A bunch of Perfume fans performing their dance covers of “Ima Ima Ima”

A screenshot of Perfume fans ‘ぱふゅーまーず (Perfumers)’ performing a dance cover of “Ima Ima Ima” wearing replicas of Perfume’s Nebula Romance: Part / Army of Light outfits.

As soon as I saw Perfume’s debut performance of “Ima Ima Ima” I thought ‘Fans are gonna have a field day with this choreo’. And then…nothing. There were so few “Ima Ima Ima” dance covers on YouTube and the TikTok. But I guess with Perfume now on their Nebula Romance: Episode 1 Tour, fans being excited about that and being able to meet other fans at venues and dance together, more “Ima Ima Ima” dance covers have slowly been making their way online. So, I wanna highlight the ones that have caught my attention.

This fan meant business. “Story” outfit. With dem boots. The “Fake It” looking-ass location. The Army of the Light pin.

Go off girl.

I couldn’t even focus on this performance, because I was so overwhelmed at seeing a fan enjoying themselves so unashamedly. For such a long time I went through life overly concerned about what people would say or feel about me. I always hid my interests, talked myself out of doing things that I wanted to do — I spent so much time hiding who I was. But thankfully, as I got older I cared less about what people thought. And I’m thankfully at a point in my life where I really do not care how people see me. I’m far more invested in doing the things which bring me joy. Living the life I denied myself as a teen. 16 year old me wishes they had danced in a park, dressed up and lived truer to themselves in public. So it’s beautiful to see this Perfume fan live out loud and be bolder than I was able to be.

My ONLY note for this Perfume fan’s video is that I wish they were wearing trousers which matched the top / dress — just to put the cherry on top of the serve.

I could have sworn there was a Perfume’s Closet collection which featured items inspired by “Story”, but just like Beyoncé’s Formation World Tour, it was all in my mind.

It’s always nice to see Perfume fans outside of Japan do dance covers.

Times Square has become a popular place to do dance covers these days. I don’t know if this has always been a thing and it’s only now that the YouTube algorithm is showing me these videos. But so many dance covers by non-professional dancers based in New York are shot in Times Square, which is insane to me. I didn’t think there could be a large enough unoccupied space there to even do dance covers. Nor did I ever think that New Yorkers would respect that space and not walk through people’s shots whilst they are dancing.

Aside from the Bey hive, the only other fandom who sit at that sewing machine and get to work on outfits based on their fave is Perfume’s. Some of the recreations of their outfits I have seen have been incredible. And this right here is one such instance.

At a glance I thought these girls stole these outfits from Perfume’s dressing room. But as I watched the video, I noticed differences in the outfits from the originals. One of the girls has a Nocchi-fied version of the outfit which features shorts and not a skirt. One of them has a Kashiyuka-fied version of the outfit which has an asymmetrical skirt. These are such amazing details to have included and things I always felt that the Nebula Romance: Part 1 / Army of the Light dresses lacked. Over time Perfume’s stage outfits have become far less member-centric and I kinda miss it.

I still think that Perfume during the days of Game and Triangle is when they were styled best and gave us the most variety, whilst still having each member have their thing. Sometimes we got Nocchi in trousers. Sometimes Kashiyuka was in shorts. A-chan lived for a wedge. Kashiyuka lived for an ankle boot. Nocchi would pop out in a knee high boot every now and then. But even when they mixed things up, each member still had their signature style. It’d be cool to see Perfume go back to this more. We get switch ups on occasion, such as with their “Sumikko Disco” look and their all white ensembles when they performed “Baby Cruising Love” on Utacon back in October. But these instances feel so rare. And for the love of God, can we please bring back shoes which match the outfits? Do y’all remember when Perfume’s pumps would match the colour of their outfits? Now it’s just black and white ankle boots. I get why Perfume now have a preference for block-heeled ankle boots — they’re less likely to fly off and the heels won’t get caught in grooves and grates on stages. But let’s give the boots some razzle and dazzle. A cute silver or teal boot for the Nebula Romance: Part 1 / Army of the Light would be a bit of a serve over them off-white messes.

HENNYWAY.

Perfume 333 looked great.

This girl understood the assignment. Dressed like a Japanese woman straight outta the 80s with the Perfume ankle boots. YES girl.

I want to see Perfume in a full 80s fashion look so bad. We got a uniform style take with “Spending All My Time”, but Perfume never performed in those outfits. We got it with “Time Warp” too, but the outfits looked mad cheap, were stiff as fuck, looked horrid under television studio lighting and had them ugly boots. And we’ve kinda got it with the Nebula Romance: Part 1 / Army of the Light dresses, but they’re more 80s anime-esque and once again uniform based as opposed to 80s FASHUN.

Perfume look so good in period specific fashions. One that comes to mind is “Magic of Love”, which was very 60s / 70s. It’d be great to really see them go all the way with 80s inspired looks for their televised performances this year, to really sell us on their Nebula Romance ‘era’ which pulls from the 80s, both aesthetically and musically. Because of the way Japanese albums traditionally release and end up being single collections, we tend not to really get ‘eras’ in the same way we do with American pop stars. But even American pop stars aren’t giving us this any more, but that’s a whole other post. But given that Perfume have said ‘Fuck a string of singles’ and will be in Nebula Romance mode for 2 albums, there is a real chance for them to give us a proper album phase in a way that we’ve not gotten from any artist or group in Japanese music in ages. So I really hope this is something they consider this year.

Will Bennett is a Perfume fan who has pretty consistently posted dance covers over the past couple of years. And he’s usually one of the first to post a Perfume dance cover to YouTube. I don’t know how he learns the routines so damn quick. Although, ever since “Polygon Wave”, Perfume’s choreography has seemed easier to follow than their earlier routines, despite them not necessarily being easier. I don’t know what exactly it is, but it imprints on my mind so much quicker than their earlier stuff. Even if this is the case for other fans too, it absolutely doesn’t change the skill and ability Bennett has to be able to learn these routines as quickly as he does.

Bennett’s covers are always fun, because he performs with his face — which isn’t a common thing you see with a lot of Perfume dance covers, especially those from Japanese fans. It’s probably the biggest difference between Perfume dance covers from Japanese fans and non Japanese fans. Non-Japanese fans are more facially expressive, whereas Japanese fans’ faces are either stoic or blurred.

It occurred to me upon seeing this video that I have never seen a Perfume routine being performed by a group of people before. It’s always either one person or a trio. So this was a nice surprise. And whoever took charge showed great attention to detail by assigning groups of people the roles of a-chan, Kashiyuka and Nocchi, so everybody wasn’t doing exactly the same thing to the same timing.

This bunch appears to be a group of fans who got together and chose to learn the routine together. Or fans who already knew the routine and wanted to film it together. OR…this is the result of a fan putting out a local ad that they were gonna teach a Perfume routine. There’s too much Perfume merch being worn amongst this group for them not to be fans.

One of my favourite things about Perfume Live [Polygon Wave] was the inclusion of Elevenplay. We don’t often get to see Perfume perform with other people. So seeing them perform with a bunch of other dancers was so refreshing and added a great new dimension to how their performances looked. I hope it’s something they do again for another tour soon.

This performance in particular made me realise something, which is how much hair and an outfit can add to the movement of a dance routine. Between how sharp this fan was with his moves and that he wasn’t wearing anything that moved or hair that could be tossed, it really changed the texture of the routine. This is something which affected how the “Time Warp” routine looked whenever Perfume performed it in the “Time Warp” outfits. Because those outfits were so damn stiff, it made the routine look stiff.

Also, how much does it cost to rent out studios in Japan? Perfume fans in Japan be having FUNDS. Renting out studios. Buying up the merch. Maybe my sugar daddy needs to be Japanese and a Perfume fan.

A screenshot of a group of Perfume fans ‘Perfumeダンス部@関西 (Perfume Dance Club @ Kansai)’ performing a dance cover of “Ima Ima Ima” in a dance studio.

Perfumeダンス部@関西 | YouTube

Seeing people dance Perfume routines is always so interesting to me, because you really do get a sense of how many of the choices Perfume make when dancing are personal choices. There is how to do the move, which I’m sure Mikiko is particular about. But how Perfume do it within those parameters is unique to each member. Despite Perfume always looking so synchronised, there is still individuality in the way they move together. But when you see other people dance Perfume routines, you get a chance to see how a Perfume routine looks with a whole different energy. I don’t think I have seen a single Perfume dance cover where somebody managed to deliver the same energy as Perfume, and that’s what makes the dance covers so fun and fascinating for me to watch - we get to see interpretations of these routines that we’d never see from Perfume. But it also highlights just how good Perfume are as dancers, something I don’t think they get enough credit for.

The Perfume fandom is a dumpster fire. But there are some incredibly talented and creative individuals within it. So it’s nice to be reminded of that with these dance covers.

To everybody whose video I included, you did amazing sweeties. Keep dancing and keep uploading.