El Shaddai spawns massive Japanese internet meme - peek into the madness

See that face up there? It’s the kind of face only a mother could love – but, as it turns out, millions of Japanese internet geeks adore it as well. This is the gleaming visage of Enoch, hero of Ignition Entertainment’s upcoming action game El Shaddai. It is also the impetus for one of the more bizarre and inexplicably hilarious internet memes to come down the pipes as of late.

Despite being first revealed at E3, El Shaddai didn’t take hold with the Japanese gaming populace until around its appearance at the Tokyo Game show. One of the original E3 trailers began to disseminate around the internet, and from there, things exploded.

Above: The E3 trailer - required viewing if you want to enjoy the meme to its fullest

It didn’t take long for Japanese gamers to realize just how hilariously doofy Enoch’s face looked, and before long, images of Enoch began to spring up across the internet. Here is but a small sample of what Japanese Photoshoppers have made to pay tribute to Enoch:

Above: Not far off, actually

Above: Also fitting, given the source's inherent creepiness

Above: Now we're getting more disconcerting. Imagine this visage on every type of product imaginable

Above: Wait, whaaaaAAAAAAAAGH

Above: Now it shall be forever burned into your retinas, wherever you look

Above: Enough of the creepy stuff – here's a surprisingly rad little custom Enoch figure

There are numerous other images scattered across the interwebs, and someonline collectionshave popped up to store them. A Twibbon Twitter application was also made to allow people to Enoch-ize their Twitter avatar, the popularity of whichabsolutely confoundedthe app’s producers.

But the meme doesn't stop at images. The utterly bizarre E3 trailer has been embraced by the gaming populace, who are keen to pay tribute to it – by remaking and remixing the everloving hell out of it in every conceivable way. Enoch’s quote of “Don’t worry. Everything’s fine.” (“Daijoubu da. Mondai nai.”) has reached near cake-lie proportions across nerdy enclaves in the Japanese-speaking internet world.

Here is but a small sampling of the video craziness the Japanese meme machine has produced to profess its love for Enoch.

Above: An amazingly catchy mix to the theme of famous wrestler Antonio Inoki

Above: Kirby music goes with everything...

Above: ...as does Final Fantasy music

Above: The El Shaddai trailer, as interpreted by Mario...

Above: ...and remade as a 16-bit RPG

Above: Perhaps the most impressive effort yet, a completely live-action, shot by shot re-enactment of the entire trailer

There’s no doubt that Ignition and the team producing the game are elated by the free advertising they’re getting – even if there is a bit of snark and silliness inherent in the meme, it’s still managing to drum up a lot of interest in a title that, honestly, looks pretty damned unique and awesome. The game is still on schedule to be released early 2011 – so don’t worry. Everything’s fine.

Oct 29, 2010

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