--- title: "A Marine’s anime-style recruitment posters are going viral" description: "A new Marine Corps recruiting poster of a smiling anime girl wearing dress blues is presenting the service in a popular new way." date: "2022-02-26" modified: "2022-02-26" authors: - name: "David Roza" job_title: "YouTube Writer/Editor" link: "https://taskandpurpose.com/authors/david-roza/" url: "https://taskandpurpose.com/news/marine-anime-recruitment-poster/" categories: - "Around the World" - "Career" - "Field Guide" - "Marine Corps" - "Military Branches" - "News" - "United States" --- # A Marine’s anime-style recruitment posters are going viral ![anime marine poster]() *A Marine Corps recruiter commissioned an anime adaptation of a classic recruiting poster, both as a means to express his own love of anime and to connect with potential recruits. (Photos via Library of Congress / Staff Sgt. Arthur Chou)* When many people think ‘Marine,’ they might imagine a square-jawed buff guy who looks like he eats ammo belts ([and crayons]()) for breakfast. That stereotype may be why a new Marine Corps recruitment poster of a smiling anime girl wearing dress blues is going viral on social media. “Damn, they know their clientele,” wrote one commenter on the popular Facebook page[ Air Force amn/nco/snco,]() where the image was shared on Tuesday, as well as on[ Reddit,]()[ Twitter]() and the news website[ Anime Hunch](). "Is it too late to join the Marines?" wrote another. The image brings a modern twist to a 105-year-old poster titled “U.S. Marine Corps - Service on land and sea.” According to the[ Library of Congress](), the poster was illustrated in 1917 by the artist Sidney Riesenberg. More than a century later, Staff Sgt. Arthur Chou got the idea to make his own mark on classic recruiting posters while sitting in Marine Corps recruiting school. A lifelong anime fan, Chou wanted to combine his passion for the medium with his new career. “I was like, ‘I want to put something on my walls when I get to recruiting,’” Chou told Task & Purpose. ![anime marine poster]() *(Photo via Library of Congress / Staff Sgt. Arthur Chou)* “Service on land” is the fourth anime-style Marine recruiting poster Chou has commissioned. He contacts artists through the freelance business website Fiverr, shares his ideas with them, then lets them get to work. It started with “Ready,” inspired by a[ 1942 poster]() of a Marine standing at parade rest. “I see the old ‘Ready’ poster everywhere,” Chou said. “What if I just made it with a cute anime girl?” “Ready” was followed by a poster for the Marine Corps Band with more anime girls in dress blues and the words “Play with honor” in bold over them. That was followed by “Over the top,” another modern take on a WWI poster showing an anime girl in fatigues, flak jacket and rifle with her hair flowing out beneath her helmet. “I’m not sure if any of the hairstyles are in regs,” said Chou, though he added that his explanation for the girl’s flowing hair in “Over the top” was that her hair-tie had fallen off. ![anime marine poster 2]() *(Photos via Library of Congress / Staff Sgt. Arthur Chou)* The four posters are just one element in a collage of anime paraphernalia framing Chou’s desk. There are decks from the card game Yu-Gi-Oh!, a small statue of[ Yamato](), the human avatar of the eponymous World War II battleship from the game Kantai Collection, and a plush doll of Snubbull, a pink, bulldog-like Pokémon. Snubbull wears a camouflage patrol cap on Chou’s desk, which works well because the Marine Corps mascot is a bulldog named[ Chesty](). Rarely does a potential recruit walk in and not connect with something in Chou’s office. “Literally everybody that comes in and sees my corner they’re like ‘oh this is cool,’” the Marine said. Chou clearly has a talent for connecting with new recruits, known as “poolees” in Marine parlance: his Instagram page is filled with images of young Marines-to-be posing [with Snubbull](), or like characters from the anime [JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure](), or with the [Yu-Gi-Oh!]() cards on his desk. Chou even prints out copies of the posters and gives them to poolees as a reward for graduating boot camp. https://www.instagram.com/p/CaSxHkWPE5j/ But it’s not just future Marines who dig the anime decor, it’s the higher-ups too. Chou said a colonel and a master gunnery sergeant are among those who have bought copies of some of his posters. The payment just covers the charge of printing the posters, said Chou, who clarified that he doesn’t make money off the requests. The interest from so many people shows how “geek culture” has become much[ more mainstream]() than it used to be. “Now geek culture is a huge thing,” Chou said. Now an anime girl who many observers said looks like Violet Evergarden from the eponymous show draws as much interest as the Marine Corps’[ monster-slaying swordsman]() commercial did in the 1990s. She may not look like the Marine in many people’s imagination, but it’s what’s inside that counts. “The whole reason I made these posters was to break the stereotype,” Chou said. “People think we’re all crazy and buff, but we’re people too. All the best Marines I know, they’re not even big, they just have a lot of heart. They’re just trying to become better.” ## What’s hot on Task & Purpose - [**A Marine sued the Navy**]() **over how it handles ‘bad paper’ discharges and won** - **Army 3-star general suspended amid investigation into**[ **toxic climate and racist comments**]() - **The best gear under $25** **to make life in the field suck less, according to soldiers** - **How a rivalry between two WWII vets led to** [**the world’s smallest flyable airplanes**]() - [**Air Force Reserve major helps**]() **to subdue unruly passenger aboard American Airlines flight** **Want to write for Task & Purpose?** [**Click here**]()**. Or check out the latest stories on** [**our homepage.**]() ## Author David Roza writes scripts about military news for the Task & Purpose YouTube channel, and he also writes articles about military pay, benefits, health care, child care, culture, and other personnel topics on a freelance basis. Roza previously covered the Air Force and Space Force for Task & Purpose from 2019 to 2023 and for Air & Space Forces Magazine from 2023 to 2025. In the course of that reporting, he has set off a ‘Hollywood explosion’ with Air Force bomb techs, turned the (unarmed) keys of a nuclear missile bunker, hovered over the Nevada desert on an Air Force rescue helicopter, and got the best sleep of his life on the floor of a C-17 over the central Pacific. Share tips and story ideas with David at [david.roza@teamrecurrent.io]()