The sound comes from the 2011 anime adaptation of Hunter x Hunter and features Kurapika during a rescue involving Katzo. Clips like this circulated on fan soundboards because short, expressive anime reactions are easy to reuse outside their original scene. Once separated from its episode, the grunting became a shorthand for urgency and last-minute effort in edits, memes and reaction videos. It endures because the emotion is clear even without context: a character straining to save someone, captured in just a few seconds.