that sticks,
a place to watch it,
official streaming,
merchandise you can buy,
pop-ups you can visit,
images and short clips that are easy to make,
and things that are easy to share with friends.
The same goes for Yaju Senpai. “Young people are tired, so 114514 took off” isn’t how it happened.
An editing culture close to Niconico’s came first. Bilibili’s guichu and audio-MAD scene gave it a place to land. Then a nearly translation-free, easy-to-chop meme arrived.
Being tired doesn’t make something go viral. Having the right shape does.
Conclusion: Chiikawa works because its meaning gets through; Yaju Senpai works even when there is no meaning
So the two overseas hits look alike but aren’t.
Chiikawa crosses borders with this idea:
“Trying hard doesn’t always work out. But small happy things are real.”
Yaju Senpai crosses borders with this:
“Skip the explanation. 114514.”
Chiikawa puts a patch on your heart.
Yaju Senpai suddenly throws 114514 at your brain.
Very different treatments.
But both are short, easy to copy and share, and they live fine outside the original work.
That’s why they’re strong.
Both come from Japan, but one was exported because people relate to it, and the other because you can play with it without relating at all.
Total opposites, and yet they sit side by side on the same phone screen.
That’s the internet for you.
References (9)
- Bilibili, history of Touhou fan videos and early Niconico-to-Bilibili audio-MAD circulation bilibili.com
- Bilibili, history of guichu, Niconico/AcFun influence and 2015 guichu-section formation bilibili.com
- Bilibili, March 22, 2026, Yaju Senpai / 114514 retrospective, roughly 390k views at verification bilibili.com
- The Paper / Guangming Daily, August 1, 2024, Chiikawa as “electronic ibuprofen thepaper.cn
- The Paper, Chiikawa Shanghai pop-up sales and the appeal of a world where effort does not always pay off thepaper.cn
- Shanghai Municipal Government, September 21, 2026, CHIIKAWA DAYS Shanghai special exhibition japanese.shanghai.gov.cn
- Maeil Business Newspaper, September 27, 2026, South Korean permanent store, searches and pop-up attendance mk.co.kr
- Korea Economic Daily, October 2, 2026, Chiikawa film opening-day audience and appeal hankyung.com
- DC Inside Niconico minor gallery, July 7, 2025, Korean-language “Yaju Senpai theory” example gall.dcinside.com
