What is Himmel Would've Done That?

"The Hero Himmel would've done that" is a catchphrase from the Frieren: Beyond Journey's End anime and manga that X users turned into a meme in June 2024 for joking about actions a heroic character would supposedly take.

Where did Himmel Would've Done That come from?

It went viral on June 5, 2024, after @MangaMoguraRE posted a story about an otaku in Taiwan who helped stop a knife attack on the Taichung Metro and credited Himmel's example.

What does Himmel Would've Done That mean?

In Frieren, characters invoke it as a sincere moral guide, but online it carries ironic weight by applying heroic justification to petty or illegal online acts such as pirating Photoshop.

How do you use Himmel Would've Done That?

A common convention is to post the catchphrase or an edited Frieren panel alongside a mundane, chaotic, or morally questionable action, often involving piracy or social media drama.

Is Himmel Would've Done That still popular?

The format saw its heaviest use in June 2024 across X, with the private-likes fan art alone gathering around 69,000 likes shortly after posting.

Himmel Would've Done That

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Published October 19, 2026

After an otaku helped subdue a knife attacker on Taiwan's Taichung Metro in June 2024 and credited anime hero Himmel's example, X users turned "the Hero Himmel would've done that" into a running joke about mundane and ironic acts of heroism. Within days, the format produced viral tweets claiming Himmel would pirate Photoshop and refuse to hide his likes tab during the X private likes controversy.

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Overview

Himmel is a long-dead hero from Frieren: Beyond Journey's End whose party members often invoke his memory with the phrase "the Hero Himmel would've done that" when choosing to do something kind or selfless1. After a Taiwanese news story put the catchphrase in front of a wider audience, X users applied the same reasoning to small internet-era choices, usually petty, illegal, or chaotic ones. A typical post sets a Frieren manga panel beside a caption claiming Himmel would do something like crack Adobe software or leave his likes publicly visible3.

The tone sits between sincere admiration and shitpost. Some posts play the premise straight with hand-drawn fan art of the character, while others edit the dialogue in official manga panels into jokes about piracy or social media drama5. The humor works because fans recognize the catchphrase appears throughout the story as a serious moral compass, so applying it to morally questionable choices lands as deadpan comedy6.

Gallery

Origin & Background

Platform

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End (source) / X (viral spread)

Date

2024

Characters in the Frieren: Beyond Journey's End manga and anime repeat the line "the Hero Himmel would've done that" to explain their actions after Himmel's death. The phrase gained attention outside the fandom on June 5, 2024, when X account @MangaMoguraRE posted about a Taiwanese otaku who helped stop a knife attacker on the Taichung Metro and told reporters he acted because "Himmel would do the same"1. That post gathered more than 60,000 likes and 12,000 reposts within a week6.

How It Spread

The ironic version of the joke took shape five days later. On June 10, 2024, X user @xyanaid tweeted "Himmel would've pirated Photoshop", collecting roughly 29,000 likes and 4,800 reposts over three days and setting the template for applying the catchphrase to morally dubious choices2. Two days afterward, @ShitpostRock posted a Frieren panel edited to read "you can just pirate Adobe products. It its always morally correct", which drew more than 18,000 likes and 2,600 reposts in a single day3.

Fans then latched the format onto a running X controversy. On June 12, 2024, @tabakko tweeted "Himmel the hero wouldn't hide the likes tab" in response to X making likes private4. Later the same day, @Heartbreak_Juan replied with fan art showing Himmel staring at his liked tweets, which gathered more than 69,000 likes and 13,000 reposts in roughly a day5.

Together, the piracy and private-likes posts moved the catchphrase from earnest news anecdote into a repeatable shitpost format, with Frieren fans producing new edits that applied Himmel's moral authority to petty online behaviour6.

Timeline

2024-06-05

@MangaMoguraRE posts on X about a Taichung Metro otaku who helped stop a knife attack and said he acted because "Himmel would do the same", gathering over 60,000 likes in a week[1].

2024-06-10

@xyanaid tweets "Himmel would've pirated Photoshop", starting the ironic version of the format and collecting around 29,000 likes[2].

2024-06-12

@ShitpostRock edits a Frieren panel into a joke about pirating Adobe products, drawing more than 18,000 likes in a day[3].

2024-06-12

@tabakko ties the catchphrase to the X private likes controversy with "Himmel the hero wouldn't hide the likes tab"[4].

2024-06-12

@Heartbreak_Juan posts fan art of Himmel viewing his liked tweets, gathering roughly 69,000 likes and 13,000 reposts within a day[5].

Himmel Would've Done That

Overview

Gallery

Origin & Background

How It Spread

Frequently Asked Questions

References (6)