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The story
It’s become a hot topic on 5ch’s Hello! Project board that other groups like AKB48 and Cute (Kyuesuto) are now jumping on the “frozen fried rice” video trend — short clips where the idol just stares silently into the camera — a format said to have originated in Hello! Project. The thread kicked off with speculation that this video format might catch on slowly and then blow up the way “Moremi” did (a past Hello! Project clip that went viral the same slow-burn way). Opinions were split, though, on how much any resulting buzz would actually benefit the original Hello! Project groups, and on whether the trend has already peaked or is still growing. The meme’s name has apparently spread far enough that one poster even mistook “frozen fried rice” (reitou chahan) for “frozen mom” (reitou kaachan).
What people said
Sounds like a bitter Juice=Juice fanboy (lol)
It's INI.
Momona's older brother's group.
It's INI.
But are those guys even K-pop, really?
It'll probably benefit the Hello! Project units, at least.
They get another signature song out of it.
Maybe even a shot at TV.
The trend's already over.
I keep telling you not to post these every single hour, Oyaki Gramps.
It's still pulling over 10k views a day.
Congrats.
Good on them for having that flagship-group awareness and pride.
It's about brand rankings, right? Then it's K-pop.
Though they're always left off the list anyway.
https://kizuna.5ch.io/test/read.cgi/morningcoffee/1791750129/
The same numbers that'd get Juice=Juice ripped apart get Morning Musume praised.
Most people probably never get that far.
Even Kawalab gets told that — 'the song itself is what's going viral, so technically it doesn't even have to be the original artist singing it.'
And you don't have to flash your underwear either.
All you have to do is stare at the camera.
Around February 2026: 'Moremi' starts going viral about half a year after its release.
Around October 2026: 'Sekubo' starts blowing up in idol circles.
Seems like it'd go to Fujimoto Miki or Tanaka Reina.
That's exactly why you never know what'll go viral.
If you can't tell, all you can do is just try it and see.
Honestly it doesn't even need to be fried rice — anything you'd heat up in the microwave would work just as well.
Though at my place we actually heat frozen fried rice in a frying pan anyway.
Just now?
Way too late, lol.
it's the Twitter users captioning it like 'me watching frozen fried rice [heat up].'
Some old-timers get the wrong idea, but it's not like the song itself is going viral either.
Yeah, it's an easy mix-up — 'frozen mom' and 'frozen fried rice' sound alike.
Background and Key Points of the Discussion
The “frozen fried rice video” is an internet-meme nickname for short clips that just show someone staring into the camera. Within the thread, it’s explained that the trend spread rapidly roughly half a year after “Moremi,” widely seen as the format’s originator, first appeared. What made this particular topic worth discussing is that the format has spilled over beyond Hello! Project itself to AKB48, Cute, and even K-pop groups, showing how the trend has taken on a life of its own across group lines. The thread was split over who actually benefits if it goes viral. A pessimistic view — “it won’t do anything for the original group” — coexisted with an optimistic one — “it’ll draw attention to Hello! Project-born units as a whole” — and some pointed out that even within Hello! Project, Morning Musume and Juice=Juice get judged by different standards for the same numbers. It’s also noted that the real appeal isn’t the footage itself but the social-media culture of riffing on viewers’ own reactions to it, which makes it a different animal from a simple “dance video going viral.”
※This article is compiled and summarized from the 5ch (Hello! Project board) thread “AKB and Cute Are Putting Out Frozen Fried Rice Videos Too.”
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