When a few members of the ABC suggested the prank on the general community a few weeks back, I was a little unsure of how believable the fake-dorama would be. However, now I know why people are willing to accept storylines like Gundam 00′s. The only bad thing about the joke so far has been this horrible post (and told from a different viewpoint T__T).
Using very small and subtle bits of evidence (and a healthy dose of hearsay), CJ Blackwing got us started with a post about how Owen banned her for not watching True Tears and Clannad. Now, as everybody knows, this is ridiculous because ABC only bans for not watching True Tears. Owen ended up being the perfect target, because he seems to have this legendary reputation as an all-powerful uber-jerk. I wonder how many of the commenters that dogpiled on have actually chatted with Owen or visited his site…
Then came the influx of posts about members quitting. Shirukii even took a snippet and cleverly twisted its meaning, while moe moe Usagijen called for a coup d’etat. The evidence may have been underwhelming (my favorite was Owen’s very authentic quote that “Even female anime bloggers have to be open-minded.”), but the response was overwhelming. A few people got suspicious, and some correctly pointed out that the dorama was mindless. Josh even managed to get something good out of the prank.
Anyway, it was a fairly elaborate prank, and the planning was mostly done by ABC members not named Owen or Sat-chan. Don’t believe everything you read on the internet!
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This post was written by...
Kabitzin – who has written 1940 posts on Sea Slugs! Anime Blog.
One of the founders of Sea Slugs, I handle most of the blog admin tasks while wearing my I AM BOSS shirt. I like my action series well choreographed, and my romance series extra trashy. I also have a soft spot for puns.
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What’s kind of funny as well is that when I saw the comment Owen left on my post about the “fake drama” this morning, I hadn’t yet seen that it was all a joke and that just heightened the idea of him being an ass by seemingly blowing the whole thing off lol.
Though I think his “Happy April Fools” rose the first real red flag and pretty soon I went to Nekonron’s post via his incoming link that I saw on the dashboard and learned it was all a prank. Grrr!!
Talk about seeing something out of context!
I think the thing that made this work, though, is that you had a collection of rather well known and respected bloggers all saying the same thing with no one really coming to Owen’s defense. With the help of CJ’s planted evidence, it created this aura of something being really wrong, but you weren’t sure exactly what or to what extent.
Yeah, we also tried to go to each others blogs and leave inflammatory comments too, so that others would feel comfortable leaving inflammatory comments =D.
It reminds me of Anchorman when Brick doesn’t know what is going on and just starts yelling, “Loud noises!”
It was so gay and now I completely hate the ABC lol.
You don’t pull that kind of shit BEFORE april fool’s day god.
Haha, you are never safe.
I gotta say, the whole joke was pretty forced, not to mention it doesn’t help that I’m pretty sure saturnine would do that, if he could. But all in all, I wasn’t really caring about it much.
So when they revealed the hoax, I just went, “That’s it?”…. but DS managed to actually salvage a whole meme out of the boredom…
BTW, that post of mine, it’s roughly half-true ^^
DS and Kurogane officially turned Owen into a trap. The posts were so bad, that it became hilariously good.
It was like “Damn I can’t bear to read this anymore, but I just can’t stop!”
Wait… I don’t watch True Tears… Am I in trouble?
I’m not moe… orz. Now my goody bunny image has been tainted too~! nyoo
and the beautiful rumors about Owen is both… so WRONG and hilarious at the same time XD
Spreading new rumor: ABA is run by traps.
The various DS posts were very impressive.
I laughed myself nuts for a moment there. In retrospect, I guess it was more believable given how everyone knows my backstory and that I’m not just a random pretty boy of equally random nationality; The ABC isn’t exactly known for its conflict (intervention) either.
Also, Jen:
Now you’re just not being open-minded. You’re a female blogger, you simply have to!
Epic meme is epic.
Thank you kur0 and DS!
Another pranked person hailing over here. xD
I totally fell for it after seeing posts on both Arimasu and Anime Diet, getting so many sites on the joke made it pretty convincing.
Like a raid on the poor inhabitants of the barrens…..no one saw it coming!
Really?
Really?
The vaunted Anime Blogger Collective couldn’t think of any anime to blog and just decided to troll the blogosphere for two weeks?
Owen:
*facepalms*
sexist saturneee~ D:
I do agree that the joke was made of win and awesome, but the addition to it by DS and Kurogane made it that much more special. :3
Jen:
This is all giving me vibes of Haruhi forcing Mikuru in a bunny suit, but I’m going to leave it at that, rofl.
I’m glad I wasn’t tricked by this whole prank (first found out about it when everything was revealed =3), but I was rick rolled by Kurogane and DS (well, technically only Kurogane) (Kurogane vastante dinero! *BA DUM PSSSH*)
*sniff* such touching stories! WHY’D THEY HAVE TO BE LIES!!!
To think, if Owen really is as gorgeous as Rick Astley, MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM MMMMMMMMMM! You can stir me whenever you want with your Betty Crocker F*ck Muscle! XD
WTF. Banned!
Ok, not really. Maybe.
DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH DESPAIR I’D BE IN IF YOU BANNED ME!!!??? *true tears* Like, I wouldn’t be able to comment on your awesome pun-nery!
(and im diggin your Power Level! =3)
(hmmm, I guess I should add a bit more fuel to the fire!) *sings* SIT DOWN GIRL!!! I THINK I LOVE YOU!!! NO!!! GET UP GIRL!!! SHOW ME WHAT YOU CAN DO!!! SHAKE IT SHAKE IT BABY!!! COME ON NOW!!! SHAKE IT SHAKE IT BABY, OOO OOOHHH!!! SHAKE IT SHAKE IT BABY!!! *gets tomatoes thrown at him*
I HAD TO DO IT! YOU LAID THE MICHAEL JACKSON BAIT AND I TOOK IT! XD (btw, I was the tiny few who didn’t know what the ABC stood for
)