The 'Don't Say You Love the Anime If You Haven't Read the Manga' meme emerged as a satirical take on anime elitists who look down on fans who only watch television adaptations. Originally gaining traction on platforms like Twitter and Reddit around 2016, the meme typically features an image of a famous TV show or movie (labeled the 'anime') paired with a humorously unrelated or low-quality book or real-life counterpart (labeled the 'manga'). It mocks the snobbish 'the book was better' attitude by applying it to absurd contexts, such as calling a live-action movie the anime and a history book the manga, making it a staple for ironic humor within the Otaku community and beyond.