When a drawn person meets a real band — mumune's 'Orange Flare'

In three lines

• Virtual idol mumune's first solo song 'Orange Flare' came out on July 30.
• It's hybrid rock mixing hyperpop and pop punk.
• The music video was made by layering outdoor live-action footage with virtual footage.

A first solo song

mumune is a member of WISHes, a two-person virtual idol group, under the subculture label GRIM Production.

Item	Detail
Song	First solo song 'Orange Flare'
Release	July 30, noon
Genre	Hyperpop + pop punk hybrid rock
Written by	INFX · IRIS

INFX, who comes from game music, worked on it with IRIS of MonoTree. Two people arriving from the game side and the pop side made one song together.

Mixing two genres

Hyperpop and pop punk are quite different in character. Hyperpop pushes sound digitally until it distorts; pop punk lets guitar and drums collide as they are.

One maximises an artificial texture, the other keeps the roughness of live playing. Put both in one song and usually one wins. Which is why the way of mixing becomes the song's character.

It's a natural combination for a virtual artist to choose. The structure is a drawn being standing on top of real instrument sound. The genre blend overlaps with the artist's own condition.

A screen that layers photo and drawing

The video combines two kinds of shooting: live-action footage filmed outdoors, and footage built virtually. The backgrounds are a grass field and a performance space, and a real band session appears alongside.

Virtual idol videos are usually drawn end to end, which closes the world smoothly. Mix in live action and a seam appears, because drawing and photography have different textures.

Not hiding that seam is this video's choice. It doesn't work to make a drawn being standing in a real space look natural.

Discovery note

Turn the volume up a little for this one. Hyperpop textures just sound thin when played quietly, and the pop punk guitars lose their weight.

There's a question people often ask about a virtual artist's songs: who's actually singing? It doesn't help much with listening, though. If there's a voice and there's a song, that's reason enough to press play.

It's worth hearing as a first solo, too. When someone who shared parts inside a group has to fill a whole song alone, what they choose shows — what got put in and what got left out of those three-odd minutes.

Just give it a listen, trust me.