him
Image: Kate Gray

The Splatoon 3 Plaza is experiencing somewhat of a trend lately, but no one really knows what it is — just that it's him.

The "him" in question is, as the lead image implies, a strange little creature with no name, often just known as "animal" or "the animal", sometimes just as "he". He appears different in everyone's interpretations — sometimes his eyes are closer together or further apart, sometimes he has more of a nose, sometimes his snout extends like an anteater's — but the one thing everyone can seemingly agree upon is that "he" is very important, in some way.

more animal
Image: DDSeudonym

Does this story, or the animal's existence, affect Splatoon in any way? Not at all. But to see a community banding around something that everyone loves, to see an organically-created meme that's adorable and pure in real time... it's almost like we're truly back in the Miiverse days.

The image below is the original animal, posted on November 20th with the simple title "my animal" by a player known as "aple ipod".

my animal
Image: aple ipod

We love the him. Thank you, Splatoon community, for bringing him to us.