Megan Thee Stallion’s “BOA” video pays homage to One Piece, MK and DDR

Avowed anime afficionado Megan Thee Stallion dropped her new video for “BOA” on Wednesday, delivering a love letter to her nerdiest late-’90s and early aughts influences. That includes no shortage of shout outs to Scott Pilgrim, One Piece, Dance Dance Revolution, and the 3D fighting games of the era.

“BOA” is dripping with serpentine flavor; that includes nods to ye olde Nokia classic Snake and an homage to the endless runner — or is that Crash Bandicoot? — on which Megan rides a giant white snake. But it’s the fighting game references to Mortal Kombat and Tekken that will further endear the FGC to Ms. Thee Stallion: She dresses up just like Christie Monteiro from Tekken and as a sort of mashup of Mortal Kombat’s Mileena and One Piece’s Boa Hancock as she violently slays the kids playing her video game like some sort of vengeful Jumanji spirit. (I’m also wondering if Megan’s video includes a more recent Mortal Kombat reference to Johnny Cage’s off-brand Roomba.)

Then there’s the Dance Dance Revolution and Gantz-inspired stages and outfits, the latter of which will probably make “BOA” something you shouldn’t watch in front of the kids. Asks one Instagram commenter, “Sis is your whole poonanny out???” (It is not.)

Megan Thee Stallion has been quite open about her love of manga, anime, and video games, thanks to her cosplays of Mirko from My Hero Academia and Bruno Bucciarati from JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. She’s also clearly a fan of the PlayStation 2-era of fighting games, we now know, and I look forward to more of Megan’s nerding out in whatever form it takes.