Notice Me, Senpai is a meme inspired by anime, manga, and Japanese media. It may have inspired development of the (not yet released) Yandere Simulator video game.
"Senpai," also spelled "sempai," is a Japanese honorific used in certain situations to refer to someone older or more experienced than the speaker. The meme is derived from the popular Japanese media trope of a character becoming infatuated with a character they consider their senpai and having thoughts along these lines. [1]
"I hope senpai notices me" or "I hope senpai will notice me" were widely used on Tumblr. The concept was introduced there on August 8, 2012 when a blog called Has Senpai Noticed Me Yet? was created. [2]
In fandom spaces, this meme sees a variety of different uses. Fans may use it to poke fun at canonical relationships, [3] or to indicate that they find a character hot and would like to be "noticed" by them. [4] Some fans also use this meme when talking about another fan they admire, as a way of indicating that admiration, [5] or when attempting to catch the notice of authors, The Powers that Be, or other people associated with a work in an official capacity. [6]