About
“Let’s Go! Onmyouji” (Japanese: レッツゴー！陰陽師; lit. “Let’s Go! Yin-yang Masters”) is a song insert taken from the 2006 fighting game Shin Goketsuji Ichizoku: Bonnou Kaihou.[1] The song’s music video has since went on to gain widespread popularity during the early days of the Japanese video sharing site Nico Nico Douga (NND) in 2006-7, inspiring video remixes, musical covers, and dance parodies.
Origin
The song was originally used as the background theme for character Thin Nen from the Japanese fighting game Shin Goketsuji Ichzoku: Toukon Matrimelee, released for arcades in Japan during 2003.[2] The song would featured in a CG-animated music video, which features the song being sung and danced by characters Hikomaro Yabeno and Kotohime, while being accompanied by the Bozu dancers as backup, and be included in Shin Goketsuji Ichizoku: Bonnou Kaihou, released for the PlayStation 2 on May 25th, 2006. The video would later be uploaded to YouTube (shown below) by YouTuber bussan00 on May 28th, 2006, three days after the games release.
The video would eventually gain momentum several months later, after it was uploaded to NND during the day of the site’s beta launch on December 16th, 2006.[3] The oddness of the video would help it become one of the first to gain popularity within the site, with early users posting comment-stream barrages in-tune with the song’s lyrics, often time misinterpreted lyrics. During that time, the video would gain over 640 thousand views on NND, and over 5 million views overall on the original YouTube upload.
Spread
As the video continued to gain attention, the first known remixes of the song began to emerge. One of the earliest examples was a MAD mashup with the Touhou arrangement “Marisa Stole the Precious Thing” (shown below), created by YouTuber c0ldcup and uploaded to YouTube on February 10th, 2007, and later to NND[4] the next day. The remix was proven to be popular, with the YouTube upload gaining over 1.2 million views, and also helped sparking eventual remixes based off of “Marisa Stole the Precious Thing.”
A month later, after being denied access from YouTube, NND was officially relaunched on March 6th, and immediately videos began being uploaded, with “Let’s Go! Onmyouji”[5] being one of the first ten videos. With the newly-launched site, users began picking up where things left off and started to give the video extra attention then before, and as time went on, remixes and parodies began being created within the site.[6]
As of March 2014, the video is known as the oldest within the site, and in honor it has been given the nickname sm9, which refers to the video’s URL.[7] The song has since been recognized by being featured multiple times in Nico Nico Medleys,[8] and through compilation CDs featuring songs that also became popular on the site. The song has also been considered as one of the first three phenomenons to ever hit NND, alongside Kishimen and Musical The Prince of Tennis.
10 Million Views Anniversary Edition
On July 7th, 2012, sm9 reached 10 million page views. In response, Noise Factory, the developer of the video game, uploaded an Anniversary video to celebrate this milestone with NND users on the 30th of this month.[9]
Notable Examples
Left: Rozen Maiden | Right: Dance Cover
Left: Guitar Cover | Right: Dance Cover (ver. NicoMaro + Others)
Search Interest
External References
[1]Wikipedia – Power Instinct # Shin Gōketsuji Ichizoku: Bonnō Kaihō
[2]Goketsuji Wiki – Let’s Go! Onmyoji
[3]Nico Nico Douga (β) – 新・豪血寺一族 －煩悩開放－ レッツゴー！陰陽師 PV (YouTube) / Posted on 12-16-2006 (Internet Archive, Defunct)
[4]Nico Nico Douga (β) – 陰陽師は大変なものを盗んでいきました (YouTube) / Posted on 02-11-2007 (Internet Archive, Defunct)
[5]Nico Nico Douga – 新・豪血寺一族 -煩悩解放 – レッツゴー！陰陽師 / Posted on 03-06-2007
[6]Nico Nico Douga – Search results for the tag レッツゴー！陰陽師
[7]Nico Nico Pedia – sm9 (Japanese)
[8]KumikyokuWiki – Let’s Go! Onmyouji
[9]Nico Nico Douga – レッツゴー！陰陽師 1000万再生御礼ダンス / Posted on 07-30-2012