In what might be the most internet thing to happen in 2025, a video pairing the catastrophic U.S. stock market crash with an anime girl dancing joyfully to upbeat J-pop is making serious waves online. With over a million views and counting, the viral meme features Kaguya-sama: Love is War’s Chika Fujiwara busting her legendary moves while headlines about economic chaos flash in the background. And strangely enough? It works.
Because nothing says “economic despair” quite like a finger-wagging anime secretary spinning in a pastel student council room.
The Meme That Made Tariffs Entertaining
#StockMarketCrash pic.twitter.com/XMaEvpzmqi
— ☠️ Lilith Lovett ☠️ same @ on 💙☁️🦋 (@LilithLovett) April 4, 2025
Let’s back up a bit. The origin of this unexpected mashup is rooted in some very real global tension. In April 2025, President Donald Trump reintroduced sweeping tariffs on imported goods, slapping a 10% base duty across the board. That was just the beginning.
China got hit with a staggering 34% tariff, and other major players like the EU and Japan saw tariffs climb over 20%. These weren’t just numbers on a spreadsheet. The global economy felt the sting almost immediately. Countries retaliated with their own tariffs, leading to what one podcast called “a tariff-off.”
The result? Financial chaos. The S&P 500 dropped 7%, the NASDAQ plummeted over 20% (officially entering bear market territory), and the Dow dipped by 4%. Trillions in market value vanished in days. Supply chains buckled, inflation fears soared, and major financial institutions like JP Morgan started murmuring the r-word: recession.
It was grim. So of course, the internet did what the internet does best: responded with irony.
So what does an anime dance have to do with a stock market crash? Everything, and nothing. The brilliance of the meme is the sheer dissonance. On one side, you’ve got charts nosediving, and real people losing savings. On the other, you’ve got Chika wagging her finger and spinning with joy as if the Dow dropping 1,000 points were just another Tuesday.
It’s absurd. It’s jarring. And it’s funny because it shouldn’t be.
Who Is Chika Fujiwara?
For those not initiated into anime culture, Chika Fujiwara is a whirlwind of pink-haired energy from Kaguya-sama: Love is War, a romantic comedy that’s equal parts genius mind games and ridiculous hijinks. While the two main characters engage in psychological warfare over who will confess their feelings first, Chika floats through the chaos like a bubbly tornado of distraction.
She became an internet sensation thanks to a single ending sequence from the anime’s third episode. The Chika Dance, officially titled “Chikatto Chika Chika,” isn’t even part of the show’s regular credits. It’s a one-off, rotoscoped performance animated by Naoya Nakayama and voiced by Konomi Kohara. It’s bouncy, adorable, and animated with a level of fluidity that rivals full-blown music videos.
