Romance no Kamisama Face Dance

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About

The Romance no Kamisama Face Dance (Japanese: ロマンスの神様フェイスダンス) refers to a series of videos in which people as VRChat avatars or Miku Miku Dance (MMD) animated characters show a ridiculous lip-dub along with "Romance no Kamisama," a 1993 Japanese pop song by Kohmi Hirose. After the dance trend on TikTok caused the song's surge in popularity in the first half of 2022, animations began appearing among other Otaku. It also made the 50-something singer debut on the metaverse and drew official approval for Geddan from the artist and her record company.

Origin

On June 26th, 2022, VRChat user Lein., or Kinopio Pro (キノピオPro, @lears_VRC), posted a video to Twitter^[1], Niconico^[2], and YouTube (shown below) in which he in Lopoli Kon (ロポリこん)^[3] and Dhigli Nasu (ディグリなす)^[4], popular 3D models in the Japanese VRChat market, lip-synced to Hirose's "Romance no Kamisama" with silly faces. Those videos gained over 5 million views in total by November 2022. According to an interview in July 2022^[5], he alone recorded his performances in each avatar with the song slowed down to 50% and combined them to make the video.

Lopoli Kon (left) and Dhigli Nasu (right)

Lyrics & Translation:

Seikaku Yokere ba Ii (They say, "Only your personality matters")
Son'nano Uso Dato Omoimasenka? (But that's all a lie, don't you think?)

Boy Meets Girl!
Shiawase no Yokan, Kitto Dareka wo Kanjiteru (I've got a happy premonition I am sensing someone)

Fall in Love!
Romance no Kamisama (Oh, God of Romance)
Kono Hito de Shou ka (Is he the one?)

Spread

On July 3rd, another user Taro² released MMD motion data replicating Kinopio Pro's lip-sync video (shown below)^[6]^[7] causing Niconico and YouTube to flood with MMD characters singing the song. As of November 2022, the number of videos tagged under this "Face Dance" on Niconico is over 750.^[8] Some videos generate characters' singing by Utau^[9] and the man-powered Vocaloid technique, while others sample VTubers' actually singing from their releases or karaoke streaming instead of Hirose's original.

Singer's Approval

Just like she did in the TikTok dance trend, Hirose tweeted a positive response to this face dance trend on July 6th, 2022 (shown below). As declared in this tweet, she purchased Meta Quest2 the following day and started reporting her progress to go to the virtual space on Twitter and YouTube. Tech news outlets covered the 50-something female singer's high motivation and quick adaptation to new technology, together with the trend caused by Kinopio Pro.^[10]^[11]^[12]

メタバースへGO!✨　嬉しいなあ。 https://t.co/I4t2G3oASD

— 広瀬香美　11/23リリース「プレミアムワールド」 (@kohmi) July 6, 2022

Translation:

Let's go to the metaverse! I'm so pleased.

About a month later, Hirose finally met with Kinopio Pro in VRChat on August 13th and visited the spot where he took that face dance (shown below).^[13]

TO CON ** PTFILE COD MERCUR (SARA (OURTWHr 111 MAOning VRC BRAUN 1

Hirose (left) and Kinopio Pro (right)

Later, Hirose descended to Virtual Market 2022 Summer, the world-largest market festival in the virtual space, with her original avatar, Kohmi Hirose No.2 (広瀬香美2号), during her YouTube Live on August 24th.^[14] She performed Geddan with Kinopio Pro at Victor Entertainment Japan's booth, which produced an attraction where users can enjoy the famous moves along with her avatar singing the song "Promise" (shown below). Internet users were surprised at this official recognition of the classic meme over 14 years ago because the record company Hirose belonged to hadn't announced this attraction before the festival opened on the 13th.^[15]