As an adult human approaching his mid-forties, it’s… fraught? ticklish? to admit a soft spot for Otacore and adjacent material; but the fact is some of these raps about anime and video games are just actual fucking bangers. The right jab was when some Brownian motion in the Spotify algorithm tossed me a Pokemon cypher by Cam Steady; the left cross was moving from Mega Ran’s verse on said cypher to his cover of “Toss a Coin to Your Witcher.” So now YouTube and Spotify know I listen to anime and video game raps, and every so often they give me a new one.
Anyway, Mega Ran and Shwabadi’s new CHAINSAW MAN tribute, “UPGRADE,” is on repeat both in my head and on all my devices. The chorus is catchy as hell, and I’m a sucker for lines like the subject of this post (taken from Shwabadi’s verse). I like Taylor as much as the next millennial, but only on the Internet can you get raps name-checking HTML.
Currently reading: JHEGAALA, by Steven Brust.
If you’re enjoying my writing, you can get some of my short fiction on your e-reader for the low, low cost of $0. Remembered Air is a collection of six poems and short stories not available anywhere else. Download it here.