About

"RED ZONE" is a popular soundtrack from a Japanese arcade music rhythm video game beatmania IIDX, which is produced by KONAMI as a part of BEMANI line.^[1] This Speed Rave/Euro Beat song had been used heavily in many YouTube Poop Music Videos (YTPMVs) on YouTube and MAD videos on YouTube and the Japanese video sharing service Nico Nico Douga (NND) since 2009 to 2010.

Origin

"RED ZONE" was written under the collaboration of the Japanese composers Tatsuya Shimizu, better known as his alias tatsh, and Naoki Maeda. The song was first included in beatmania IIDX 11: IIDXRED released for Japanese arcades in October 28th, 2004. This song entitled with "Red", this game's concept color, is the lead track of it.

In addition, the edited version of this song has been included in Dance Dance Revolution series, an other music video game in same BEMANI line, since its 10th version: Super Nova 2 which was released in August 2007.^[2]

Spread

Before it caused a big sensation, a few instances using this song had already been posted to the web. This song can be found in "SPEED RAVE", a page on YTMND posted in 2005^[3], and in the Initial D parody featuring the Japanese anime/manga series Lucky Star that was posted to NND in 2007.^[4] However, those creations weren't able to reach a large audience. The video gave the outclassing popularity in online parodies to this song was one of the derivatives of Hissu Amoto San phenomenon, titled "HON ZONE," was posted to NND in January 3rd, 2009.^[5]

This video got much attention among NND users partly due to its incorporation of Hissu Amoto San phenomenon. Then, many MAD editors followed its style and began creating their own RED ZONE videos around the beginning of February that year. Since then, more than 2400 videos related to this song have been posted to NND.^[6]

YouTube

RED ZONE also got a much favor with YouTube Poopers by many videos reuploaded from NND to YouTube. As well as other popular soundtracks in MADs, they have introduced this song to their YTPMVs. The icon used in their video titles on YouTube is "【レッドゾーン】," which is "RED ZONE" written in Katakana characters. However, similar to Gourmet Race, RED ZONE began to be overused by many people who didn't have creative minds nor skill. Their poor MADs/YTPMVs, made with the help of tutorials, were lacking of "soul" which gradually dampening the enthusiasm. Though RED ZONE remixes may not be getting as much attention, over 70,500 videos relating to the song has since uploaded to YouTube.^[7]

Notable Examples

For more videos, check out the videos section in this entry.

Shift Change RED ZONE

Shift Change RED ZONE refer to a series of hand-drawn animated videos that were inspired by a RED ZONE mad video, uploaded to NND on February 9th, 2009,^[10] which featured a person playing with a car's transmission gear while imitating engine noises. These hand drawn videos often depict various characters driving vehicles in an over the top manner, while the original MAD mix audio is playing over them.

Other Remixes/X Zone

RedZone has other remixes or mashups of theme songs from the touhou project. The most popular ones are probably DeadZone and ScarletZone remixes.

DeadZone is a RedZone remix and mashup of the two theme of the touhou character Minamitu Murasa^[17] from official touhou game Undefined Fantastic Object's 4th stage. "Interdimensional Voyage of a Ghostly Passenger Ship" and "Captain Murasa" ^[18]. It is been called "DeadZone" because in the backstory Minamitsu was "buried" into the ground along with her ship.

Remix has been originally made by the NND user 麻痺^[18] and the most popular Youtube mirror has been uploaded by the user topitoomay. Alongside with these, there is a lot of Deadzone YTPMV's or MADs on NND and Youtube.

ScarletZone is simply the RedZone remix of U.N. Oven Was Her? and "Septette for the Dead Princess", the combination of the two Scarlet sister's main theme.

There are also other variations like DarkZone(RedZone remix of Rumia theme) and SakuyaZone(RedZone remix of Night of Nights)

Search Interest

Measuring the popularity of "Red Zone" on the English-speaking web becomes problematic because of the general ambiguity of the name. Likewise, searches for "Red Zone" often result in pages pertaining to University of Nebraska Huskers^[11], University of Georgia Bulldogs^[12], NFL news^[13], and Old Spice Red Zone Deodorant.^[14] The underscore between RED and ZONE is a common trait among RED ZONE videos on NND. This is because tags in NND are separated by space.

External References

Editor’s Note: Registration is needed to browse the original videos listed in this section.