in: Cows
Anime Cow
Anime Cow is an image of a cow in an anime art style with the subtitle “Moo” and the translators note “Moo means Moo”. The origins of Anime Cow are unknown, with the earliest known upload being in 2010 by Flickr user calprinicus. The image appears to have been popularised in 2014 by Tumblr user shingeki-no-shinju in a compilation of similar images titled “some of my favourite anime fansubs”, which achieved over 378k notes and was tagged with “#what have I started”. There is reason to believe that the translators note is a parody.
Appearances
In Naruto fanon
Bottom: Shiro using her ninjustu technique, Milk Gun.
Potentially the only appearance Anime Cow has made without her subtitle is on the Naruto Fanon Wiki. Fanon is a portmanteau of the words fan and canon, with this wiki chronicling such fan created characters and concepts as if they existed in the real Naruto canon. An edit of Anime Cow recoloured with dark green blue patches and insignia on her forehead is used to represent Shiro, a ninja cow thought up by user KiriSharingan. Shiro was contracted as a summon by Taikutsuna, another recoloured fan character by the same author, who rewards her efforts with a nice meal of delicious herbs in a well-trimmed lawn. Her ninjutsu technique is Milk Gun, which consists of her shooting a powerful and fast stream of milk from her mouth.
In Cow Review
Anime Cow was featured on Cow Review in season 3 episode 1, breaking a nearly 2 year long hiatus. Josh begins the episode by acknowledging that Anime Cow is an illustration drawn by humans rather than a real cow, and ponders based on the overly informative subtitles that it was made to educate people on the way that cattle communicate, which he calls superior to that of humans. He goes on to explain his reasoning from when he was learning human speech, that he was appalled at the quantity of different dialects in the face of the very simple yet universal language of cattle, stating that “a simple moo conveyed with emotion is all you need”. Josh then moves the topic on to the visual aspect of Anime Cow, which he denounces as flat despite attempts at adding form through shading, a fault that is clearly significant to him, as he feels dirty from looking at “such a poor representation”. Josh rates Anime Cow 4/10, and follows by expressing hope for a better tomorrow.