The meta-meme of Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” and its seemingly infinite permutations feel somewhat like the Internet’s own cosmic background radiation—a static synth-pop hiss playing on repeat against all the other chaos. Pausing long enough to consider the dynamics at play in the cyclical nature of Rickrolling references and new creative spins on the 1987 song could easily send us into a long-overdue, online existential tailspin… so instead let’s just bask in the odd glory that is “Never Gonna Give You Up” reimagined as the intro theme song to a Japanese anime series.
Sure, perhaps it’s not entirely surprising to hear just how perfectly the late-80’s American pop vibe meshes with the extremely earnest J-pop stylings found in anime credit sequences… but that doesn’t mean “Kesshite Yuzuranai” isn’t a perfect banger that we wish actually…
