Tokyo Remix
There’s so much absurd content coming out of Japan’s pop world every week that it all blurs together. But some weeks certain things stick. This week: thick girls, dying heroes, and synchronized dancing that actually works.
There’s a trend they’re calling chubbiness. In Japan anyone over a certain weight gets labeled overweight, which is absurd when you consider the entire male population seems to have a fetish for anything with the word girl
attached—schoolgirls, girl feet, girls’ dormitories. So there’s a whole subculture of men who prefer the rounder type. There’s a group called Big 3 with a song titled Pochative ~ Body mo Heart mo Glamorous
that’s literally just footage of hamburgers, pancakes, and fried chicken for three minutes. I’m not complaining.
Miku Hatsune, the virtual idol everyone’s been orbiting for years, is getting her own car now thanks to Daihatsu. There’s already Miku toothpaste, Miku umbrellas, Miku game consoles—every conceivable object has a Miku version. The car feels like it should be the endpoint. Except for the guy who needs more than the life-size body pillow to fall asleep next to.
Daiki Sugimoto made a video about Super Mario at the end of his life. All his friends and enemies, running out the clock. There’s something heavy about watching beloved characters age, because you can’t help thinking about your own mortality—about the stuff you loved when you were young that doesn’t make sense anymore. The video hits the exact amount of melancholy it should.
I stopped watching timelapse videos years ago. Everything gets one these days—cities, events, crowds of people. It’s the same visual trick applied to infinite subjects. But darwinfish105 made one of Tokyo that pulled me in. Dense crowds, elevated shots of a city that feels like it’s vibrating with too much life happening at once. I guess there’s always room for one more.
FEMM wrapped up the week with Wannabe,
a track with hooks that dig in and choreography that’s been rehearsed a thousand times. It’s designed to get stuck in your head and make your body move even when you’re not trying to move it. If that stuff doesn’t make you twitch along a little, you’re probably already dead inside.