User:Cukie Gherkin/Ankha Zone

Ankha Zone is the colloquial name given to a pornographic animation called Ankha by Ankha depicting the Animal Crossing character Ankha having sex.

Description
Ankha by Ankha, known colloquially as Ankha Zone, is a pornographic Flash animation created by artist and animator ZONE, whose work is typically pornographic and depicting fictional characters. It was originally posted on ZONE's personal website, before it became viral in September 2021. According to ZONE, they posted this video, along with all their other videos, to this site in order to prevent minors from seeing them. The video consists of the Animal Crossing character Ankha, a cat villager, having sex with the player character of Animal Crossing. The video is accompanied by the 1985 song "Camel by Camel" by Sandy Marton. The video takes place in Ankha's home, which is designed to resemble Egyptian objects and designs, including hieroglyphics, a pyramid, and golden coffins. It was made due to the Flash file format, .swf, being blocked by all browsers, with ZONE wanting to make one last animation in that format before it went. ZONE specifically chose Ankha due to how much effort they went through to get Ankha in Animal Crossing: New Horizons on their Twitch.tv stream playing it. She was also also included as tribute to an adult Flash animation depicting Ankha, done by Flash animator minus8.

Popularity
Ankha Zone became a popular meme on TikTok under the hashtag #ankhazone, with partial clips spreading on the site. Links to the full version were also shared on TikTok. Multiple aspect of the video have become a meme, including Ankha's facial expressions, the song "Camel by Camel", and her "rhythmic movements." As of September 2021, there were 17 million views of the hashtag and 22,000 videos tied to the song, some censored while others uncensored. It has also been featured on pornographic platforms, as well as Twitter, where it amassed millions of views. On Pornhub, "Ankha" became a trending search due to Ankha Zone. Polygon writers Nicole Clark and Ana Diaz listed it as one of the best memes of 2021, calling it one of the biggest trends of the year. An edit of the video that censors it by replacing certain scenes with a meme GIF called CatJam also became popular. Kotaku writer Sisi Jiang speculated that the use of "Camel by Camel", as well as the tendency of westerners to exotify Egypt, called "Egyptomania", influenced the popularity of the animation, believing it would not have been as popular if it was a different Animal Crossing character. The video's creator, ZONE, was surprised by how popular it became.

Impact
Due to the popularity of Ankha Zone on TikTok, the song "Camel by Camel" saw an increase of popularity, though writer Ana Valens felt that the song had been ruined for her. The video inspired people to create fan art, fan animations, and cosplays of Ankha. Ankha has also become a popular subject for pornography. Despite the sexual nature of the video, some are nonsexual, choosing instead to serve as a celebration of Ankha or Animal Crossing: New Horizons. The animation has become ZONE's most well-known video. In addition, memes about the popularity of Ankha Zone have gained popularity, including people jokingly commenting about how the video scarred them and praising the song. A trend of videos occurred where the video begins with Ankha Zone, but changes to a person pointing and mocking the viewer. Another trend involved inserting clips to the original video intended to scare the viewer. Dance trends have also emerged from the video, including one where the dancer moves their hips similarly to Ankha. TikTok has made a point of removing videos depicting the animation due to its policy against depictions of sexual activities; however, some videos remain on the platform. Inverse writer Matt Willie discussed how TikTok's algorithm works in such a way that makes it difficult to moderate such content, which was considered extra troublesome due to the platform's large teen population.