Maru the Cat

Examples

Maru sits in a clear plastic box on a dark table beneath the large word SOON. Visible text: SOON

Maru waits

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Credit & details

SOON

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A published book-cover image shows a close-up of Maru’s face and the title. This is title-bearing archival context, not a joke-caption remix. Visible text: i am maru; by mugumogu; まるです。

I am Maru book cover

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Credit & details

i am maru; by mugumogu; まるです。

Visible book-cover credit: mugumogu

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About & sources

Cardboard boxes become an obstacle course for a round-faced cat: sliding, squeezing and investigating turn ordinary pet footage into a recognizable recurring performance.

Date

Mugumogu’s Japanese cat-video channel, launched in July 2008 after a 2007 photo blog.

History

The selected 2008 marks the YouTube chapter, not Maru’s birth or the start of his photo blog. Know Your Meme dates the blog to November 2007 and the mugumogu channel to July 2008, describing blog coverage throughout 2008 and further cat-site circulation in 2009. Its overview labels the entry 2009; this archive instead selects the earlier documented video-sharing period. Those dates are retrospective source attributions, not independently authenticated first uploads here. The source also documents a July 2009 Nico Nico Douga animation trend, Chen sliding in, which reimagined the box-sliding action with a Touhou character. This representative box portrait is not a frame authenticated to the first upload and cannot preserve the timing or movement of the videos. Photography/video rights remain uncleared for public reuse; this is a private preview, not a playable archive.

Know Your Meme — Maru’s blog, video channel and box-sliding adaptations
Catalog image
Maru the Cat representative image