Yahoo Lifestyle I Analyzed Megan Thee Stallion’s Discography To Find Every Single Anime Reference She Made In 2024, And They’re Even Better Than I Imagined
If you love Megan Thee Stallion as much as I do, you’ll already know that she’s a huge fan of anime and Japanese pop culture.
The Texas-born rapper and singer has been a self-proclaimed “weeb” – AKA a major anime fan – since she hopped on the scene. In fact, she’s been advocating for nerd rights since high school.
If you haven’t seen it already, in an age-old video that an X user dug up, Meg can be seen complaining about her school canceling “Nerd Day.” “It’s a discrimination to nerds everywhere,” Megan proclaimed. She’s so real.
In 2024, Megan had a huge year. Alongside the Hot Girl Summer tour, the Grammy winner released her self-titled third studio album last summer and dropped the reissue Megan: Act II in October.
And luckily for anime fans, the Hot Girl Coach didn’t shy away from nerding out in so many of her new releases last year.
So, to honor Thee “Otaku Hot Girl” herself, here’s a roundup of every time Megan Thee Stallion referenced anime in her music in 2024.
1. “HISS”
Before Megan dropped, her single “HISS” made headlines after she seemingly dissed others in the industry with her infamous “Megan’s Law” line. But amidst all the drama, you might have missed Megan’s anime reference in the music video and on her socials — specifically, to the 2014 series Tokyo Ghoul.
In the “HISS” music video, Meg is sporting a white hairdo — just like the protagonist of Tokyo Ghoul, Kaneki Ken. Megan herself made the connection to the character on Instagram just before the song’s release.
“Remember when Kaneki really turned into KANEKI … yeah thats how i feel lol,” Megan wrote in an Instagram caption.
In the show, Kaneki was transformed from a human into a ghoul, and given that “HISS” was one of the singles featured on Megan — an album all about rebirth — her reference makes total sense.
The themes of rebirth on Megan can also be seen on another pre-album single: “Cobra.” In the music video, Meg can be seen crawling out of a snake egg — which fans have spotted might be a reference to the serpentine Naruto character Orochimaru. But, as “Cobra” dropped in late 2023, it’s an honorable mention for this list.
And if you’re a fan of Tokyo Ghoul, you might have spotted another subtle reference in the “HISS” music video — Megan’s half-and-half look, which could be a nod to how Kaneki is half-human, half-ghoul.
2. “BOA”
In May 2024, Meg announced “BOA” — the last single before the release of her third album. And fans instantly caught on to the anime references, both in Meg’s outfits and in the title of the song itself.
Following “Cobra” and “HISS,” “BOA” as a title definitely didn’t seem out of place, considering the serpentine themes that Megan had been gravitating toward. But even casual anime fans were able to spot the character that Meg was referencing. In the promotional art, Meg cosplays as Boa Hancock — aka the “Snake Princess” from the 1999 megaseries One Piece.
The tagline in the “BOA” promos reads, "Curse of the serpent woman."
In the music video, Meg sports Boa Hancock’s iconic hime-haircut, along with her snake staff. She even proves lethal to the other characters in the video, which seems pretty in line with Boa Hancock and her ruthless leadership as a Warlord.
And this may be a stretch… but was that an Ace reference?
If you’re a super eagle-eyed fan, you might have noticed that the hole Megan blasts through this guy in the music video looks a little familiar… Spoiler warning for the Marineford arc!
As soon as the Megan tracklist dropped, fans were instantly buzzing about the possibilities for Track 7. But releasing “Otaku Hot Girl” didn’t come without its challenges.
Before the album’s release, Megan told her fans that she had an exciting anime sample for the track. But later, in an Instagram Live before a performance in Dallas, she shared that she had run into some trouble.
“Y’all will never believe what the motherfuck just happened to me!” she exclaimed. “I’m not talking bad because I’m very grateful. Y’all know how I told y’all I got an anime sample on my album? This has probably been the hardest song to try to have on my album — but like I said I’m not complaining ’cause I’m grateful.”
She explained that an unnamed production company had asked her to rerecord the track on the Tuesday before the album’s Friday release. The production company reportedly had originally cleared Megan to use both a sample from the soundtrack as well as character names, but made a last-minute decision and told Megan to either remove the character names from the songs or scrap the sample completely.
“This is a very big production company so for them to even say yes — and I be cussing and shit — like I said, I’m grateful. I’m not complaining,” she clarified. I” really wanted this sample. I really wanted to do it, so I’m doing everything I got to do to keep it. But change the names? Change the names the day before the album out? That was nuts.”
But when the album dropped on June 28, fans realized that “Otaku Hot Girl” had both an anime sample, and was FULL of character names. Thankfully, the production company had rescinded their decision, and fans were able to hear the record as Meg intended.
“Otaku Hot Girl” did NOT disappoint with the references. The main show referenced is 2020 hit Jujutsu Kaisen (JJK) — and not only did Megan sample the soundtrack, she also managed to get the protagonist’s voice actor to hop on the song.
Fun fact: while researching, I noticed that the sample listed online for “Otaku Hot Girl” in most places is actually linked incorrectly! Most sites list this track from the main soundtrack as the source, but after wracking my brain, I realized that Meg hadn’t sampled any of the main soundtracks, but actually, the Season 2 eye-catcher/commercial break jingle.
Itadori Yuuji — JJK’s protagonist — is known by many for his iconic moment when he’s asked about his type in girls. In “Otaku Hot Girl,” dub voice actor Adam McArthur says the memorable line… with a twist. “I like a tall woman with a nice big ass… Like Grammy-winner Megan Thee Stallion.”
In the original, Yuuji declares that he likes tall, curvy girls like Jennifer Lawrence. But as the show began airing in 2020, at the peak of Meg’s rise to stardom, anime fans started joking that a more realistic Yuuji would have been inclined towards someone like Meg instead. And it seems like years later, she listened!
In the song, Meg raps, “Can’t touch me, like Gojo,” and “White wig on, I’m finna go Gojo,” which are perfect references to the show’s most popular character, Gojo Satoru. He’s known for his shock of white hair and his “Infinity” technique that makes him quite literally untouchable.
“Fighting demons in my head like I’m Itadori” and “…bow down when I pop out like Sukuna” are both references to Itadori Yuuji and the spirit he’s possessed by — King of Curses, Ryomen Sukuna — who has a tendency to “pop out” when Yuuji’s not expecting it.
Fans will remember that the show kicks off with Yuuji becoming possessed by Sukuna by eating a cursed item: in this case, a severed finger. Gross. Meg has cosplayed Yuuji/Sukuna before, and she looks incredible in her pink hair and cursed markings.
The song’s final JJK reference sees Meg mentioning the most powerful JJK technique: “cause he wanna get caught in my Domain Expansion.” Usually, you wouldn’t want to be caught in anyone’s Domain Expansion, but for Meg? I wouldn’t mind.
While those are all the JJK references in “Otaku Hot Girl,” the song also sees Megan return to her Naruto roots, with a couple of incredible bars. “I’m not finna argue with a Sasuke avi. Incel mad I’m a weeb and a baddie,” she raps.
While Meg famously loves the 2002 series and the show’s deuteragonist (seen in her 2019 track “Girls In The Hood” when she raps about “looking for a Sasuke”), she makes a great point that Naruto’s rival Sasuke often ends up as a profile picture for some hostile anime fans online. Over the years, Megan has been victim to the same hate that lots of female anime fans are subject to — the misogynistic “fake fan” label that women have to endure. But she’s never shied away from clapping back.
“Couldn’t be like me with a Sasuke Sharingan,” Meg declares, referencing Sasuke’s Sharingan technique of being able to copy any jutsu. And then my personal favorite: “Sexy jutsu, feel like Naruto,” where she references the wild-fox protagonist himself.
And it’s not just in Meg’s album releases that she has referenced her favourite shows; she also made several references in some of her most iconic collabs.
4. “Wanna Be”
In April, Megan hopped on a track with everybody's favourite Memphis born rising star – Glorilla. And Meg's verse featured a bar that had fans talking.
“I’m the female titan, I’m steppin’ on bitches. I'm showin' my titties, I tore up the city.”
Attack On Titan fans rejoice! Megan comparing herself to the show’s “Female Titan” is perfect, given her Stallion stature. In the 2013 classic giant titans eat humans and run rampage, destroying buildings and stepping on unsuspecting characters. They also don’t tend to wear clothes, so Meg is right on the money.
5. “Neva Play”
And the final music reference I spotted in 2024 came from Meg’s collab with BTS’s RM in their track “Neva Play.” As many of the Meg/BTS collabs do, this one went viral on social media, but did you spot the DBZ reference?
“Blue hair like Bulma, big Chi-Chi’s.”
Puns, puns, puns. Fans of Dragon Ball Z know that Bulma and Chi-Chi are two of the show’s most famous ladies, and Meg’s blue hair for the collab definitely reminds DBZ watchers of Bulma’s classic ‘do. And as for Chi-Chi… Go off, queen.
And in the semi-animated music video, Meg fires off Dragon Ball protagonist Goku's signature finishing technique – the Kamehameha.
And those were all the ones I could find! Alongside her lyrics, Meg popped out in 2024 with a number of great cosplays — including Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure characters Joleyne Cujoh in Japan, Trish Una on Halloween, and Bruno Bucciarati when she hosted the Crunchyroll Awards in March.
She also showed out as Gojo at the Crunchyroll Awards, which was perfect as she announced the winner of Anime of the Year — which of course, went to JJK Season 2.
And as well as the JJBA girlies (and Bruno) she made sure to pay homage to Thee Magical Girls as well, exploring Amsterdam dressed as Sailor Moon, as well as strutting around Seoul in a pair of Sailor Moon Jimmy Choos (I’m not jealous at aaaalll).
There’s nothing I enjoy more than seeing Meg authentically nerd out. I love that she never shies away from showing off her interests. I can’t wait to see what 2025 brings for her.
My personal favourite anime reference Meg made this year? Thanks for asking! It’s gotta be “BOA” – the hair, the snakes. She’s so major. LMK yours in the comments below.
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