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Last week, rapper Megan Thee Stallion, creator of Hot Girl Summer and H-Town legend, dropped a new track that has some of her fans jumping for joy.
“Otaku Hot Girl,” off her new album MEGAN, makes several references to Jujutsu Kaisen and other anime. The intro to the song features Adam McArthur, the voice actor for Yuji Itadori in the English dub, saying he likes “a tall woman with a nice big ass, just sayin, like Grammy winner Megan Thee Stallion.”
In the series, Yuji says his type is like Jennifer Lawrence, and many fans suggested he would have a crush on Megan too, leading McArthur to post a recording saying Megan’s name instead of Lawrence’s. Megan’s connection to the anime has since become canon among fans.
But “Otaku Hot Girl” isn’t just a reference to a meme. Megan is a long-time anime fan, and often incorporates her love for the art form into her music and public persona. She’s done anime cosplay on numerous occasions and even appeared at the Crunchyroll Awards (where she presented Anime of the Year to Jujutsu Kaisen, in fact).
While it’s not surprising that Megan released a song centered on anime, fans were nonetheless overjoyed at the overt shoutout.
“She is so insane for this” one fan wrote on X. “IM GONNA THROW UP” wrote another. Many were excited by the content it provides for the Jujutsu Kaisen fandom, noting that the character Gojo now has his own theme song and celebrating the fan edits that have already started appearing. Thrilled by the collision of these two worlds, one fan wrote “yuji would be doing backflips off the wall if he knew he got to be the intro for megan thee stallions song.”
Some of the most elated reactions from listeners came from Black women who count themselves as both fans of Megan’s music and of anime. These fans felt seen by Megan’s proclamation that she’s “a weeb and a baddie.” (A weeb is someone who loves anime and Japanese culture.)
“Shout to all the BLACK Otaku Girls this one for us fr fr,” one fan wrote. “Otaku Hot Girl is for the girls who like anime who was getting charged up and quizzed by anime boys,” another fan wrote, posting a picture of Zendaya.
Though Megan has always carved her own path in the industry, the connection between anime and hip-hop isn’t a new one. In Nylon, Jennifer Li writes about rappers’ love of anime, suggesting that anime tells “underdog stories about rising from humble origins to meet greatness,” a narrative often found in hip-hop. The social and political milieu of the ‘90s coupled with the global circulation of anime during the decade laid the foundation for future hip-hop stars to become anime fans.
And yet, Black women have often been left out of the conversation. Many Black women have reported receiving racist comments when they do cosplay and Black women fans are often told—either explicitly or implicitly—that they don’t belong in these fan spaces. Though Black anime fans have always existed, so has racism and misogyny in these communities.
Considering this broader context, “Otaku Hot Girl” takes on added meaning. Though Megan has been proving her anime cred for years, men online still accuse her of being a fake fan and a clout-chaser. She doesn’t need to prove anything to anyone, but this song should silence any naysayers.
Megan’s also doing a lot to update our collective image of anime fans and so-called nerds, demonstrating that you can be an anime fan and a “hottie,” as Megan calls her listeners. No doubt one of the most influential and visible anime lovers in recent years, she’s on the forefront of the movement to make anime cool again. For fans of Megan’s music and of anime, this crossover is a match made in heaven.
Why it matters
As we’ve discussed before in this column, fans love it when their faves are authentically themselves, and that’s part of the reason why the reaction to “Otaku Hot Girl” has been so positive.
For Megan’s Black women fans, this display of authenticity is especially heartening. She’s created a universe where being a Black girl nerd is not only acceptable but aspirational, and the hotties are standing at attention.
