思い出は億千万 (Omoide wa Okkusenman/Memories are 110 Billion)
When I was a child, I did these things
Faded memories, wearing red and white hat on my head
Ultraman! Ultraman Seven!
When I was a child, dear memories
When I ate curry and such, silver spoons on my eyes
Ultraman! Ultraman Seven!
But, now, I’ve forgotten such things
I feel like I’m being chased by something everyday
Even if I look back (In forgotten albums)
To those times (I’m doing stupid things)
I can’t go back (Laughing with friends)
Ultraman! Ultraman Seven!
Those guys now, where are they? What are they doing?
The answer is blurred
Ultraman! Ultraman Seven!
But, now, I’ve forgotten such things
I feel like I’m being chased by something everyday
The courage you gave me was 110 BILLION! 110 BILLION!
The seasons that passed were dramatic
When I was a child, I did these things
Wearing 3D glasses that came with the magazines
Ultraman! Ultraman Seven!
When I became an adult, forgotten memories
Revived vividly, making the letter L with our arms
Ultraman! Ultraman Seven!
But, now, I’ve forgotten such things
I feel like I’m being chased by something everyday
Even if I look back (Old diaries open)
To those times (On the faded pages)
I can’t go back (My first love’s name)
Ultraman! Ultraman Seven!
Merely looking back at those times, I can laugh with innocence
I didn’t know dirty things
Ultraman! Ultraman Seven!
But, now, I’ve forgotten such things
I feel like I’m being chased by something everyday
The scenery that I overlooked was 110 BILLION! 110 BILLION!
The seasons that passed were graffiti
The courage you gave me was 110 BILLION! 110 BILLION!
The seasons that passed were dramatic
JAPANESE
When I was a child, I did these things
Faded memories, wearing red and white hat on my head
Ultraman! Ultraman Seven!
When I was a child, dear memories
When I ate curry and such, silver spoons on my eyes
Ultraman! Ultraman Seven!
But, now, I’ve forgotten such things
I feel like I’m being chased by something everyday
Even if I look back (In forgotten albums)
To those times (I’m doing stupid things)
I can’t go back (Laughing with friends)
Ultraman! Ultraman Seven!
Those guys now, where are they? What are they doing?
The answer is blurred
Ultraman! Ultraman Seven!
But, now, I’ve forgotten such things
I feel like I’m being chased by something everyday
The courage you gave me was 110 BILLION! 110 BILLION!
The seasons that passed were dramatic
When I was a child, I did these things
Wearing 3D glasses that came with the magazines
Ultraman! Ultraman Seven!
When I became an adult, forgotten memories
Revived vividly, making the letter L with our arms
Ultraman! Ultraman Seven!
But, now, I’ve forgotten such things
I feel like I’m being chased by something everyday
Even if I look back (Old diaries open)
To those times (On the faded pages)
I can’t go back (My first love’s name)
Ultraman! Ultraman Seven!
Merely looking back at those times, I can laugh with innocence
I didn’t know dirty things
Ultraman! Ultraman Seven!
But, now, I’ve forgotten such things
I feel like I’m being chased by something everyday
The scenery that I overlooked was 110 BILLION! 110 BILLION!
The seasons that passed were graffiti
The courage you gave me was 110 BILLION! 110 BILLION!
The seasons that passed were dramatic
JAPANESE
So, until I start intensively start covering traditional folk songs, this will be one of the few times where the original songwriter is unknown... sort of. I'll try to explain.
The music for this song comes to us from the NES (or ファミコン/Famicom in Japan) game, Mega Man 2 (or, again, ロックマン２/Rockman 2 in Japan) released in 1988. Composed by then-Capcom video game music composer, Manami Matsumae, the song was titled simply "Wily's Castle (Dr. Wily Stage 1)" as it was the final stage in the game. The original song can be heard here.
In 2007, using a rock arrangement of the song (commonly credited to a group or a person known as Family CoMcert) a user uploaded a video of Mega Man 2 footage along with karaoke style lyrics on the bottom. A few weeks later, an individual named "ゴム (Gomu)" uploaded a version of him singing the lyrics over the Family CoMcert version. While, it'd be hard to classify his singing as "good" there's something about his off-key screaming that really fits.
It all took off from there. On both YouTube, and NicoNico Douga (Japanese equivalent of YouTube), hundreds of users uploaded their versions and remixes and covers of the song. While some were straight forward, karaoke-style attempts, others um... took the song in a whole other direction. Others took the arrangement to their guitar or piano or violin.
The song became such a big hit that Gomu's version of the song was featured on a Nico Nico Douga sponsored album and a version done by music group JAM Project, a super-group made up of famous anime theme song singers, on a different Nico Nico Douga album.
What's funny about the lyrics, is that they actually have nothing to do with Mega Man and instead focus primarily on Ultraman. Regardless, the subject matter is something anyone can relate to, whether you grew up with Ultraman or not. In Japanese, my favorite word is "natsukashii" (懐かしい）. In the entire time that I've known this word, I have never been able to find a decent English translation for that word. Sometimes, it's translated as "nostalgic." In this song, it's used in the second verse, in this context I translated it as "dear." My Casio electronic dictionary defines it as "good old," which is closer I suppose.
However, there is no one word in English that accurately defines "natsukashii." It's best described as the feeling you get when you hear or see something or whatever that makes you think or say "Man, this really brings back memories" whatever it may be.
I honestly, LOVE this feeling. I've spent several hours watching old commercials on YouTube and reading articles about various things from my childhood. I've really come to embrace this attitude. I don't own any of the recent video game systems, but a few years back, I spent $50 on an NES and games. If I find them, I'll always buy DVDs of shows I remember. The fact that there's a single word in Japanese that precisely explains this feeling is awesome to me.
This song embodies the meaning of "natsukashii." From the fact that it uses music from a 20-year-old video game right down to the lyrics. When you reach a certain age, everyone looks back on their childhood and wonders what happened to such simpler times. Times when we didn't know such cruelties of the world. Times when we simply laughed innocently and acted out as our favorite heroes from television.
For me, around the time that I was in 1st grade, possibly one of the biggest shows was Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. I still have vivid memories of running around at recess with my friends, pretending to be Power Rangers. While, several of my friends remain to be my friends to this day, I can't help but wonder what happened to the ones who I've lost touch with. Much like the song asks: "Where are they? What are they doing?"
To this day, the original writer of the lyrics is unknown. According to the Wikipedia page on the song:
While, the version at the top of the page remains my favorite (it's a remix of this version and Gomu's version), here's others that I like:
P.S This site talks about the Okkusenman "revolution" in more detail and includes links to tons of versions. Many of which I used on here.
The music for this song comes to us from the NES (or ファミコン/Famicom in Japan) game, Mega Man 2 (or, again, ロックマン２/Rockman 2 in Japan) released in 1988. Composed by then-Capcom video game music composer, Manami Matsumae, the song was titled simply "Wily's Castle (Dr. Wily Stage 1)" as it was the final stage in the game. The original song can be heard here.
In 2007, using a rock arrangement of the song (commonly credited to a group or a person known as Family CoMcert) a user uploaded a video of Mega Man 2 footage along with karaoke style lyrics on the bottom. A few weeks later, an individual named "ゴム (Gomu)" uploaded a version of him singing the lyrics over the Family CoMcert version. While, it'd be hard to classify his singing as "good" there's something about his off-key screaming that really fits.
It all took off from there. On both YouTube, and NicoNico Douga (Japanese equivalent of YouTube), hundreds of users uploaded their versions and remixes and covers of the song. While some were straight forward, karaoke-style attempts, others um... took the song in a whole other direction. Others took the arrangement to their guitar or piano or violin.
The song became such a big hit that Gomu's version of the song was featured on a Nico Nico Douga sponsored album and a version done by music group JAM Project, a super-group made up of famous anime theme song singers, on a different Nico Nico Douga album.
What's funny about the lyrics, is that they actually have nothing to do with Mega Man and instead focus primarily on Ultraman. Regardless, the subject matter is something anyone can relate to, whether you grew up with Ultraman or not. In Japanese, my favorite word is "natsukashii" (懐かしい）. In the entire time that I've known this word, I have never been able to find a decent English translation for that word. Sometimes, it's translated as "nostalgic." In this song, it's used in the second verse, in this context I translated it as "dear." My Casio electronic dictionary defines it as "good old," which is closer I suppose.
However, there is no one word in English that accurately defines "natsukashii." It's best described as the feeling you get when you hear or see something or whatever that makes you think or say "Man, this really brings back memories" whatever it may be.
I honestly, LOVE this feeling. I've spent several hours watching old commercials on YouTube and reading articles about various things from my childhood. I've really come to embrace this attitude. I don't own any of the recent video game systems, but a few years back, I spent $50 on an NES and games. If I find them, I'll always buy DVDs of shows I remember. The fact that there's a single word in Japanese that precisely explains this feeling is awesome to me.
This song embodies the meaning of "natsukashii." From the fact that it uses music from a 20-year-old video game right down to the lyrics. When you reach a certain age, everyone looks back on their childhood and wonders what happened to such simpler times. Times when we didn't know such cruelties of the world. Times when we simply laughed innocently and acted out as our favorite heroes from television.
For me, around the time that I was in 1st grade, possibly one of the biggest shows was Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. I still have vivid memories of running around at recess with my friends, pretending to be Power Rangers. While, several of my friends remain to be my friends to this day, I can't help but wonder what happened to the ones who I've lost touch with. Much like the song asks: "Where are they? What are they doing?"
To this day, the original writer of the lyrics is unknown. According to the Wikipedia page on the song:
The original writer of the song's lyrics is unknown.[10] When Nico Nico Douga attempted to discover the song's proper writer to include the song in one of their CDs[11], their campaign was unsuccessful and determined that it was written as a collaboration of users in the Nico Nico Douga and Japanese internet communities.[12]I mentioned traditional folk songs at the beginning of this post, and, in my opinion anyway, this really qualifies as a "modern-day traditional folk song." Although not being of the folk genre, the song has the same qualities as many traditional folk songs. The tune derived from an original source (in this case, Matsumae's Mega Man song), only for lyrics to develop from the tune. Although the writer is unknown, varieties of the song were written and subsequently launched the song into popular culture. It's nice to think that even in this day in age with record producers and record labels and such. Songs can still be written and made in a traditional manner.
While, the version at the top of the page remains my favorite (it's a remix of this version and Gomu's version), here's others that I like:
- This almost live version supposedly features Gomu himself. Along with some other dudes wearing animal masks on piano and guitar.
- This version is seemingly done in the style of metal band, X Japan. Seeing as X Japan is one of my favorite bands ever... it's easy to see why I like it. That version from before features the music put to the awesome animation someone made explaining the story in the song, but there's also a video that puts it with seamlessly edited footage of X Japan's Last Live concert. Both are awesome.
- This version done on a KORG.*
- This live version performed at some sort of huge anime theme singer concert festival... thing. Features several people from the aforementioned JAM Project. While the arrangement isn't anything that special, it's really cool to see it performed at such a big setting. Plus, the singing is top notch.*
P.S This site talks about the Okkusenman "revolution" in more detail and includes links to tons of versions. Many of which I used on here.
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