Yakuza voice actor reacts to Swedish students singing ‘Baka Mitai’

You know this is a refreshing gamer moment. Amidst lawsuits and uncertainties about the future of beloved IPs, it’s nice to pull back to the roots of quality gaming moments that people have shared internationally. In this case, students in Sweden sang Baka Mitai from the Yakuza series, which prompted Kiryu’s voice actor and SEGA to react.

The video of the students singing was posted to Twitter and has virally spread across Japan since. It’d be silly to say that most people don’t know about Baka Mitai since the song is an infamous meme in English-speaking countries; used in many deepfake videos with the faces of celebrities to give the illusion of them singing the song. You could also find content creators around the globe posting their English or Japanese covers of the song.

How did Baka Mitai start?

Yakuza isn’t karaoke heaven, though. It’s an action-adventure series bent on climatic and hilarious moments following the many stories about Japan’s criminal underbelly. Besides the severity and intriguing anecdotes players will witness throughout the narrative, Yakuza is full of minigames like rhythm-based karaoke that had the gem we know as Baka Mitai.

As a song about losing that special someone, it ironically seems comical by seeing brawny men being vulnerable when most of the time they’re bashing faces into concrete. Naturally, it would make the rounds on the internet as a meme of some sort. Although, I’d argue the song only went viral because it’s an actual bop. In the video, the Sweden students are waving their smartphones back and forth, and they’re swooning with the lyrics. They’re all having a good time; or being shy like I would! But all together, they must love the song enough to share it with an entire class.

What’s your opinion about Baka Mitai? Let us know! 

Via: Automaton