"Shukusei!! Loli Kami Requiem"; ; ; ''Shukusei'' means 'to purge' and is spelled ordinarily as ; however, its use in the title is a

Japanese wordplay Japanese wordplay relies on the nuances of the Japanese language and Japanese script for humorous effect. Double entendres have a rich history in Japanese entertainment (such as in kakekotoba) due to the language's large number of homographs (d ...

, replacing the second

kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese ...

with ''sei'' ('holy' or 'divine'). is a song by Japanese artist

Ui Shigure Ui Shigure (しぐれうい, ''Shigure Ui'') is a Japanese illustrator, manga artist, light novel character designer and VTuber. Career Shigure was born in Yokkaichi, Mie Prefecture, Japan. She is an art graduate. After working in a game deve ...

from her debut album '.; Featuring vocals by Shigure in her nine-year-old schoolgirl persona and narration by Tamaki Inuyama, it was composed by D.watt and written by Maron, both members of

IOSYS is a Japanese musical ensemble and dōjin circle from Sapporo, Japan. The group is primarily known for producing remixes of music from the Touhou Project series of ''dōjin'' games. They are not signed to a label, instead preferring to release ...

. It is musically a ''denpa'' song, having lyrics that attack fictional pedophiles which borrow tropes from the ''

lolicon In Japanese popular culture, is a genre of fictional media in which young (or young-looking) girl characters appear in romantic or sexual contexts. The term, a portmanteau of the English phrase "Lolita complex", also refers to desire and a ...

'' genre. Though it was released in 2022, the song suddenly

went viral Viral phenomena or viral sensation are objects or patterns that are able to replicate themselves or convert other objects into copies of themselves when these objects are exposed to them. Analogous to the way in which viruses propagate, the ter ...

in September 2023 after the release of its music video. Users on

TikTok TikTok, known in China as Douyin (), is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 15 seconds to 10 minutes. TikTok is an international version ...

and other

social media platform Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social med ...

s posted their own dance videos and remixes. The song peaked at number 28 on the ''Billboard Japan'' Hot 100 and otherwise charted in Japan on ''

Billboard Japan ''Billboard Japan'' is a sister organization of the U.S.-based music magazine ''Billboard''. It is operated by the Japanese Osaka-based company Hanshin Contents Link (a subsidiary of Hanshin Electric Railway), holding an exclusive licence from ''Bi ...

'',

Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan and Western music. It started as, which was founded by Sōkō Koike in Nov ...

, and ''

Count Down TV (also known as CDTV) is a Japanese late-night music television program, broadcast on TBS since 1993. The program is shown weekly, and features a Japanese music video hit chart countdown, live performances from musicians and music information. ...

''. Authors note its catchy tune combined with the video as significant contributors to its popularity. Because of the severity of its lyrics, it also amassed controversy online.

Composition

The lyrics to "Shukusei!! Loli Kami Requiem" are written from the perspective of

's fictional schoolgirl persona, nine-year-old Ui. She assails and taunts imprisoned pedophiles while simultaneously acting as a goddess who leads them to salvation. The music video visualizes these two factions: Ui sings and dances at the viewer in disgust, while ''

danmaku Danmaku or Danmu (Japanese: ; Simplified Chinese: , literally translated as “bullet curtain” and figuratively as “ barrage”) is a subtitle system in online video platforms that originates from Japan and popularised in Mainland China. Suc ...

'' 'barrage' comments inspired by video-sharing platform Nico Nico Douga scroll across the screen, representing the sexual predators.Saitou 2023
p. 2
§ "". Ui's sadistic way of taunting has been described as a ''mesugaki'' trope; that is, provocative behavior by young girls to sexually entice adults.Kachalin, Philipp (2023-10-02)
"What Is 'Loli God Requiem'? Lyrics Of Shigure Ui's Viral Anime Music Video And Memes About It"
Editorial. ''

Know Your Meme ''Know Your Meme'' (''KYM'') is a website and video series which uses wiki software to document various Internet memes and other online phenomena, such as viral videos, image macros, catchphrases, Internet celebrities and more. It also invest ...

''. Archived fro
the original
on 2023-10-07. Retrieved 2023-10-07. The song is considered a ''denpa'' 'nonsense' song with an electronic dance music tune to its track. Kitagawa of ''Kai-you'' divides the song into two main halves both separated by a middle section. The upbeat first half is described with

pop music Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. The terms ''popular music'' and ''pop music'' are often used interchangeably, although the former describe ...

aspects that includes Ui's girlish singing and interjecting shouts, which then leads into a

dubstep Dubstep is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in South London in the early 2000s. The style emerged as a UK garage offshoot that blended 2-step rhythms and sparse dub production, as well as incorporating elements of broken be ...

-like track to reveal Ui's hostile side towards pedophiles. Right in the middle part of the song, in an act of divine purging, the music cuts to her firing her Ui Beam to electrocute sludge creatures while the narrator explains the situation and the attack. Ultimately, the music descends into a dark second half that alternates between her hostile and girlish side.

Production and release

The song features vocals from Japanese illustrator and

virtual YouTuber A , or , is an online entertainer who uses a virtual Avatar (computing), avatar generated using computer graphics. Real-time motion capture software or technology are often—but not always—used to capture movement. The digital trend originated ...

(VTuber) Ui Shigure in her nine-year-old persona, dubbed "

Loli Loli most often refers to: * A young or young-looking girl character in Japanese anime and manga; subjects of the '' lolicon'' genre Loli may also refer to: People Surname * Peter Loli (born 1980), Australian rugby union player * Silvia Loli, ...

Ui", who is featured occasionally in her

livestream Livestreaming is streaming media simultaneously recorded and broadcast in real-time over the internet. It is often referred to simply as streaming. Non-live media such as video-on-demand, vlogs, and YouTube videos are technically streamed, but no ...

s. The song's lyrics and composition were written by Maron and D.watt, respectively, both of whom are members of ''dōjin'' 'indie' music group

. The song features a narration by fellow VTuber Tamaki Inuyama. In a 2022 interview with ''Febri'', Shigure said that, as an

otaku is a Japanese word that describes people with consuming interests, particularly in anime, manga, video games, or computers. Its contemporary use originated with a 1983 essay by Akio Nakamori in ''Manga Burikko''. may be used as a pejorativ ...

herself, she quickly decided on a ''denpa'' song when collaborating with IOSYS.Marumoto 2022
"" Additionally, she said that the lyrics she had received were far more brutal compared to the final revision, calling it seemingly "as painful as hitting someone with concrete". According to Maron, the

working title A working title, which may be abbreviated and styled in trade publications after a putative title as (wt), also called a production title or a tentative title, is the temporary title of a product or project used during its development, usually ...

was "Shukusei: Butabakomyunikēshon!!".; possibly a

blend A blend is a mixture of two or more different things or substances; e.g., a product of a mixer or blender. Blend Blend may also refer to: * Blend word, a word formed from parts of other words * ''Blend'' (album), a 1996 album by BoDeans * ...

between 'police cell' and 'communication'Kitagawa 2023
p. 2
"" The song was previewed on May 21, 2022, in one of Shigure's livestreams on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

. It was included in her debut album ', which was released on May 25. She performed it at her first live event in Tokyo on May 28. The music video for the song was released on September 10, 2023, on her YouTube channel, after she had performed it virtually in a livestreamShigure, Ui (2023-10-09)
またあえたね！
. Retrieved 2023-10-09 – via YouTube. that revealed nine-year-old Ui's three-dimensional model.Marumoto 2023
§ "" Illustrations thereof are credited to Shigure herself and animator Gagame, while the movie production is credited to Warabe Hōzuki.

Reception

Upon its release, the song did not receive immediate notability and was supposedly overshadowed by the album's opening track, "Shinkakei Sketch". "Shukusei!! Loli Kami Requiem" came to be known by Shigure's fans as one of the "cute" songs on the album. However, after the release of its music video a year later, the song

worldwide on social media and became an

Internet meme An Internet meme, commonly known simply as a meme ( ), is an idea, behavior, style, or image that is spread via the Internet, often through social media platforms. What is considered a meme may vary across different communities on the Internet ...

. This was unexpected for Shigure herself, who expressed that she hoped not to be perceived as a ''mesugaki'' to newcomers. The video reached 10 million views within three weeks, making it the fastest song by a VTuber to reach it. It had over sixty million views as of December.Tsu-ni 2023-11-23
The dance featured during the song's chorus, which has been described as "of overwhelming quality", "brisk" and "hard to reproduce", helped amplify the sudden growth in popularity. Users on

began posting videos of themselves or characters of their own or from video games, such as ''

Genshin Impact ''Genshin Impact'' is an action role-playing game developed and published by miHoYo. It was released for Android (operating system), Android, iOS, PlayStation 4, and Windows in 2020, on PlayStation 5 in 2021, and is set for release on Nintendo ...

'', imitating the dance as an

Internet challenge Internet challenges are a genre of videos in which users record themselves performing an action, usually daring others to repeat it. They play a role in Internet meme, Internet meme culture, with many challenges spreading through such memes. Example ...

. Originality of such dance videos increases watch time and, thus, takes advantage of the

recommendation algorithm A recommender system, or a recommendation system (sometimes replacing 'system' with a synonym such as platform or engine), is a subclass of information filtering system that provide suggestions for items that are most pertinent to a particular u ...

. Gagame released template material of the videoGagame (2023-09-29)
ロリ神_後記…_20230916rr_29
oli Kami afterword Archived fro
the original
on 2023-10-28. Retrieved 2023-11-10 – via Pixiv Fanbox. which also made apparent contributions to its popularity. Cover versions and remixes have also been posted online. By the end of September, it is estimated that over six thousand videos about the song had been posted on TikTok. Its popularity then spread to other platforms like

YouTube Shorts YouTube Shorts is the short-form section of the video-sharing website YouTube, hosting content much like YouTube's primary service but in a vertical format with a maximum length of 60 seconds. Shorts have collectively earned over 5 trillion vie ...

and

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

. It hit number one on the domestic Viral charts of

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...

on September 18.Saitou 2023
p. 1
In what was originally a

fan edit A fan edit is a version of a film Film editing, modified by a viewer, that removes, reorders, or adds material in order to create a new interpretation of the source material. This includes the removal of scenes or dialogue, replacement of audio an ...

, the dance appeared in the Spotify background video of "9mm" by rap group Memphis Cult. BMW and

Lotus Cars Lotus Cars Limited is a British automotive company headquartered in Norfolk, England which manufactures sports cars and racing cars noted for their light weight and fine handling characteristics. Lotus was previously involved in Formula One r ...

used the dance filter in their

Instagram Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...

and TikTok advertisements respectively. The song has also appeared at a nightclub and department store.

NHK , also known as NHK, is a Japanese public broadcaster. NHK, which has always been known by this romanized initialism in Japanese, is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee. NHK operates two terrestri ...

declined to play the song on ''Buiāru!: VTuber no Ongaku Radio'' when a guest had requested it be played. The Taiwanese ''

Yahoo! News Yahoo! News is a news website that originated as an internet-based news aggregator by Yahoo!. The site was created by a Yahoo! software engineer named Brad Clawsie in August 1996. Articles originally came from news services such as the Associate ...

'' MrSun called its lyrics and melody "really earwormy" such that "after letting someone hear it once, they will hum along subconsciously." Kitagawa praised the detailed structure and noted its unique rise in popularity as an intersection between music video and song. Writing for ''The Magazine'' of TuneCore Japan, Masahiro Saitou notes that, while popular among the youth, the music is also reminiscent of Japanese

Internet culture Internet culture is a culture based on the many way people have used computer networks and their use for communication, entertainment, business, and recreation. Some features of Internet culture include online communities, gaming, and social media ...

during when Nico Nico Douga was the primary video-sharing platform in Japan. In a ''Real Sound'' analysis on 2000s Japanese Internet culture, Natsume Sogami echoes this assessment, who attributes it to the song's "easy-to-understand Nico Nico Douga-style comments" and being a work by IOSYS, who exerted influence on otaku culture at the time, in addition to having an

idol Idol or Idols may refer to: Religion and philosophy * Cult image, a neutral term for a man-made object that is worshipped or venerated for the deity, spirit or demon that it embodies or represents * Murti, a point of focus for devotion or medit ...

-like

call-and-response Call and response is a form of interaction between a speaker and an audience in which the speaker's statements ("calls") are punctuated by responses from the listeners. This form is also used in music, where it falls under the general category of ...

element. The song has amassed controversy due to its subject of

pedophilia Pedophilia ( alternatively spelt paedophilia) is a psychiatric disorder in which an adult or older adolescent experiences a primary or exclusive sexual attraction to prepubescent children. Although girls typically begin the process of puberty a ...

.''Oricon News'' 2023
""Old Moon 2023
p. 2
§ "". The child safety alarm maker Artec came under fire on social media after it pointed out the alarm featured in the music video was based on one of their products and uploaded a video on YouTube and TikTok featuring one of their employees dancing to the song and prostrating in gratitude for featuring their product on September 29. The company posted an apology on their website on October 2 for their "extremely inappropriate behaviour that lacks consideration and self-awareness", then deleted their TikTok account. On October 3, Daisuke Yokoyama, the former actor for the children's television program ''

Okaasan to Issho is a children's television program airing weekday mornings in Japan on NHK. The show consists of seasonal songs, the Galapico Pu segment, and animated shorts like Tomodachi Hachi Nin (previously also ''Deko Boko Friends''). , the program was ho ...

'', deleted a video on TikTok of him performing the dance, after it had faced criticism on social media.''Josei Jishin'' 2023-10-04
"" Yokoyama apologized for it, saying he was unaware of the context behind the song in addition to it being trendy, and also deleted his account. Amongst the controversies, some VTuber fans claimed the song was "not a ''lolicon'' song".Old Moon 2023
p. 2
""

Charts

Notes

References

Foreign-language sources

No author

By publication and date:
VTuberしぐれういの『粛聖!! ロリ神レクイエム☆』MVが1000万再生突破。聴くと救済される電波ソング【助かる～ゥ】
''Dengeki Online''. Kadokawa. 2023-09-28. Archived fro
the original
on 2023-09-28. Retrieved 2023-10-15.
「もうNHKに呼ばないで下さい」だいすけお兄さんの「ロリ神」TikTokに批判殺到→動画削除
''Josei Jishin''. Kobunsha. 2023-10-04. Archived fro
the original
on 2023-10-20. Retrieved 2023-10-20. *
"元うたのおにいさん"横山だいすけ、TikTokのダンス動画で批判受け謝罪「全ては僕の不徳の致すところ」アカウントも削除
''Oricon News''. 2023-10-04. Archived fro
the original
on 2023-10-20. Retrieved 2023-10-20. *

Primary sources ‡

External links

*
The Rain Doesn't Stop Yet
'
"Loli God Requiem" / Shigure Ui Dance
entry at

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shukusei Loli Kami Requiem 2022 singles Internet memes Internet memes introduced in 2023 J-pop songs Lolicon Online obscenity controversies Obscenity controversies in music Songs about criminals Songs about sexual assault Viral videos