"Doppelgänger" is a song by Japanese hip-hop duo

Creepy Nuts Creepy Nuts is a Japanese hip-hop duo consisting of DJ Matsunaga and R-Shitei, currently signed to Onenation and Sony Music Associated Records. The duo rose to international prominence in 2024 by the single " Bling-Bang-Bang-Born", an opening t ...

from their fourth studio album ''

Legion Legion may refer to: Military * Roman legion, the basic military unit of the ancient Roman army * Aviazione Legionaria, Italian air force during the Spanish Civil War * A legion is the regional unit of the Italian carabinieri * Spanish Legion, ...

'' (2025). It was released by Onenation and

Sony Music Associated Records , often abbreviated as SMEJ or simply SME, and also known as Sony Music Japan for short (stylized as ''SonyMusic''), is a Japanese music arm for Sony. Founded in 1968 as CBS/Sony, SMEJ is directly owned by Sony Group Corporation and is operat ...

on January 24, 2025. The song served as the theme for the

live-action Live action is a form of cinematography or videography that uses photography instead of animation. Some works combine live action with animation to create a live-action animated feature film. Live action is used to define film, video games or ...

film adaptation of manga series ''

Under Ninja is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Kengo Hanazawa. It has been serialized in Kodansha's ''Weekly Young Magazine'' since July 2018. An anime television series adaptation by Tezuka Productions aired from October to December ...

''.

Background and release

On November 26, 2024, it was announced that

would perform the theme song for the

film adaptation of Kengo Hanazawa's manga series ''

'', titled "Doppelgänger". The song was first previewed on the film's second trailer video. "Doppelgänger" was released digitally on January 24, 2025, the same day as ''Under Ninja'' premiere in Japan, and was included on Creepy Nuts' fourth studio album ''

'' (2025). Hiroya Brian Nakano handles the single's cover artwork and visualizer, the latter premiered on February 5, the same day as its parent album's digital release. Daiki Kamoshita directed the song's music video, premiered on March 6.

Composition and reception

"Doppelgänger" features

four-to-the-floor Four-on-the-floor (or four-to-the-floor) is a rhythm used primarily in dance genres such as disco and electronic dance music. It is a steady, uniformly accented beat in time in which the bass drum is hit on every beat (1, 2, 3, 4)."The Dance ...

beats and expresses various sides of

doppelgänger A doppelgänger ( ), sometimes spelled doppelgaenger or doppelganger, is a ghostly double of a living person, especially one that haunts its own fleshly counterpart. In fiction and mythology, a doppelgänger is often portrayed as a ghostly or p ...

. Fans pointed out that the song had sampled R-Shitei's song "Dr. Strangelab" from his album ''Second Opinion'', produced by DJ Matsunaga, which he later revealed that it was an accident. Eriko Ishii of '' Real Sound'' commented that the song "quite lacking in color, with only a hard four-on-the-floor beat close to BPM 160 and words spit out as if chased by the high-speed beat" and "the balance between danger and humor is perfect."

Personnel

* R-Shitei – vocals, lyrics * DJ Matsunaga – composition, arrangement * Masahito Komori – mixing *

Mike Bozzi Mike Bozzi is an American mastering engineer at Bernie Grundman Mastering in Hollywood, California. He won a Grammy Award for Record of the Year for mastering Childish Gambino's " This Is America", and is a six-time nominee for the Grammy Award fo ...

– mastering

Charts

References

{{Creepy Nuts 2025 singles 2025 songs Creepy Nuts songs Film theme songs Songs written for Japanese films Songs in Japanese Sony Music Entertainment Japan singles