Avex release a boring ass video for the 2023 version of Ryoko Shinohara and Tetsuya Komuro’s “Itoshisa to Setsunasa to Kokoro Zuyosa”, featuring Street Fighter 6

When the company behind Mega Man, Resident Evil and Devil May Cry did a livestream event for the 2022 Tokyo Game Show earlier this year, they capped it off with news that a new version of the 1994 number 1 hit song “Itoshisa to Setsunasa to Kokoro Zuyosa to” would be the promotional song for Street Fighter 6 in Japan, and that it would once again be sung by the original artist, Ryoko Shinohara, and feature production from the original producer Tetsuya Kumoro.

Some fans were like ‘Cool’. Others were confused. Some didn’t care.

Well, now the song has a music video. And it’s a boring-ass music video for a song with so much energy, which is also for a Street Fighter game. Don’t let the image choice for this post fool you. We do not get 4 minutes and 27 seconds of Chun-Li shaking them thighs in a cheongsam.

I can’t embed the video, because Avex hates my blog. So, hit the link below to watch it over at YouTube.

📺 Watch the music video: Itoshisa to Setsunasa to Kokoro Zuyosa to 2023

The Chisato Mita single cover art for this song is so cool and creative, and none of that is carried through into this boring ass video which nobody is going to watch more than once, unless they have a thing for watching Ryoko run her hand through her hair or seeing Tetsuya Komuro’s veneers. Then again, the original music video for the song was also boring as hell, and featured nothing by Ryoko standing there and singing the song in a white blouse. So the team behind this video can always say it’s a homage.

For those thinking ‘This song doesn’t match Street Fighter for shit!?’. Gurl, same. But there is history between the Street Fighter franchise and this song. “Itoshisa to Setsunasa to Kokoro Zuyosa to” featured in the Japanese release of Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie. The film where we see unnecessarily see Chun-Li’s titties. A moment which is greatly redeemed by what is easily the best scene in the film; a square off between that Spanish gay with the claw and Chun-Li herself.

Whilst this song was used in a Street Fighter film, it being resurrected for the game still doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. Especially given the creative direction of the game being graffiti and underground street brawling. The two just don’t fit together. It’s just a throwback for the sake of a throwback. If there was an insistence to use “Itoshisa to Setsunasa to Kokoro Zuyosa to”, I think it would have been a good look to have had a more current artist who actually still puts out music to have covered this song. Crystal Kay sang “Itoshisa to Setsunasa to Kokoro Zuyosa to” in 2021 on the first season of The Masked Singer Japan, so that’s a great choice of artist right there. But we know Crystal’s team ain’t shit, so that was never gonna happen. Or maybe having Exile cover it, given that they sang the theme song for Street Fighter IV.

“Itoshisa to Setsunasa to Kokoro Zuyosa to” being the promo song for Street Fighter 6 is one of those things that seems good (to somebody) in theory, but in practice, doesn’t make complete sense. But this is Street Fighter 6 all over. I’m still stuck on how ugly the game looks, and why Capcom chose to drastically change the logo to something so generic and characterless after 30 decades, when the original Street Fighter logo tied in with the graffiti motifs used throughout the game.

“Itoshisa to Setsunasa to Kokoro Zuyosa to” is available on streaming now. And Street Fighter 6 releases for PS4, PS5, PC, and the Xbox Series X and S on June 2nd, 2023.

Poor Switch. Maybe it’ll get a raggedy cloud version in 2024.

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