To outsiders, and even those in the know, anime has always been home to some rather zany ideas. This includes the wild fighting attacks and antagonists of most shonen manga, as well as the increasingly bizarre nature of most isekai shows. A somewhat esoteric upcoming series is taking this even further, utilizing a recent entertainment trend that doesn't, on paper, seem suited for narrative storytelling.
180-Byou De Kimi no Mimi wo Shiawase ni Dakiru ka, which roughly translates into the comical, Can I Make Your Ears Happy in 180 Seconds?, is an upcoming anime series based around ASMR as a premise. While ASMR might not sound like an interesting story concept, it just goes to show that anime can turn literally anything into a show.
ASMR Meets Anime
ASMR, or autonomous sensory meridian response, is a form of low-grade euphoria and stimuli that trickles down one's spine. This is typically caused by similarly tingling sounds or motions, such as scalp scratching, fire roasting or some other such sensation.
180-kiminomimi is somewhat under wraps at the moment. All we know of the premise is that the heroine of the show shares her love of making ASMR videos with her colleagues. It's unknown if the episodes themselves are only 180 seconds long, or if they merely contain ASMR segments of that length, but the series is described as short, suggesting the former. It's directed by Yoshinobu Kasai, who previously worked on shows such as Demon Lord, Retry!, while Indivision and EKACHI EPILKA are working on the animation, who also produced that show.
Anime Already Has a Strong Link to Viral Audio Trends
This sort of trend might be a weird thing to make an anime about, but the medium does have a connection to these sort of niche, geeky subcultures. After all, there are tons of anime ASMR videos already in existence, soothing people to sleep or meditation by their exaggerated sounds. There's also the iconic anime lofi study girl, whose face dots many soft and smooth song playlists meant to write or study to. This connection to the lofi music genre also bleeds into the wider vaporwave, synthwave and future funk fandoms, which also combine potentially calming sounds with anime such as Sailor Moon.
ASMR as a show concept is still a bit out there, however, and the lack of information about the anime so far only makes it all the more perplexing. Eager viewers, and in this case, listeners, can finally check the series out and doze off to it when it releases in October later this year.