About
“Ojamajo Carnival!!” (Japanese: おジャ魔女カーニバル！！) is the opening theme song for the 1999 Japanese anime series Ojamajo DoReMi. Online, the song has become a popular musical resource for MAD remix videos on Nico Nico Douga since late-2008.
Origin
The magical girl anime Ojamajo DoReMi[1] was produced by Toei Animations and premiered on Japanese TV stations on February 7th, 1999. The show’s opening theme was written by future K-On! lyricist Shoko Omori[2], and performed by MAHO-Dou (MAHO堂), a group consisting of the show’s voice actresses Chiemi Chiba, Tomoko Akiya, and Yuki Matsuoka. The song would be released as a single under the now-defunct label Bandai Music Entertainment on March 5th, 1999.
The well-crafted song would receive immediate praise after its release, where it would later be given the award for Best Theme Song at Animation Kobe[3] during 1999.
Spread
This song began being used as musical resource on Niconico as early as the site’s relaunch on March 2007 with an AMV-style video of the anime s-CRY-ed[4]. One of the first mash-ups with the song was a dubbed remix of the music video for MC Hammer’s “U Can’t Touch This” (shown below), where it only received a moderated 72,000 views since its March 25th upload.
From there, videos featuring the song started appearing at a steady pace, often time relating to THE iDOLM@STER, after an iM@S music video of the song was uploaded to the site[5] on April 22nd, 2007. The song would remain mildly-known until over a year later, when it was used in a dub mash-up with the viral video “”http:" />Crazy Frog Brothers", created by user Frisk and uploaded to Niconico on October 25th, 2008.
Titled “Ojamajo Gates”, the song’s near perfect sync with the boys’ awkward dancing and lip-syncing helped it to become an immediate hit with users, reaching the top of the site’s video rankings chart and being viewed more then 2.5 million times. Inspired, users began trying their hand in recreating the video and before long, MAD remixes of the song soon cropped up, with them gaining some fair success. Over 480 videos relating to the song has since been uploaded to Niconico[6], with many being MAD videos breaking the hundred-thousand views mark.
Notable Examples
【ニコニコ動画】ディオ魔ジョカーニバル!!【ニコニコ動画】おジュ魔女いずみ
Left: Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure | Right: Chargeman Ken!
【ニコニコ動画】おジャ魔女イーノック 【エルシャダイ】【ニコニコ動画】クソ魔女せろり
Left: El Shaddai | Right: A Certain Magical Index
【ニコニコ動画】【ＭＡＤ】巨人カーニバル!!【進撃の巨人】【ニコニコ動画】【コマンドー】 おジャ魔女ベネット
Left: Attack on Titan | Right: Commando
Search Interest
External References
Editor’s Note: Registration is needed to browse the original videos listed in this section.
[1]Wikipedia – Ojamajo Doremi
[2]Wikipedia – Shoko Omori (Japanese)
[3]Wikipedia – Animation Kobe | Animation Kobe Theme Song Award
[4]Nico Nico Douga – 【スクライド】 ジャ魔ライド 【MAD】 / Posted on 03-07-2007
[5]Nico Nico Douga – アイドルマスター(おジャ魔女カーニバル) / Posted on 04-22-2007
[6]Nico Nico Douga – Search results for the tag おジャ魔女カーニバル!!