Area 51 Raid Prompts Official Military Lessons on Naruto Running

The anime fandom has been in the midst of a major wave of hilarious Internet trolling breaking its way into the real world as a major Facebook event page went viral asking for the help of people to storm the gates of Area 51, the military base that is supposedly home to aliens and other strange mysteries. With nearly 2 million people showing their support for the idea, one particular element has hilariously stood out among the rest of the details.

With the idea that running like Naruto would help these prospective people make their way into Area 51, it turns out that the United States military is taking this idea pretty seriously by giving official lessons based on the popular meme.

As shared by PerturbedPython on Reddit, an actual briefing for the Air Force included a lesson explaining Naruto running to their troops and described it as such, “The act of running like Japanese Anime Character Naruto Uzumaki, in which a person runs very fast with their torso forward, and arms back.” This meme might have gone a bit farther than anime fans had ever expected, but what seems to be the most surprising thing is that the “Naruto running” meme has gotten a second wind in the public.

As one of the oldest in-jokes among fans of Masashi Kishimoto’s series, Naruto inspired many fans to run with their arms behind their backs. Though it’s more of a stylistic choice in the series, and doesn’t offer an tangible improvements to running speed or aerodynamics, it never stopped fans from recreating the admittedly ridiculous looking run for themselves.

This Naruto has made its way into the Area 51 meme as some fans suggested that it would make them faster, and give them the ability to dodge bullets, and although it’s a major joke, the U.S. government is seemingly covering their bases and getting up to date with the joke. It’s still pretty funny, however.

Originally created by Masashi Kishimoto for Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump in 1999, Naruto follows a young ninja, with a sealed demon within him, that wishes to become the leader of his home village. The series ran for 700 chapters overall, and was adapted into an anime series by Studio Pierrot and Aniplex that ran from 2002 to 2017. The series was popular enough to warrant a sequel, Boruto: Naruto Next Generations which is set several years after the events of the original Naruto story and features the children of many of its key characters such as Naruto and Hinata.