As Larry Chan and I had mentioned in our individual commentaries on last week's Kohaku Utagassen, there was one participant in the show that may have become the talk of the town over osechi over the weekend, and that was Mafumafu（まふまふ）.
Seeing hard rock acts on the Kohaku is nothing new and hasn't been for years. However, seeing Mafumafu in his shock of white hair and black gown singing and screaming of a visceral struggle between giving up on life and grabbing it by the neck in a voice so impossibly high but clear with intimidating kanji flying across the screen was something jaw-dropping. I'm sure that there were viewers who were absolutely stunned, dismayed, impressed...and all of the other adjectives at the performance.
According to his Wikipedia article, Mafumafu is an utaite（歌い手）singer and songwriter that has been around since 2010. Now, until today, I had no idea what an utaite was but going to the Utaite Wiki, I discovered that it is "...a Japanese term for people who cover previously released songs and post them on Nico Nico Douga under the utattemita category. The term "utaite" is unique to Nico Nico Douga singers...". As for "utattemita", it means "tried to sing" and I've seen this term a lot of times on YouTube videos for regular folks who decided to give their favourite songs a whirl on the platform. But again, utaite is only used for those folks on Nico Nico Douga.
Mafumafu, who hails from Tokyo, has a four-octave range and according to his own entry on the dictionary, he has a regular and soothing voice when speaking. However, it's that high and feminine voice that is probably gaining a lot of traction with listeners right now. For his performance of "Inochi ni Kiwareteiru" (Hated By Life Itself), he starts out with a light and slightly frantic delivery before his voice launches into an anguished and defiant force of nature.
Apparently from what I could find out, Mafumafu may have released his "Inochi ni Kiwareteiru" in 2020 as a digital download single although I couldn't find it on his own website. The song was created by utaite and songwriter Inori Kanzaki（カンザキイオリ）for Vocaloid performances in August 2017, and you can listen to the above video for Miku Hatsune's（初音ミク）take.
It's hard to imagine bringing up the topic of watercooler chatter to something like the Kohaku Utagassen but with Mafumafu's appearance on New Year's Eve, I think some equivalent has probably occurred online and in-person.
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