About

"Shibamata" (柴又), usually described as "Shibamata(Nigou.)" (柴又(2号.)), is a MAD video with an original song composed by Niconico user Nigou (2号, "2gou." or "No. 2") in 2012. It's been a popular musical resource as well as a visual template for MADs and YTPMVs since late 2017.

Origin

The source material for the original MAD video is the official source video for the 2012 Shibamata Night Festival "Come on! MAD Contest"^[1] held in Shibamata, a neighborhood in Katsushika, Tokyo, Japan. The video features attractions and people from the area (shown below, left).^[2] Nigou created his MAD and song "Shibamata" by sampling that video, though he didn't enter into the contest. The first short version was uploaded to Niconico^[3] on September 12th, 2012, and the full length higher quality version was posted to the YouTube^[15] account "Dot Nigou" on September 25th, 2012, where it received over 2.5 million views in over ten years (shown below, right). The full length version was later reposted to Niconico^[4] on October 19th, 2012 where it received over 976,000 views in nearly ten years.

Spread

The derivative MADs didn't start to appear until April 2017 when Niconico user Remmuh posted "Shibamata☆"(柴又☆) (shown below)^[5] using a fan made hand-drawn animated drama for Touhou Project, "Clownpiece and A Little Bit of Courage" (クラウンピースと小さな勇気).^[6][7] This video is also known as Clownpiece☆ (クラピー☆, Kurapī), one of the Cookie☆ movies which fan base is heavily associated with A Midsummer Night's Lewd Dream phenomenon.^[8] Supported by the notorious online communities, this video has received over 680,000 views and gave high online visibility to the original Nigou's one.

Through these circumstances, Nigou's "Shibamata" came to be frequently used as a template for MAD videos around late 2017. As of July 2021, more than 800 videos tagged under the song's title have been uploaded to Niconico,^[9] sometimes with the phrasal template "X-mata" (○又). On the video sharing services, the song is usually called "Shibamata(Nigou.)" (柴又(2号.)) to distinguish it from the real neighborhood.

The MAD videos which use the song also have a strong following on YouTube. On April 2nd, 2018, YouTube^[11] user Cecilia姉貴兄貴 posted a video using the song along with her vTuber avatar.^[10] The video (shown below, left) received over 601,000 views in over four years. On April 3rd, 2018, YouTube^[12] user Floating Wave レヌ Landlord* posted a video that features 106 different MAD variants of the song playing in unison with the original video (shown below, right) which received over 211,000 views in four years.

On April 9th, 2018, YouTube^[13] user kuhi posted an OtoMAD of the song using footage from Lobotomy Corporation, which received over 1.1 million views in over four years. On March 23rd, 2021, YouTube^[14] user Nch-mosfet posted a Floppy Drive Music Video cover of the song (shown below, right) which received over 172,000 views in over a year.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References