Jack-O’ from Guilty Gear sparks new Jack-O Pose social media trend

Publication date of the original Japanese article: 2021-08-27 11:49 (JST)
Translated by. Braden Noyes

The latest addition to the Guilty Gear -Strive- character lineup has been drawing quite a bit of attention recently, but not for the reasons you might think. The character’s name is Jack-O’, and it’s actually her crouching idle animation which has sparked a new trend.

The animation involves her pressing her upper body flat to the ground while spreading her feet wide apart and raising her hips high into the air. The Jack-O Pose, as it’s been dubbed by the international community, has quickly been gaining popularity, with many netizens posting illustrations of other characters performing the pose under the hashtag #jackochallenge. The trend has even managed to find its way back to the game’s country of origin, becoming a hit among Japanese fans as well.

Jack-O’ is an artificially created human designed to prevent the revival of Justice, the God of Destruction. She contains fragments of the soul of Aria, the once love interest of the game’s main protagonist, Sol. Aria’s personality, though hidden deep in her consciousness, has blended with that of Jack-O’s, resulting in a constant state of mental instability.

Jack-O’ made her first appearance in the Guilty Gear series back in August 2015 as part of Guilty Gear Xrd -Revelator- and has now joined Guilty Gear -Strive- as a DLC character. Season Pass holders were given access to Jack-O’ on August 27, 2021 and she was then made available as a stand-alone purchase on August 30, 2021.

However, the majority of the attention Jack-O’ has been attracting seems to be centered around her crouching idle animation. As mentioned earlier, the Jack-O Pose is a rather uncouth pose in which one presses their upper body flat to the ground, then spreads their feet apart while raising their hips high in the air. The hashtag #jackochallenge has been trending among the international community and is showing no signs of slowing down.

What’s more, the pose has transcended the confines of the Guilty Gear series. Now, a quick search for the hashtag reveals a plethora of fan art depicting a wide range of characters in the Jack-O Pose. We do recommend exercising caution if you plan on doing so, however, as the very nature of the pose involves accentuating a person’s sexy bits. But regardless of whether you go looking or not, you may have already come across the suggestive pose on your social media feeds. So in case you were wondering, Jack-O’ is where it all began.

But how exactly did the Jack-O Pose take off in the first place? Well, the Guilty Gear official Twitter account tweeted out Jack-O’s crouching idle animation on August 25, 2021. By August 27, it had over 10,000 likes and had been retweeted 4,200 times. For comparison, the tweet of her taunt animation had 1,400 likes and 540 retweets, and her standing idle animation had 2,900 likes and 850 retweets. Looking at the numbers, we can see the former clearly received more attention.

However, the #jackochallenge hashtag first started appearing in posts as early as August 19, well before the official Twitter account posted the video. So while the official tweet no doubt helped fan the flames, it wasn’t the actual origin of the trend.

Interestingly, the recently popularized pose found in Guilty Gear -Strive- isn’t even a newly implemented animation. Jack-O’s crouching idle animation remains unchanged from when she first appeared in Guilty Gear Xrd -Revelator-. It seems the announcement made on August 16, 2021 that Jack-O’ would be joining the Guilty Gear -Strive- lineup is what drew renewed attention to the old animation and kicked off the #jackochallenge trend.

While the hashtag currently seems to be centered around fan art and illustrations, the #jackochallenge was originally an invitation for netizens to actually attempt the pose themselves. Limiting your search of the hashtag to posts made up until around August 20, 2021 results in either sexy individuals demonstrating their flexibility or confessions from users who wound up straining their backs in the attempt.

Intrigued, this article’s original author confesses she tried the #jackochallenge herself at home. However, with her upper body on the floor and her hips raised, she felt her thigh begin to cramp up as soon as she began to spread her feet apart, forcing her to abandon the attempt. We wouldn’t recommend trying this yourself unless you’re confident in your own flexibility.

Guilty Gear’s Jack-O’, purveyor of precarious poses and progenitor of the #jackochallenge, is available in Guilty Gear -Strive– as part of the Season Pass, or as a separate DLC character for players who may not be interested in purchasing the entire Season Pass.

For any who have taken an interest in Jack-O’ after the recent #jackochallenge boom, perhaps you might also want to take this opportunity to see what the game has to offer. Guilty Gear -Strive- is currently available for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Steam.