"Shukusei!! Loli Kami Requiem" is a song by Japanese artist Ui Shigure from her album . Featuring vocals from Shigure as a nine-year-old and narration by Tamaki Inuyama, it was composed by D.watt and written by Maron, both of IOSYS. Though it was released in 2022, the song suddenly went viral in September 2023 after the release of its full music video. Due to its lyrics centering around the subject of pedophilia, the song also amassed controversy online.
Composition
The lyrics to "Shukusei!! Loli Kami Requiem" are written from the perspective of Ui Shigure's fictional nine-year-old persona assailing imprisoned lolicons while simultaneously acting as a goddess who leads them to salvation. The music video depicts danmaku 'barrage' comments, inspired by the comment layout of video-sharing platform Nico Nico Douga, representing the sexual predators. Right in the middle part of the song, in an act of "divine purg[ing]", the music cuts to her firing her "Ui Beam" to electrocute sludge creatures while the narrator explains the situation and the attack. Shigure's sadistic way of taunting has been described as a mesugaki' trope"; that is, provocative behavior by young girls to sexually entice adults.
Kitagawa of Kai-you divides the song into two main halves. The former is described as being upbeat or rising action with pop music aspects to it, which then changes into dubstep with amplified basslines. The music then descends into a dark second half.
Production and release
The song features vocals from Japanese illustrator and virtual YouTuber Ui Shigure in her nine-year-old persona, dubbed "Loli Ui", who is featured occasionally in her livestreams. The lyrics to and composition of the song were written by dōjin 'indie' music group IOSYS' Maron and D.watt, respectively. The song features a narration by fellow virtual Youtuber Tamaki Inuyama. In a 2022 interview with Febri, Shigure said that, as an otaku herself, she quickly decided on a denpa 'nonsense' song when collaborating with IOSYS. Additionally, she said that the lyrics she had received had been far more brutal compared to the final revision, calling it seemingly "as painful as hitting someone with concrete". According to Maron, the working title was "Shukusei: Butabakomyunikēshon!!".
The song was previewed on May 21, 2022, in one of Shigure's livestreams on YouTube. It was included in her debut album , which was released on May 25. The music video for the song was released on September 10, 2023, on her YouTube channel, after she had performed it virtually in a livestream that revealed nine-year-old Ui's three-dimensional model. 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 went viral worldwide on social media and became an Internet meme. 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 virtual YouTuber to reach it and one of the fastest-growing original songs among virtual YouTubers in general. It hit number one on the domestic Viral charts of Spotify on September 18.
The "overwhelming quality" of the video, especially the dance featured during the song's chorus, helped amplify the sudden growth in popularity. Users on TikTok began posting videos of themselves or characters of their own or from video games, such as Genshin Impact, imitating the dance. Cover versions of it 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 the platform. Its popularity then spread to other platforms like YouTube Shorts and Twitter.
The Taiwanese Yahoo! News MrSun called its lyrics and melody "really earwormy" such that "after letting someone hear it once, they will hum along subconsciously." Kitagawa 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 during when Nico Nico Douga was the primary video-sharing platform in Japan.