Two-panel meme collage of anime characters Madoka and Denji edited into real hometown street and gas station scenes with 'how i feel in my hometown' captions.

How I Feel In My Hometown

2026video memetrending

Published September 23, 2026

How I Feel In My Hometown is a TikTok trend from late August 2026 where creators pair footage of familiar local spots with anime character edits to convey what being back home feels like. The format spread quickly across the app in September 2026 and became one of the season's go-to templates for hometown-mood posts.

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Overview

How I Feel In My Hometown, also called How It Feels In My Hometown, is a TikTok video format where users cut between clips or photos of local places from where they grew up and edits of anime or other fictional characters, all captioned with some version of the line 'how I feel in my hometown'1. The pairing is meant to translate a specific vibe, awkwardness, boredom, nostalgia, feeling out of step with the town, into a character whose energy fits that mood.

The format leans heavily on anime edits, with characters like Marin Kitagawa from My Dress-Up Darling, Chainsaw Man's cast and Jujutsu Kaisen's Suguru Geto showing up in some of the most-viewed entries23. Creators tend to shoot the town footage themselves, empty gas stations, quiet main streets, wooded backroads, which gives each post a first-person, diaristic feel rather than a polished skit.

Origin & Background

Platform
TikTok
Date
2026

The exact originator of How I Feel In My Hometown is not identified, but an early example was posted on August 30th, 2026 by TikTok user @xxlastunicorncat, who paired the format with an edit of Marin Kitagawa from My Dress-Up Darling over shots of the Pacific Northwest and Midwest4. The video pulled over 317,600 views and 86,100 likes in under three weeks, according to Know Your Meme1.

No confirmed creator of the format has surfaced, and @xxlastunicorncat is documented as an early participant rather than the inventor of the trend1.

How It Spread

Through September 2026, the format picked up steam as anime-edit accounts on TikTok rolled out their own hometown versions. On September 11th, 2026, @rosstheboss28 posted a Chainsaw Man edit set in rural Tennessee that pulled over 395,800 views and 109,400 likes within about a week2.

The next day, September 12th, @crux_x5 shared a Suguru Geto edit from Jujutsu Kaisen that climbed past 434,600 views and 121,900 likes in roughly six days3. On September 14th, TikTok user @jiminiemochioppa posted a Jujutsu Kaisen hometown edit featuring South Texas that reached over 598,300 views and 188,100 likes in about four days5, one of the largest single posts tracked in the trend so far. A day later, on September 15th, @maffichuu joined in with an Alien Stage edit that hit 294,700 views and 80,600 likes in about three days6.

By mid-September the tag was pulling in a wider range of participants and locations, with entries like @elektyka.prad.nie.tyka's7 and @meowzilla420's8 posts pushing the format outside of the initial anime edit accounts.

Timeline

2026-08-30

TikTok user @xxlastunicorncat posts an early example using a Marin Kitagawa edit over Pacific Northwest and Midwest footage.

2026-09-11

@rosstheboss28 posts a Chainsaw Man version filmed in rural Tennessee that clears 395,800 views.

2026-09-12

@crux_x5 posts a Suguru Geto edit that climbs past 434,600 views.

2026-09-14

@jiminiemochioppa posts a Jujutsu Kaisen edit set in South Texas that hits 598,300 views.

2026-09-15

@maffichuu extends the format with an Alien Stage edit.

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