Recently, a Vocaloid producer known online as 32ki or Satsuki released a song called “Mesmerizer,” featuring the vocals of Hatsune Miku and Kasane Teto. The music video was animated by popular animator Castation.

This song and accompanying music video blew up online, bringing a bunch of analyses of the video (and to a lesser extent, the song itself), and for good reason. The animation is very bouncy and well done.

However, the main reason it blew up was the animation’s “plot.” In the music video, Miku (teal hair) and Teto (red hair) are dressed as cafe workers and are dancing to the song. As the video goes on, it becomes increasingly clear that something is wrong, ending with Miku being hypnotized and going a little berserk. 

Throughout the video, you can see Teto signaling for help; to name a few examples, in the pre-chorus, she holds her hands in the American Sign Language for “help,” she blinks SOS in the chorus, and the quiz time portion has the beginnings of every answer spell “help.” 

This captivated a lot of people, as it was very easy to miss if you weren’t paying attention, making it an effective pseudo-horror element.

Another thing lending to this song’s popularity is the “kidcore” aesthetic it has. The colors are very bright and the instrumental has a circus feel to it (fitting, as 32ki has another song called “CIRCUS PANIC!!!”). Additionally, the song has a quick tempo that is also found in kid shows openings. This sort of vibe has been on the rise, especially in the horror game industry, so “Mesmerizer” slotted itself right in as an effective use of it.

Overall, though, as a song, “Mesmerizer” is quite catchy. Its rhythms are simple enough to hum and are repetitive enough to stick in your head. There’s an official English cover by popular cover artists Will Stetson and Rachie (complete with their own personas animated instead of Miku and Teto) if you don’t like songs in other languages. I recommend giving it a listen!