About

Raikou of the Dragons is a fake anime series created by TikToker @ianburp to troll "posers" who pretend to like anime through memes and posts that gaslight them into believing the series exists (similar to Goncharov or Zepotha). The TikToker made a video announcing their plan on July 16th, 2025, gaining over 15 million views and inspiring others to make posts discussing the anime as if it's real. Memes about Raikou of the Dragons garnered viral spread outside of TikTok, inspiring fan art, content and fanmade lore, with a significant amount of content focusing on the fictional character Mizuki.

Origin

On July 16th, 2025, TikToker^[1] @ianburp posted a video in which, over a text-to-speech voice, they explain that they want to start a fandom for a fake anime series called Raikou of the Dragons. They explain that the main character's name is Sumiko Kuronami and encourage people to tell their friends about the anime and see if they claim to have watched it, therefore proving themselves to be posers. They also encourage people to make up lore and posts about the anime. The video gained over 15 million views in a week.

Spread

Posts about Raikou of the Dragons started going viral over the following days in mid-to-late July 2025, including some that use AI art to imagine scenes from the series.

On July 17th, 2025, TikToker^[2] @raikou.of.thedragons posted an AI-generated video of an anime clip based on the series, garnering over 2.2 million views in six days.

On the same day, TikToker^[3] @nunii_cos posted a video where she shows off several cosplay looks based on the characters from the fake anime series, garnering over 4.9 million views in six days.

Also on July 17th, X^[4] user @WwispArt posted a piece of fan art depicting Mizuki, said to be a character from the series, and a pink dragon, writing, "Seriously though, I can’t with her! She was done so dirty, iykyk 😭😭," garnering over 320 likes in six days.

On July 18th, TikToker^[5] @misterym4chine posted an AI-generated edit of scenes relating to Raikou of the Dragons, garnering over 1.8 million views in five days. The edit specifically focuses on Mizuki.

On July 21st, 2025, YouTuber^[6] Senpapi Gabe posted a video of himself explaining the fan lore behind Raikou of the Dragons, garnering over 250,000 views in two days. The video also gained over 699,000 views on TikTok^[7] in the same span of time.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References