Plastic Love: The best pop song you’ve never heard of by Mariya Takeuchi

The Internet is an amazing thing sometimes. Who would’ve thought that a Japanese city pop song from the 1980s would ever become popular with western audiences all these years later? I never listen to Japanese music so I’m not sure how it came up on my YouTube playlist, but something about the black and white picture had me click on it and I instantly fell in love.

Plastic Love by Mariya Takeuchi

I’ve listened to Plastic Love at least a few hundred times in the past month. I just can’t get it out of my head. There is something hypnotic and nostalgic about it. The lyrics don’t start until a minute and seven seconds into the song and there are a few English words throughout the song, but only the ending is fully in English. It doesn’t matter if you don’t understand Japanese because it’s truly an awesome song.

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I was a student of Japanese back in high school, but I forgot everything when I learned Thai in the US Army. That was 24 years ago so it’s amazing that I can still read the Hiragana and Katakana characters. I printed out the song and highlighted all the Katakana in red ink. Katakana is usually English but pronounced in a Japanese way. If you are a student of Japanese or ever visit Japan, knowing Katakana can be very useful. I’ve only had the pleasure of visiting Japan a few times but found reading Katakana to be a big help.


突然のキスや熱いまなざしで
恋のプログラムを狂わせないでね
出逢いと別れ上手に打ち込んで
時間がくれば終わる don’t hurry!

愛に傷ついたあの日からずっと
昼と夜が逆の暮らしを続けて
はやりの disco で踊り明かすうちに
おぼえた魔術なのよ I’m sorry!

私のことを決して本気で愛さないで
恋なんてただのゲーム
楽しめばそれでいいの
閉ざした心を飾る
派手なドレスも靴も孤独な友だち

私を誘う人は皮肉なものね
いつも彼に似てるわ
なぜか思い出と重なり合う
グラスを落として急に涙ぐんでも
わけは尋ねないでね

夜更けの高速で眠りにつくころ
ハロゲンライトだけ妖しく輝く
氷のように冷たい女だと
ささやく声がしても don’t worry!

English version of Plastic Love

There are many covers of Plastic Love in several languages too. I love how the artist captured her look in the English version above.

Korean version of Plastic Love

There is also a Korean version.

Official Music Video of Plastic Love

After gaining so much popularity, they made an official music video last year. I wonder how she feels about her song blowing up all these years later. There are a few YouTube videos about the song as well.

Alan Levenson, the photographer who took the black and white photo, fought to get the song taken down only to have him get credit for it later and a lot of internet hate for being greedy. Hopefully, both artists got to cash in on the song’s recent popularity. This is a good case for making everything NFT or blockchain-based. Rather than having crazy censorship AI taking everything down, there should be a 50/50 split between the cover and original artists.

In the song, she sings about a lost love she used to dance with only to see his face and think about him later in life in all the other guys’ faces. Mariya Takeuchi said she never got to enjoy the city pop scene because she was busy raising her children, but her song singlehandedly brought back the genre.

Star Wars: Visions ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Review 🇯🇵

I just finished watching all 9 short stories of this wonderful mix of Japanese animation set in the Star Wars universe and am now watching them all again. It reminds me a lot of The Animatrix from 2003, but only better. I must admit that I am completely biased since I am both a Star Wars and anime fan.

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I liked each one so much that I downloaded them all and put them on my phone to watch for whenever I don’t have an internet connection. It’s not my fault Disney wants to be all passive-aggressive with their “Sorry, fuck your region message.” First of all, it’s not MY region. I’m just stuck in Laos because of this Covid lockdown bullshit. I’m a fucking American damn it! I wore the uniform. How many of you social justice warrior bitches at Disney can say the same? I don’t care. I’ll just get it for FREE from the Pirate Bay anyways. What’s Disney going to do about it? Call the police? Call the FBI? That will make for a good laugh when I’m in jail explaining to the other inmates what I’m in for. “I downloaded a bunch of Disney cartoons.”

The Circle is Now Complete

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George Lucas has never denied the fact that he used famous Japanese director Akira Kurosawa’s films as inspiration for his Star Wars films. Now Disney+ has given some of the best Japanese animation studios (Studio Colorido, Studio Trigger, Production I.G, Science SARU, and Geno Studio) and artists a chance to tell 9 great short stories. Many of the artists for Visions saw Star Wars as their inspiration when they were kids.

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I liked every story in Visions even though they all had a different animation style. The only one I thought was a bit much was the one that had twins fighting on top of a Star Destroyer without any suits. They were even talking to each other in the vacuum of space. Now, come on! Not even a Jedi can be heard in the emptiness of space!

I see a lot of negative reviews from Star Wars fans about this online, but today it seems people complain about everything. At least these stories weren’t afraid to take Star Wars in a new direction rather than just reboot stuff. If you like Star Wars and or Japanese anime I’m sure you love Visions as much as I did.

Resources:

Disney+
https://disneyplusoriginals.disney.com/show/star-wars-visions

Gaijin Pot Blog
https://blog.gaijinpot.com/akira-kurosawa-5-essential-movies-from-japans-greatest-filmmaker/

Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars:_Visions

Youtube