Muito Real

About

Muito Real, Portuguese for "So Real" or "Very Real," is a catchphrase used in reaction to the announcement of Mothman appearing in the upcoming video game Shin Megami Tensei V (SMT), a half-man-half-moth creature with no arms and a stunned look on its face. The phrase, popularized by the Twitter account SMT Portugal, took off following the character's announcement in late June 2021 as a way to show exaggerated excitement over it. The phrase has been used as a meme by SMT Portugal and Portuguese SMT fans since as early as 2018. It is sometimes used to refer to Mothman directly as an alternate name, although this was not the original intention.

Origin

The phrase "muito real" was first used by the @SMTPortugal Twitter^[2] page on June 1st, 2018, in a post that translates to, "SHIN MEGAMI TENSEI STRANGE JOURNEY FIGHTING DEMONS AND EXPLORING IN A VERY STRANGE JOURNEY IS A VERY FUCKING REAL GAME," along with art from Shin Megami Tensei. The account continued to use the phrase in a number of tweets^[4][5] over the course of 2020, often as a phrase in memes (examples shown below).

The phrase became a popular in-joke among SMT Portugal's followers. On June 29th, 2021, @SMTPortugal described in a tweet^[3] what "muito real" means as a meme, writing:

"Muito Real means that something is so real that it's surpass the human understanding and the only thing you can say about it is "muito real", Muito real is a concept that goes beyond our understanding, it is something metaphysical."

Spread

"Muito real" spread as a catchphrase among Portuguese Shin Megami Tensei fans over the course of the next year as SMT Portugal grew in popularity and continued using it.

On June 16th, 2021, the team behind Shin Megami Tensei V teased a silhouette of Mothman, a demon in the series, hinting it will appear in the game during a conference. On that day, SMTPortugal tweeted,^[7] "MUITO REAL AAAAAAAAAA," garnering over 1,000 likes in two weeks (shown below).

On June 29th, the @megaten_atlus Twitter^[1] page announced they'd be revealing a new demon for the upcoming Shin Megami Tensei game the next day, along with the same silhouetted image of what is predictably Mothman to fans of the series (shown below). The tweet's comments section quickly filled with replies of "muito real."

Atlus released the official reveal trailer the next day (shown below).

The phrase gained significant popularity on Twitter starting on the 29th as SMT fans used it in reaction to Mothman's imminent announcement. On that day, @SMTPortugal tweeted^[6] a meme using the phrase in reference to its popularity, garnering over 1,300 likes and 200 retweets in a day (shown below).

Over the course of the next two days, the phrase spread beyond Portugese SMT fans as other localized fan pages of the series began using it and asking about it. For example, on that day Twitter^[8] page @STMSavou, a French SMT fan page, posted a video showing SMTPortugal's impact on the announcement tweet, garnering over 300 likes in a day (shown below).

très réel pic.twitter.com/s01FCkGcT1

— SHIN MEGAMI TENSEI SAVOUÈ (@SMTSAVOUE) June 29, 2021

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References