At this point in popular meme culture, everyone has seen or at least heard of the famous “Is this a pigeon?” meme, but very few know of its anime-based origins in a decades-old show titled The Brave Fighter of Sun Fighbird!
Entering into public consciousness circa 2011 (and then again in 2018), “Is this a pigeon?” has been used for years as a way to poke fun at or call out people that aren’t exactly well-equipped for a particular situation they have found themselves in but push through anyway. With the meme’s visual of a character from The Brave Fighter of Sun Fighbird happily (but wrongly) pointing out a butterfly as a pigeon, this meme is made unique by mixing up the original image with different text or photoshopped characters, making “Is this a pigeon?” one of the most customizable memes out there.
A meme-worthy moment taken from season 1, episode 3 of the 1991 anime, The Brave Fighter of Sun Fighbird, written by Yasushi Hirano and directed by Katsuyoshi Yatabe, this series is part of the “Brave” Japanese toy and anime franchise that ran from 1990-1998 and is also considered to be a part of the “mecha” — or robot — genre of shows. Similar enough to the Transformers franchise in that the heroes of Fighbird — or the Universe Security Force — are essentially energy spirits that come to Earth and inhabit humanoid android bodies or rescue-type vehicles (like ambulances, fire trucks, etc.) that have the ability to transform, Fighbird follows the titular character and his human/android alias, Yutaro Katori, as he tries to protect and learn more about the world he now calls home.
“Is This a Pigeon?”‘s The Brave Fighter of Sun Fighbird Origins
Disguised as Yutaro Katori in the meme and episode in question, Fighbird is having a conversation with a character named Inspector Satsuda when he utters this now iconic line. Doing his due diligence as a new citizen of Earth, Yutaro takes it upon himself to study nature and the creatures in it, misidentifying a passing butterfly as a pigeon, and solidifying Yutaro as a proud member of the internet’s meme lexicon in the process. Originally thought to be a bad translation when the episode came stateside, the entire point of this scene and the eventual meme was to show that while Yutaro is doing his best to fit in a world he knows little about, he’s still doing so with a sense of conviction, aplomb, and a type of utter confusion that translates well into real life moments that have turned this anime hero into a hilarious meme culture mainstay.
So while most memes are often pulled from different shows, movies, and other pieces of pop culture to make us laugh or prove a point, the fact that “Is this a pigeon?” has roots in the world of anime is a fun nerd fact to know. “Is this a pigeon?” is still one of the best memes around, so fans should check out The Brave Fighter of Sun Fighbird to see where it all began!