is a 2024 song by

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

music producer 32ki (pronounced "Satsuki") featuring vocals by

Vocaloid is a singing Speech synthesis, voice synthesizer software product. Its signal processing part was developed through a joint research project between Yamaha Corporation and the Music Technology Group at Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona. The s ...

virtual singer

Hatsune Miku , officially code-named CV01, is a Vocaloid software voicebank developed by Crypton Future Media. Its official mascot is depicted as a sixteen-year-old girl with long, turquoise twintails. Miku's personification has been marketed as a virt ...

and virtual singer Kasane Teto. The song's accompanying animated

music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...

, created by Japanese animator "channel", reached 10 million views on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

within two weeks of its release, unprecedented for

songs. On November 17, 2024, the song reached 100 million views on YouTube, becoming the fastest Vocaloid song in history to reach 100 million views (6 months and 21 days).

Background and release

The music video for "Mesmerizer" was released on April 27, 2024, and the song was released for

streaming Streaming media refers to multimedia delivered through a network for playback using a media player. Media is transferred in a ''stream'' of packets from a server to a client and is rendered in real-time; this contrasts with file downl ...

on May 17. The song was included on 32ki's first album, ''Circus's Detail'', which was released during 2024. The song's stems have been made available to the public as part of the "Remix Project" at The Vocaloid Collection (known as VocaColle for short), run by

Dwango The Dial-up Wide-Area Network Game Operation, better known by the acronym DWANGO, was an early online gaming service based in the United States. Launched in 1994, it was originally known for its compatibility with ''Doom'', for which it function ...

Composition

"Mesmerizer" contains a high-density mix, a rhythmic and hooky sound, and lyrics that leave room for interpretation. The song explores the theme of "

mesmerism Animal magnetism, also known as mesmerism, is a theory invented by German doctor Franz Mesmer in the 18th century. It posits the existence of an invisible natural force (''Lebensmagnetismus'') possessed by all living things, including humans ...

"; the lyrics examine the desire to escape from reality and the danger of losing oneself to escapism. 32ki said that the melody is influenced by "high-speed singing/high range" songs written by such as Japanese music producer Tohma and . Patrick St. Michel of ''

The Japan Times ''The Japan Times'' is Japan's largest and oldest English-language daily newspaper. It is published by , a subsidiary of News2u Holdings, Inc. It is headquartered in the in Kioicho, Chiyoda, Tokyo. History ''The Japan Times'' was launched by ...

'' described the song as "jagged sonic textures—with

Jersey club Jersey club (originally called Brick City club) is a style of electronic club music that originated in Newark, New Jersey, in the late 90s/early 2000s. It was pioneered by DJ Tameil, Mike V, DJ Tim Dolla, and DJ Black Mic of the Brick Bandits ...

touches buried beneath clattering beats—and tops it off with vocals courtesy of Miku and fellow synthesized character Kasane Teto". "Mesmerizer" is in the key of

B-flat minor B-flat minor is a minor scale based on B, consisting of the pitches B, C, D, E, F, G, and A. Its key signature has five flats. Its relative major is D-flat major and its parallel major is B-flat major. Its enharmonic equivalent, A-s ...

during the verses and its

relative major In music, 'relative keys' are the major and minor scales that have the same key signatures (enharmonically equivalent), meaning that they share all of the same notes but are arranged in a different order of whole steps and half steps. A pair of m ...

D-flat major D-flat major is a major scale based on D, consisting of the pitches D, E, F, G, A, B and C. Its key signature has five flats. The D-flat major scale is: Changes needed for the melodic and harmonic versions of the scale are written in w ...

, during the chorus, with a

modulation Signal modulation is the process of varying one or more properties of a periodic waveform in electronics and telecommunication for the purpose of transmitting information. The process encodes information in form of the modulation or message ...

up a half step to

D major D major is a major scale based on D (musical note), D, consisting of the pitches D, E (musical note), E, F♯ (musical note), F, G (musical note), G, A (musical note), A, B (musical note), B, and C♯ (musical note), C. Its key signature has two S ...

for the final chorus. It is written in

time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

with a fast

tempo In musical terminology, tempo (Italian for 'time'; plural 'tempos', or from the Italian plural), measured in beats per minute, is the speed or pace of a given musical composition, composition, and is often also an indication of the composition ...

of 185 beats per minute. The chorus mainly follows the

chord progression In a musical composition, a chord progression or harmonic progression (informally chord changes, used as a plural, or simply changes) is a succession of chords. Chord progressions are the foundation of harmony in Western musical tradition from ...

IV–V/vi–vi–V–I–IV–V/vi–vi–V/V. The notes of the melody are relatively dissonant in relation to the underlying chords; for example, in D major, the A and G notes above the F

dominant seventh chord Domination or dominant may refer to: Society * World domination, structure where one dominant power governs the planet * Colonialism in which one group (usually a nation) invades another region for material gain or to eliminate competition * Ch ...

in the chorus result in a heavily altered F799.

Music video

The music video for the song was created by "channel", whose fan-made animation for " Rabbit Hole" by

Deco*27 Deco*27 (stylized in all caps and pronounced "Dekonīna") is a Japanese musician, Vocaloid producer, and songwriter. He is considered to be one of the most influential Vocaloid producers of the early 2010s, along with Wowaka and Kenshi Yonezu. ...

went viral on social media in February 2024. In the music video, Hatsune Miku and Kasane Teto dance to cheerful singing and rhythmic effects, wearing clothing in the style of an American diner. Despite the video's bright visuals and upbeat music, disturbing details are littered throughout. Teto repeatedly uses

distress signal A distress signal, also known as a distress call, is an internationally recognized means for obtaining help. Distress signals are communicated by transmitting radio signals, displaying a visually observable item or illumination, or making a sou ...

s, including signing "help" in

American Sign Language American Sign Language (ASL) is a natural language that serves as the predominant sign language of Deaf communities in the United States and most of Anglophone Canadians, Anglophone Canada. ASL is a complete and organized visual language that i ...

, showing the Signal for Help, and blinking "

SOS SOS is a Morse code distress signal (), used internationally, originally established for maritime use. In formal notation SOS is written with an overscore line (), to indicate that the Morse code equivalents for the individual letters of "SOS" a ...

" in

Morse code Morse code is a telecommunications method which Character encoding, encodes Written language, text characters as standardized sequences of two different signal durations, called ''dots'' and ''dashes'', or ''dits'' and ''dahs''. Morse code i ...

. Before the first chorus, she and Miku perform two-finger salutes with their right hands while hiding their left behind their backs, flanking a tridecagram flashing "mesmerizer!!" between them in a formation that resembles "SOS"—this same pose also appears in the video's

thumbnail Thumbnails are reduced-size versions of pictures or videos, used to help in recognizing and organizing them, serving the same role for images as a normal text index does for words. In the age of digital images, visual search engines and image-o ...

. During the "QUIZ TIME!" segment, the first letters of each answer spell "HELP", while the fourth letters of the second, third, and final answers spell "SOS". Halfway through the video, Miku succumbs to hypnosis, and she begins to lose control of herself while Teto is shown resisting for several days; both of their eyes gradually fade to black. At the start of the final chorus, Miku descends into madness—dancing wildly with sharp teeth, pitch-black eyes, and tongue out, as the subtitles glitch into

mojibake Mojibake (; , 'character transformation') is the garbled or gibberish text that is the result of text being decoded using an unintended character encoding. The result is a systematic replacement of symbols with completely unrelated ones, often ...

. Teto, visibly frightened, continues to dance with a worried expression, her eyes losing their pupils and irises fading to a dull red. In the final moments, obscured by confetti, Teto's eyes briefly close before reopening—now pitch black, her distressed expression fading to a vacant smile, implying that she has also been hypnotized.

Reception

The music video for "Mesmerizer" uploaded to YouTube reached 10 million views on May 11, 2024, 13 days later. The song is also the third and fastest song to surpass one million views on

Niconico , known before 2012 as , is a Japanese video sharing service based in Tokyo, Japan. "Niconico" or "nikoniko" is the Japanese sound symbolism, Japanese ideophone for smiling. As of 2021, Niconico is the 34th most-visited website in Japan, accordi ...

utilizing Synthesizer V, and the second fastest among all Vocaloid songs. On June 27, 2024, the video surpassed 50 million views. A commemorative illustration was made by channel the following day. The song reached 100 million views on YouTube in November 17, becoming the fastest Vocaloid song in history to reach 100 million views (6 months and 21 days). The song has also inspired a large number of

Internet meme An Internet meme, or meme (, Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''MEEM''), is a cultural item (such as an idea, behavior, or style) that spreads across the Internet, primarily through Social media, social media platforms. Internet memes manif ...

s. Patrick St. Michel argued that the song "shows how Miku and the software she represents remain vital to the musical ecosystem of the 2020s". On October 2, 2024, the song was included in

Sega is a Japanese video game company and subsidiary of Sega Sammy Holdings headquartered in Tokyo. It produces several List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises for arcade game, arcades and video game cons ...

's rhythm game '' Hatsune Miku: Colorful Stage!''. the song was also included in ''

Chunithm (stylized in all caps) is an arcade game, arcade rhythm game developed and published by Sega. It was first seen in select Japanese arcades in November 2014, as part of a location test and was officially released on . The game's title of ''Chuni ...

'' on 12 December 2024, in ''

Beatmania IIDX (IIDX) is a series of rhythm video games, that was first released by Konami in Japan on 26 February 1999. ''Beatmania IIDX'' has since spawned 32 arcade releases and 14 console releases on the Sony PlayStation 2. It is the sequel to the '' b ...

32: Pinky Crush'' on October 9, 2024, in ''

Pop'n Music , commonly abbreviated as ''Pop'n'', ''PM'' or ''PNM'' and stylized as ''pop'n music'', is a music video game series in the Bemani series made by Konami. The games are known for their bright colors, upbeat songs, and cute cartoon character graphic ...

Jam&Fizz'' on December 19, 2024, in '' Dance Dance Revolution World'' on December 25, 2024, and in ''

Sound Voltex is a series of music games developed and published by Konami. The first release of the game, ''Sound Voltex Booth'', was tested in various cities in Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the nort ...

Exceed Gear'' on January 9, 2025. A ''

doujin In Japan, a is a group of people who share an interest, activity, or hobby. The word is sometimes translated into English as "clique", "fandom", "coterie", "society", or "circle" (as in "sewing circle"). Self-published creative works produ ...

turn-based Timekeeping is relevant to many types of games, including video games, tabletop role-playing games, board games, and sports. The passage of time must be handled in a way that players find fair and easy to understand. In many games, this is don ...

rhythm game Rhythm game or rhythm action is a genre of music-themed action video game that challenges a player's sense of rhythm. Games in the genre typically focus on dance or the simulated performance of musical instruments, and require players to pres ...

has been released.

Chart performance

The song debuted at No. 8 on the ''

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 fr ...

'' Niconico Vocaloid Songs Top 20 chart for the week, later topping the chart for five consecutive weeks, and entering the top 20 of Japan Songs (

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

) for three consecutive weeks. It also debuted at No. 65 on the

Japan Hot 100 The ''Billboard Japan'' Hot 100 is a record chart in Japan for songs. It has been compiled by ''Billboard Japan'' and Hanshin Contents Link since February 2008. The chart is updated every Wednesday at Billboard-japan.com ( JST) and every Thursday ...

on May 29, 2024. On May 30, 2024, the song reached No. 13 on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' Global Japan Songs excl. Japan chart. Additionally, the song reached number 3 on the

Heatseekers Songs The Heatseekers charts were "Breaking and Entering" music charts issued weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. The Heatseekers Albums and the Heatseekers Songs charts were introduced by ''Billboard'' in 1991 with the purpose of highlighting the sales b ...

chart. In June 2024, the song ranked on Niconico Vocaloid Songs Top 20 mid-year chart for 2024 at number 6 just five weeks after the song's release. The song also ranked on Niconico Vocaloid Songs Top 20 year-end chart for 2024 at number 2. It ranked No. 2 on the YouTube Japan Daily Top Music Videos chart on May 13, 2024. On May 22, 2024, it debuted at No. 5 on the YouTube Japan Weekly Top Songs chart. Additionally, "Mesmerizer" became the top-searched term on Weekly Hot Word Ranking on May 8, 2024.

Charts

Weekly charts

Accolades

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Music Awards Japan The Music Awards Japan (abbreviated as MAJ), is a music awards show by the Japanese music industry to honour musical talents from Asia, Japan and the Western regions. The awards are organized by the Japan Culture and Entertainment Industry Promo ...

, Best Vocaloid Culture Song , ,

Release history

Notes

References

External links

"Mesmerizer" on YouTube

"Mesmerizer" on Niconico
{{Authority control 2024 songs 2024 singles Songs in Japanese Works about mind control Viral videos Happy hardcore songs Vocaloid songs Internet memes introduced in 2024 Internet memes introduced from Japan