What Is The 'How I Feel In My Hometown' Trend? Why TikTok Users Are Pairing Anime Characters With Their Hometowns Explained
This TikTok trend sees users pair familiar hometown locations with anime and fictional character edits to express how they feel about being back home or stuck in their hometowns. Here's what the ...
Source: Yahoo Malaysia · September 21, 2026 at 6:32 PM · AI-assisted report
Single-sourceWASHINGTON, 22 SEPTEMBER 2026 —
TikTok users have found a new way to express the strange feeling of not quite belonging in the place they grew up, pairing familiar hometown locations with edits of anime and other fictional characters in a new budding trend on the platform.
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The "How I Feel In My Hometown" trend often places characters who feel distinctly removed from their surroundings against locations like rural America, small towns and other familiar local settings, creating an ironic contrast between the character and the place the user calls home. While the feelings behind the posts can be genuine, the trend is largely presented as a joke.
Users may be expressing that they dislike where they live, feel stuck in a place that does not suit them or simply feel like their personality clashes with their surroundings. So, where did the "How I Feel In My Hometown" trend come from, and how is it being used on TikTok? Here's what you need to know.
"How I Feel In My Hometown" is a TikTok trend in which users pair clips or images of familiar locations in their hometown with edits of an anime character or other fictional character. These videos are typically accompanied by the caption or on-screen text "how I feel in my hometown" or "how it feels in my hometown," among other variations.
The use of anime and fictional characters gives the format an intentionally exaggerated and ironic quality. Users often pair characters with personalities or aesthetics that contrast with the locations shown in their videos, particularly when depicting rural or otherwise familiar hometown settings. This contrast allows users to joke about feeling out of place in the communities where they grew up or feeling like they do not belong in the places where they currently live.
The exact origin of the trend is unknown. However, an early example was posted on August 30th, 2026, by TikTok user @xxlastunicorncat, giving us our first viral instance of the meme series. The post featured an edit of the character Marin Kitagawa from My Dress-Up Darling alongside locations in the Pacific Northwest and Midwest, receiving over 317,600 views and 86,100 likes in under three weeks.
As the trend spread throughout September 2026, TikTok users began applying the format to different hometowns and fictional characters, using the contrast between the character and the location to express their own relationship with where they grew up. On September 11th, TikTok user @rosstheboss28 posted a Chainsaw Man edit featuring rural Tennessee, receiving over 395,800 views and 109,400 likes in around one week.
The following day, TikTok user @crux_x5 shared an example featuring Suguru Geto from Jujutsu Kaisen , which received over 434,600 views and 121,900 likes in about six days. The format continued spreading on September 14th, when TikTok user @jiminiemochioppa posted another Jujutsu Kaisen anime edit featuring South Texas. The video received over 598,300 views and 188,100 likes in approximately four days.
On September 15th, TikTok user @maffichuu put another spin on the format with an Alien Stage edit, receiving over 294,700 views and 80,600 likes in approximately three days. For more on the How I Feel In My Hometown TikTok Trend, be sure to check out Know Your Meme's encyclopedia entry.