And not only that, they’ve got the exact same nickname, too!

With Japan’s otaku community growing ever-larger and more open, there’s also been a steady increase in the number of self-referential anime plotlines and characters with connections to games, animation, and other 2-D hobbies. One of the most recent anime hits to fall into this category is New Game!, which follows a group of young women working as video game creators.

Among the cast is the in-anime company’s character designer, Hifumi Takimoto. Quiet and shy, Hifumi has quickly attracted a fanbase, which has taken to affectionately calling her “Hifumin.”

NG 1

However, Miss Takimoto isn’t the first person, real or fictional, to have that particular nickname bestowed upon her. Hifumin is also what fans call Hifumi Kato, a professional player of the traditional board game shogi (often described as “Japanese chess”). But whereas the anime world’s Hifumi Takimoto is a 20-something woman, real life’s Hifumi Kato is a 76-year-old man.

Given their wildly different demographics, you’d assume that the two are nothing alike. But Shiro Shiratori, author of the series of novels on which anime No-Rin is based, pointed out that the two Hifumins have extremely similar body language with surprising frequency.

Soon enough, other Japanese Twitter users started getting in on the fun, sharing their own side-by-side comparisons of the pair.

What makes all this especially odd is that while Hifumi Kato has been on this earth for more than seven decades, Hifumi Takimoto has only existed in anime form for five episodes. But even though New Game! just premiered at the start of July, fans have already been able to find plenty of scenes of her in poses which match the shogi player’s.

https://twitter.com/nankagun/status/760443218341171200 https://twitter.com/boreford/status/760504192934875138 https://twitter.com/boreford/status/760512841266831360

Add in the fact that both Hifumis are heavily involved in games of some sort, and you’ve got an unexpected case of art inadvertently imitating life.

Source: Jin, Twitter/@nankagun
Insert image: New Game! Official website

Follow Casey on Twitter, where he’s now wondering if there’s a Ranma 1/2 character he shares the same body language with.