Creepy Nuts -- Bling-Bang-Bang-Born

 

To be honest, I hadn't heard of this anime adaptation of the manga titled "Mashle"（マッシュル）until yesterday. The original manga had its run in "Shonen Jump" between 2020 and 2023 and the first season of the anime lasted from April to July 2023. So far, I've been having a giggle or two at this mix of "One Punch Man" and the "Harry Potter" franchise with the main character of cream puff-loving Mash Burnedead, a Muggle on a magical Earth, who intends to be the best of the best at Easton Magic Academy regardless of his low non-magical status and the abuse hurled at him and his allies by using his Superman-level brawn and Vulcan-stoic face.

Now, how I found out about "Mashle" was actually through my daily scrolling of "Know Your Meme" which featured an article about the opening theme for the second season which began back in January. Apparently, it's become quite the cat's meow all over the Internet. "Bling-Bang-Bang-Born" was recorded by hip-hop duo Creepy Nuts for release as their January 7th 14th digital single. And if that band name sounds familiar to any of you anime fans, maybe you watched "Yofukashi no Uta"（よふかしのうた）a couple of years ago since MC R-Shitei（R-指定）and DJ Matsunaga （DJ 松永）were behind both the snazzy opening and ending themes there.

"Bling-Bang-Bang-Born" certainly is catchy with that delivery of that title and especially with Mash dancing away. J-Wiki has described the melody as a hip-hop anison but Wikipedia has given it the genre tag of Jersey Club which I had never heard of before. It's a particularly aggressive and bouncy form of electronic dance music. Mind you, I think I can pick up on some salsa or rumba in there, too.

The song isn't even three minutes long but does it pack a lot of energy and friendly rapid-fire onomatopoeia to emulate in the bedrooms and karaoke boxes of the world. And yep, people are listening since it went to No. 1 on Billboard Japan and Oricon with its residency at the former going on for four to five weeks. 

Mash's twisty moves for those ten seconds in the credits haven't been lost on the Tik Tok crowd either. They've embraced them and I was scrolling down a whole ton of these "Bling-Bang-Bang-Born" dance challenges. Heck, even the stars of another famous anime have been getting into the act.