Originally releasing in 1984, Mariya Takeuchi’s Plastic Love has received a music video 36 years after its original release.
Plastic Love was originally released in 1984 in Takeuchi’s album Variety, and when the title released as a single in 1985 it only reached #86 in the Oricon single charts. In a surprise revival, the song recently placed in the top 10 in the same chart in 2021.
The song is considered to be a prime example of the “City-Pop” genre; which is typically identified by its 80s aesthetic, typically Japanese lyrics, and upbeat tempo and melody. Other songs in the City-Pop genre include Telephone Number by Junko Ohashi, and Dress Down by Kaoru Akimoto.
In 2017, a fan of the song uploaded Plastic Love to YouTube, using a photo of Takeuchi from her single Sweetest Music/Morning Glory. Despite not originally being affiliated with the song, the video’s popularity (46 million views at the time of writing) has seen the image reused for the recent re-release of Plastic Love as a vinyl single earlier this year.
The new music video for Mariya Takeuchi’s Plastic Love can be found below.
This is Nicchiban Culture. In this column, we regularly cover Japanese culture, geek culture, and things related to anime. Please leave feedback and let us know if there’s something you want us to cover!
