About

Omoide wa Okusenman! (思い出は億千万, literally "110 million memories!"), or usually shortened as Okkusenman (おっくせんまん), is a Japanese song inspired by the soundtrack of arcade video game Mega Man 2, specifically from the Dr Wily's Castle stage. Since its release on February 6th, 2007, the song has become very popular on Japanese online communities, especially on the video-sharing site Nico Nico Douga (NND) with a large number of remixes and covers.

Origin

Based on the Dr. Wily's Castle stage theme and rearranged by "Blue Fang" (蒼い牙 Aoi Kiba), the song describes the singer reminiscing about his childhood and friends while realizing his life and theirs is nothing like what it used to be.

Published in 1988 by Capcom for the Nintendo Entertainment System, Mega Man 2 is the second installment in the Mega Man series. Both a critical and commercial success, one of the most highly praised features of the game was its high quality soundtrack, with one of the most recognizable tracks being the backgroundmusic accompanying the storming of the evil Dr. Wily's Fortress. As evidence of its popularity, the song was ranked in the second place on ScrewAttack's list of the 10 greatest video game themes.^[1]

Lyrics

In early 2007, a group of anonymous users from Nico Nico Douga and other online communities collaborated on a set of lyrics based on the musical arrangement. These lyrics were eventually uploaded via YouTube by user PiggKingg^[2] on February 6th, 2007 and the full length song was uploaded a week later on the 14th^[3].

Titled "Omoide wa Okkusenman!," the lyrics describe the singer's memories of his youth and his friends, and on how much his life has changed over the years. One of the most significant lines describes his memories of pretending to be the heroes from the Japanese tokusatsu TV series Ultraman (Ultra Seven) with his friends by holding spoons over his eyes.

Spread

On February 19th, 2007, the first vocal cover of the song was posted by YouTuber Gomu, featuring a distinctive vocal delivery that became hugely popular with over 3,000,000 views on YouTube alone (shown left). The first vocal version of the song posted on Nico Nico Douga was sung by NND user CHROMES^[5] (shown right) which gathered over 5,700,000 views as of 4th August 2011.

Another popular version of the song is a flash animated music video by NNDuser Douro of DNA, which was uploaded to the site on 27th May 2007. This video depicts the life of the singer and his memories of youth, compared to the original video which merely consisted of footage from the video game. The video has over 1,300,000 views on Nico Nico Douga and over 2,700,000 views on YouTube.

In Nico Nico Douga Medleys

The song has been frequently featured in the Kumikyoku Nico Nico Douga Medleys along with other memetic songs like Marisa Stole the Precious Thing, Air Man ga Taosenai and Hare Hare Yukai. The song can be heard in this particular medley track at 5:44:

In 2009, Japanese rock band JAM Project, a supergroup made up of renowned vocalists for anime theme tunes, recorded a cover of the song as a bonus track for the album "Nico Nico Douga Selection: Sainō no Mudazukai" (A Waste of Talent).

Notable Examples

Most derivative renditions of the song consist of NND users singing along with the lyrics (Utattemita videos, literally "tried to sing") or instrumental performances (Ensoushitemita videos, literally "tired to perform") by guitarists, violinists and pianists among others.

Search Interest

External References