Nyango Star is a giant cat-fruit hybrid from – where else – Japan and the mascot destroyed the drums death metal style in a cutesy anime performance. The video appeared on YouTuber George Collier’s channel, titled “when you’re overqualified for the job”, complete with a detailed transcription of the crazy drum performance.
In the video, which has been viewed 14 million times, Nyango Star plays “Anpanman’s March”, which is the theme song to the children’s superhero anime Soreike! Anpanman. The song has a ridiculously kawaii female vocalist, which matches the children’s subject matter well, however Nyango Star flips the song on its head by adding brutal metal drumming throughout the second half of the song.
The video is by far the most viewed clip on George Collier’s YouTube channel. Collier is a high school student and his channel is devoted to providing musical transcriptions of performances, often displaying virtuosity and typically with a wacky novelty, such as the death metal drumming cat.
Young Collier is no relation to contemporary jazz star and Coldplay collaborator Jacob Collier, as he explains on his channel. The younger Collier is evidently a big fan of Japanese music, as another popular video on his channel features Japanese jazz pianist Hiromi Uehara. The clip, titled “Canon in D but it keeps getting jazzier”, is exactly what you’d expect – a wacky jazz version of the well-known classical piece by Johann Pachelbel. Check out the video below.
Collier sometimes gets a little help with his transcriptions of the performances, and in the case of the Nyango Star and Uehara performances, the music was transcribed by Daniel Semmelrock and Tony Williams respectively.
If you noticed Nyango Star’s name has more than a passing resemblance to the Beatles’ drummer Ringo Starr’s stage name, you’d be absolutely correct, as the mascot’s name was inspired by the world famous sticksman. His style couldn’t be any more different than Ringo’s loose swinging feel though, as Nyango plays more like Slayer’s Dave Lombardo. Adding to the wordplay, ringo means apple in Japanese and nyan is the Japanese word for meow.
Nyango Star was playing at a children’s concert in the George Collier video, but he’s made a wide variety of appearances over the years while on a journey to become a famous musician, as he explains on his website.
Nyango Star has become an internet sensation through various oddball performances, with a number of his videos reaching several million views each. His real identity is not known, but judging by his flawless metal pummeling in the video, he is most likely a professional musician.
Star is apparently an expert children’s entertainer as well, as he is featured playing at a different kid’s concert on another popular video on Collier’s channel. In this video he plays a brutal version of J-pop band Uchikubigokumon-Doukoukai’s song “Huton No Naka Kara Detakunai”.
The song and Star are a match made in heaven, as the original song mixes a mellow reggae groove with sudden transitions into brutal metal riffs, complete with rapid fire double kick and screams. If you would like to see more from George Collier, you can subscribe to his YouTube channel. You can also visit his official website for more information.