Bad Apple!!
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| "Bad Apple!!" | |
|---|---|
| Song by ZUN | |
| Released | 14 August 1998 |
| Genre | |
| Length | 1:22 |
| Label | ZUN Soft |
| Composer | ZUN |
"'Bad Apple!!" is a soundtrack from the 1998 bullet hell video game Lotus Land Story, the fourth entry in the Touhou Project series created by ZUN. In 2007, a cover version by Alstroemeria Records was released which rose to prominence on the Japanese video sharing site Niconico. In 2009, the Niconico user Anira produced an animated shadow art video for the song based on a previous user's story board, which quickly amassed millions of views on the site. The video went on to become an internet meme and to has been used as graphical test for various esoteric media. The song itself has since received numerous remixes and appearances in other video game titles.
Song and music video
[edit]| "Bad Apple!! feat.nomico" | |
|---|---|
 Album cover for Lovelight | |
| Song by Alstroemeria Records | |
| from the album Lovelight | |
| Released | 20 May 2007 |
| Genre | |
| Length |
|
| Lyricist | Haruka[1] |
| Producer | Masayoshi Minoshima |
| Music video | |
| "Bad Apple!! feat.nomico" on YouTube | |
| Audio sample | |
Rendition of "Bad Apple!!" by Alstroemeria Records | |
"Bad Apple!!" was first released as an instrumental track for the third stage of the 1998 bullet hell video game Lotus Land Story. The game is the fourth in the Touhou Project series created by ZUN.[2] According to ZUN, he wanted the song to sound "as old-fashioned as possible".[3]
On 20 May 2007[4] a cover version featuring the Japanese singer nomico was released on the album Lovelight by the doujin circle Alstroemeria Records, led by Masayoshi Minoshima.[1][5] On 8 June 2008, a user on Niconico uploaded a video of a crude storyboard based on a shortened version of Alstroemeria Records's cover, asking for anyone to animate it.[6] On 27 October 2009, the Niconico user Anira (Japanese: あにら) published a shadow art (black and white) animation video based on the storyboard. The video quickly gained popularity, reaching 9 million views on Niconico by September 2010.[5] It reached nearly 30 million views by March 2023, making it the most viewed Touhou-related video on the site.[7] It has 115 million views as of November 2025.[8]
In 2017 and 2018, Alstroemeria Records released a series of 10th Anniversary Bad Apple!! albums consisting entirely of remixes and covers of their version of "Bad Apple!!".[9][10][11] On 21 May 2020, the animation by Anira was uploaded to the Alstroemeria Records YouTube channel.[12] The song has also appeared in several other video games, including Hatsune Miku: Colorful Stage,[13] Taiko no Tatsujin: Drum 'n' Fun!,[14] Cladun 3X,[15] and Muse Dash.[16]
Use as a graphical test
[edit]Since its release in 2009, the music video has become an internet meme[17][18] and has been recreated on various forms of media as a graphical test:
- In November 2009, a Niconico user posted a video showcasing a laser art version of the music video[5]
- In January 2010, a Niconico user recreated the video from over 6,000 stills as a stop motion film.[5]
- In June 2014, Jim Leonard created a demo called "8088 Domination", which included a section rendering the "Bad Apple!!" shadow video on an IBM 5160.[19][20]
- By June 2014, over 2000 frames from the music video was ported to the Commodore 64 on a single side disk.[21]
- By 2015, the "Bad Apple!!" music video had been ported to the Vectrex console,[22][23] Atari 2600, Nintendo Entertainment System, Sega Genesis, and a TI-84 Plus series graphing calculator.[22]
- In 2019, Stéphane Hockenhull programmed an Arduino Mega to render the video.[24]
- In 2020, Twitter user Foone posted several videos of an electronic pregnancy test that was reprogrammed to play the video.[25]
- In 2023, several Reddit users re-animated "Bad Apple!!" during that year's r/place event. While primarily a collaboration between the Touhou, osu!, and Hatsune Miku subreddits, several other subreddits also assisted with the animation, which took almost 72 hours to complete.[17]
References
[edit]- ^ a b "Alstroemeria Records » ARCD0018 / Lovelight". Alstroemeria Records. Archived from the original on 15 October 2007. Retrieved 2 January 2025.
- ^ Lee Hale, Daryl (3 May 2015). "TouhouCon to Host Voice Actress, Singer Nomico". Anime News Network. Retrieved 13 November 2025.
- ^ "Bad Apple!!". Toho Music database (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 21 September 2019. Retrieved 21 September 2019.
出来るだけ昔っぽい曲をめざしたんですけど
[I was aiming for a song that sounds as old-fashioned as possible] - ^ "Alstroemeria Records » Blog Archive » ARCD0016,ARCD0018 Release INFO". Alstroemeria Records. 18 May 2007. Archived from the original on 15 October 2007. Retrieved 2 January 2025.
- ^ a b c d Manry, Gia (11 September 2010). "Daily Video: Touhou 'Bad Apple' Video Collection (Updated)". Anime News Network. Archived from the original on 26 January 2021. Retrieved 2 January 2025.
- ^ Μμ (8 June 2008). 【Uploader want to watch】Bad Apple!! PV【Please someone picturize it】 (Video). Archived from the original on 27 August 2008. Retrieved 1 January 2021 – via Niconico.
- ^ "「『【東方】Bad Apple!! ＰＶ【影絵】』がニコニコ動画で3000万再生」など、今週の東方ニュースまとめ". touhougarakuta.com. 8 March 2023.
- ^ kasidid2 (26 October 2009). 【東方】Bad Apple!! ＰＶ【影絵】. Retrieved 17 November 2025 – via YouTube.
{{cite AV media}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ "ARCD0056 – 10th Anniversary Bad Apple!!". Alstroemeria Records. Archived from the original on 7 October 2024. Retrieved 5 October 2024.
- ^ "ARCD0060 / Bad Apple!! feat.nomico 10th Anniversary PHASE2". Alstroemeria Records. Retrieved 5 October 2024.
- ^ "ARCD0065 / 10th Anniversary Bad Apple!! feat.nomico PHASE 3". Alstroemeria Records. Archived from the original on 7 October 2024. Retrieved 5 October 2024.
- ^ Minoshima, Masayoshi (21 May 2020). [Alstroemeria Records]Bad Apple!! feat.nomico(Shadow Animation Version)[ACVS.008_Tr.00] (Video). Archived from the original on 6 January 2024. Retrieved 6 January 2024 – via YouTube.
- ^ Liu, Stephanie (27 March 2024). "Touhou Project Tracks Will Appear in Hatsune Miku: Colorful Stage". Siliconera. Retrieved 13 November 2023.
- ^ Lada, Jenni (13 November 2018). "Taiko No Tatsujin: Drum 'n' Fun Handles Unlocking Well". Siliconera. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
- ^ Stenbuck, Kite (30 May 2025). "Cladun X3 gets an official Touhou Project crossover content set". RPG Site. Retrieved 14 November 2025.
- ^ Lawton, Tilly (30 September 2021). "Muse Dash X Touhou collaboration - there's no bad apple spoiling this bunch". Pocket Tactics. Retrieved 13 November 2025.
- ^ a b Glaze, Virginia (24 July 2023). "r/place recreates iconic Bad Apple music video with jaw-dropping timelapse". Dexerto. Archived from the original on 25 July 2023. Retrieved 14 January 2025.
- ^ Verdin, Guillaume (29 December 2017). "La célèbre vidéo Bad Apple!! débarque sur Atari Jaguar !". mag.mo5.com (in French). Retrieved 14 November 2025.
- ^ Pardo, Lisandro (23 June 2014). "8088 Domination: Vídeo full motion en una IBM PC" [8088 Domination: Full motion video on an IBM PC]. Neoteo (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 21 September 2019. Retrieved 21 September 2019.
- ^ Benchoff, Brian (21 June 2014). "(Better) Full Motion Video on the First PC". Hackaday. Archived from the original on 22 December 2019. Retrieved 22 December 2019.
display video at 640×200 resolution at 30 frames per second on a 30-year-old computer. … playing the 'Bad Apple' animation on an 8088.
- ^ "Bad Apple 64 – A mighty impressive C64 demo!". 30 June 2014. Archived from the original on 11 November 2020. Retrieved 4 December 2020.
over 2000 frames packed to a single disk, with each frame packed to around 70 bytes and running at 12fps streaming fully from disk
- ^ a b Williams, Carl (16 July 2015). "Bad Apple Ported to the Vectrex, Something that Should Technically not be Possible". Retro Gaming Magazine. Archived from the original on 8 January 2021. Retrieved 21 September 2019.
Bad Apple has also hit the Sega Genesis … Bad Apple hitting the Atari 2600? The Nintendo Entertainment System? Texas Instruments 84+? … Bad Apple has been ported to all of those platforms
- ^ "Touhou's Lotus Land Story 'Bad Apple' AMV Ported To Vectrex". Retro Collect. 14 July 2015. Archived from the original on 17 July 2015. Retrieved 14 November 2025.
- ^ Day, Lewin (8 January 2019). "Bad Apple!! Via The Arduino Mega". Hackaday. Archived from the original on 21 September 2019. Retrieved 19 September 2019.
- ^ Stanley, Alyse (7 September 2020). "Yes, You Can Run Doom on an Electronic Pregnancy Test—But There's One Big Catch". Gizmodo. Retrieved 14 November 2025.
