On Sept. 29, KFC's official Spanish-language Twitter account posted a picture of Neon Genesis Evangelion's Asuka Langley Sōryu hanging out with their founder Colonel Sanders with the caption "Feliz jueves."As reported by SoraNews24, the picture shared by KFC showed Colonel Sanders leaning on a fence with genius Eva pilot Asuka. The caption directly references an old meme of a little girl wearing a red dress running toward the viewer, surrounded by Spanish text that reads, "Vengo Corriendo Que Quiero ser La Primera Persona En Desearte un Feliz Jueves!!!" The text translates to: "I'm running over because I want to be the first person to wish you a Happy Thursday!!!" Due to Evangelion's popularity, fans quickly identified the girl in red as Asuka from a dark moment in the anime where she runs toward her mother saying, "Mama, they chose me! I'm an elite pilot now!" before eventually finding her dead from suicide. The startling difference in mood between the cheerful message and dark discovery led to the recognition of the Feliz jueves/Asuka meme, which spawned many iterations, including an Animal Crossing version of the meme.RELATED: Evangelion: Thrice Upon a Time Is Finally Coming to U.S. Theaters

Despite the meme's popularity, particularly in Latin America, the trend never caught on in Japan. SoraNews24 shares that Japanese netizens met the meme with confusion -- and some delight. The news site quoted netizens saying, "Spanish KFC is a big otaku." and "I want a Kentucky-Evangelion collab!"

Fast Food Collaborations Are in Trend

Fast food collaborations aren't uncommon and have grown in popularity over the last few years. Fast food giant McDonald's collaborated with Pokémon for its iconic Happy Meals in 2021 for the franchise's 25th anniversary. The collaboration was such a success that the restaurant needed to limit the number of Happy Meals each customer could purchase in a single transaction. They collaborated again earlier this year, and while it didn't reach the same success as their last partnership, scalpers still managed to sell cards from the set on eBay.

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Neon Genesis Evangelion is a '90s anime directed by Hideaki Anno and produced by Gainax. The story follows protagonist Shinji Ikari, an awkward teenage boy recruited into his father's organization Nerv to pilot a mech-like bio-machine called Evangelion into combat against powerful beings known as "Angels." The series takes place fifteen years after a cataclysmic global event referred to as the "Second Impact" in the fortified city of Tokyo-3. Aside from Shinji, other Evangelion pilots include Rei Ayanami, Asuka Langley Sōryu and, eventually, the enigmatic Kaworu Nagisa.

While there's no KFC x Evangelion collaboration in the works, fans of the series can get their fill of Asuka and her fellow pilots by watching Evangelion 3.0+1.01 Thrice Upon a Time when it hits North American theaters this December.

Source: Twitter, via SoraNews24