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jikomusic · 26 days

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I'm really proud of how this rip turned out, probably moreso than any other rip I made. I initially didn’t plan for this rip to be the ender for the April Fool's event, mainly just wanting to do a rip with Fukashigi no Carte for International Bunny Girl Day Easter a couple weeks prior and figuring that it would work well with Staff Roll. It was only after it was approved where I suggested to backroom for it to go up "after Mario was resurrected from the cross", partially as a joke. I think I only later realized the direct parallels to Mai Sakurajima's arc and Mario's "death", but I'm glad so many people picked up on that as well. Ultimately, I think everything just came together for that rip, and I'm glad that I was able to put together something that not only served as a good bookend to the event and its storyline, but also tied said storyline into my personal favorite anime.

Man, crazy to think that April Fool's was the biggest event to happen in 2021. Strange how I can't seem to remember anything else after Easter, but oh well.

Todays rip: 04/04/2024

Mario Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Princess

Season 5 Featured on: SiIvaGunner's Highest Quality Rips: Volume C

Ripped by Jiko Music (@jikomusic)

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Requested by Memmy! (Discord)

Well, would you look at that: It's a rip request six months in the making!! I hope the wait will have been worth it, Memmy! And thank you endlessly for championing the blog so early on in its life <3.

Now - I recently spilled a lot of words regarding SiIvaGunner's fifth annual April Fools event back with Your Best Nightmario and Bowser's Finale, just four days ago. It is arguably one of the channel's all-time high points, an event that I still see discussed from time to time by random internet dwellers, even now three years later. And its clear to see why: akin to something like Mega Man Dropping January 7th‼️from earlier this year with Hella Pummel, Mario's "Death" on March 31st was an event that a huge part of the internet was already keenly aware of, one we'd all been anticipating, and one that SiIvaGunner in turn had a golden opportunity to leverage for an amazing channel event. From March 31st to April 3rd, we got to see Mario's existence as a figment be celebrated for one final day, then be entirely erased from the SiIvaGunner channel's reality at the day's end, only to then begin fighting tooth-and-nail in Your Best Nightmario for his memory to live on - a battle that, through our continued support as YouTube commenters, he was able to win in Bowser's Finale. A storybook journey, a clear beginning/middle/end structure, with a clearly-told message by the end of it all - Super Mario was back.

Yet, it still wouldn't be complete without that one last touch. Any book needs a back cover, any film its credits roll, any game a return to the title screen. Mario Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Princess, then, was what truly closed the whole event out - and in typical SiIvaGunner fashion, did so in a deviously clever manner.

A lot of the appeal in this event as a whole, I feel, is just how easily understood the bit was at a moment's glance. Without even clicking on the videos, a viewer will notice Mario's gone, it's IMMEDIATELY apparent that something is wrong - and that likely drew a lot of eyes to the event that may have otherwise missed it. This shift in dynamics with how viewers engage with the SiIvaGunner channel is practically what this year's April Fools event, from just a few days ago, was entirely built on, yet there it was done in an incredibly tounge-and-cheek way. Because really, what it pretends to be doing almost goes against everything the channel is meant to be! The bait-and-switch, though not nearly as effective as it once was back in Season 1 with rips like Be Cool, Be Wild, and Be My Girl, IS core to what the SiIvaGunner channel is all about. It has always been a channel all about surprising you with something delightful, be that with surprise bangers like Beyond the Floating Isles, hilariously executed bits like THIS RIP WAS MADE BY TEETH GANG, or everything inbetween. There's a reason why I said that this year's event only *pretends* to be going against this - because the bit with this year's overly-explained, corny titles, is that the rips themselves still hold a secret bait-and-switch bit within them. Even when it appears to be quite literally explaining the joke, the channel hides further layers to rips just out of sight.

But what does all of that have to do with Mario Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Princess? Well, what I'm trying to say isn't that the Season 5 April Fools day event betrayed the essence of SiIvaGunner or anything - rather, that by intentionally breaking its own rules for an entire day's worth of uploads, rules it had otherwise kept up for five whole years prior, it made this sudden subversion and the stakes of the event hit all the harder. That part may be rather obvious, sure, yet the brilliant thing here is that as a closer to the event, Mario Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Princess employs the exact same trick in reverse order. Because after an entire day's worth of rips going against the grain, a storyline clear as crystal to follow no matter what rip you've landed on - the LAST thing anyone would've expected would be for it to close with something so seemingly low-key, standard-fare, outright NORMAL for the SiIvaGunner channel, as a single rip of Super Mario 64's Staff Roll theme. I'm sure many were expecting a grand fusion collab, some sort of CCC-esque lore video, a true mind-blowing celebration of the journey's end...and yet, to me, this return to normalcy is absolutely brilliant in so many ways, both as a subversion of those expectations, but on so many layers yet deeper. Yes, it marks the return to the SiIvaGunner status quo, it marks that Super Mario has finally been remembered - yet look beyond that, and you may just realize that Mario Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Princess's one joke subtly hides layers of meaning, that almost recontexualize the entire event.

But, alright, let's get the ground rules set first - Mario Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Princess is an absolutely lovely rip as is in isolation. Jiko Music is no stranger to the channel nor to the blog, having worked on several hidden-gem favorites of mine such as Trail on Powdery Snow Halation and YACKER TOILET - they very clearly know their way around a rip, and have a stellar track record over their seven years of activity. Super Mario 64's Staff Roll theme is a lovely piece of music already, one I covered a fair bit already with Staff Roll (SM64) Fusion, and Jiko Music absolutely leverages that quality to full effect here - its nostalgic percussion, melody, and instruments that sound so indescribably "Nintendo 64" push this arrangement to some truly excellent emotional heights. The original song's vocals are no longer here, akin to rips like Blessing the Dire, Dire Rains - yet through changing the lead melody's instrument from section to section, from verse to chorus, Mario Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Princess is able to elegantly replicate how the original song's vocals would change per how many of its six vocalists were singing at any one time. It's a great rip!! ...but wait, what exactly IS the original song its arranging?

Alright, here we go - Fukashigi No Carte is the ending theme to the anime series "Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai", a story about many things, yet primarily about a mysterious girl suddenly made invisible to the world around her, dressed in the titular "bunny girl" costume. The immediate surface-level box to tick is, of course, that it's the ending theme to an anime, a credits roll to match the dramatic storyline of the event - but you may also start connecting some other dots, too, hm? Mai Sakurajima, the titular bunny girl, isn't merely made invisible to the world - she is FORGOTTEN by the public consciousness, her existence at all erased from all's mind, save for the series' protagonist who works to get the rest of the world to acknowledge her existence. Sakurajima's curse in the series is, effectively, that of a forgotten Figment - the fate that befell Mario in this very event, with us as the audience taking the role of the story's protagonist, together helping Mario win the fight against his fate by collectively remembering him.

That's a great reference all on its own, but there's another part left to discuss - the coolest part, I'd argue! Unlike comparable events such as Season 7's with ...of 2023, the Season 5 April Fools event spanned a total of five days - from the day Mario's execution was scheduled on the 31st, to April 1st itself when the event of his disappearance kicked into gear, a day-long break of April 2nd leaving his fate uncertain, the final push to resurrection on April 3rd, and the credits rolling on April 4th - which, during 2021 in particular, just so happened to be Easter. And do you notice anything in particular about this timeline of events? Executed on the 31st of March, brought back from the brink on April 3rd: Mario, just like Jesus Christ himself, AROSE ON THE THIRD DAY. Almost through sheer luck, the holiday celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ fell *right* next to Mario's great story of returning from public execution - allowing the whole event to come to a close on the most perfect day imaginable. And aside from Jesus himself, what is THE thing that defines Easter as a holiday?

That's right - The Easter Bunny. Bunnies. Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai.

The way every single puzzle piece clicked into place for Mario Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Princess to work is genuinely incredible and some of the coolest shit I've ever seen the channel pull off. Not only is the rip itself a beautiful listen, it nails the landing on every single imaginable front: Subverting the expectations of the entire event's premise by its return to the status quo of rips, connecting the very lore that the SiIvaGunner channel is built on to an anime series with a rather iconic and recognizable ending theme - and connecting the event's storyline to the very foundation of the Easter holiday, and one of the Bible's most well-known events. On the very last video of the event's runtime, Mario Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Princess made SUPER FUCKING MARIO into a Jesus allegory within the SiIvaGunner channel - and if that's the case, does that make Grand Dad the holy spirit? Is SiIvaGunner ITSELF a loose allegory for Christianity?!

...Mamma Mia, this post got long. But I hope you've been able to understand why I have so many words to say on it - so many thoughts finally able to spill over in the three years I've spent ruminating on this incredible event. Mario's return itself after Bowser's Finale was already pitch-perfect, featuring a sudden reappearance of The Reboot from Season 1 (don't get me started, I'll be here all day) - but ending it all off with something so seemingly plain, yet hiding so many layers of beauty and connective tissue, as Mario Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Princess...it, to this day, blows me away how perfectly the pieces clicked into place.

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jikomusic · 29 days

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This was only the tip of the iceberg. A fan showed up dressed as Kazoo Master and brought along some extra Kazoos, and as soon as he gave them to us, we could not stop playing as many songs as we could think of. It was actually beautiful.

Todays Raft: 09:44 PM - 01/04/2024

Raft Ride (Live @ MAGFest 2024)

Season 8 Not Ridden by Link (Read More) Raft Ride (Live Version) - The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening

Raft by Brawlcats, Jiko Music, livvy94, VeemoWithaHat

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Buckle up, we're in a new season of Raft Ride now!!

There's just something so sweet about getting to see the people behind SiIvaGunner do shit in real life. Like, this channel is for most of its life something made without hearing the voices or seeing the faces of its creators at all - its only at MAGFest where stupid shit like this is possible. I popped off when I realized what this rip was and it looks like everyone involved agreed. Banger raft ride.

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jikomusic · 1 month

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bunny girls

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jikomusic · 1 month

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Happy International Bunny Girl Day to those who celebrate

#bunny girl #rascal does not dream of bunny girl senpai #mai sakurajima #mai san #best girl

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jikomusic · 1 month

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oh no…

#siivagunner #christmas comeback crisis #smol nozomi #kyubey #puella magi madoka magica #madoka magica

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jikomusic · 1 month

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Todays rip: 25/03/2024

The Life and Times of Wade L.D.

Season 3 Part of: The SiIvaGunner Christmas Comeback Crisis

Directed by Smoky, Chaze the Chat Music by dante Full list of credits on Wiki

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Requested by Jiko Music! (Request Form)

Five years. It's been five whole years since the third season of SiIvaGunner came to an end. Five whole years since, in some ways, the channel began charting a course that would change it's direction forever. Season 4 Episode 1's mission statement was incredibly concise - to return the channel's chaotic, unpredictable nature of the Season 1 days, and to deliver on the absolute titan of an event that was the King for Another Day Tournament. After various production woes in the Christmas Comeback Crisis' main storyline and a newfound interest in other ventures through the King for a Day Tournament, it became evident that there simply wouldn't be much room left over in the itinerary for the channel's ongoing storyline in 2019. And so, in a way, Season 3's finale marked the day that the channel's storyline bowed out to a backseat position - yet with The Life and Times of Wade L.D., they did so with utmost splendor.

I've said before on here, at least way back on ��の回廊＜ver. CCC＞, that I don't wish to get too hung up on dissecting the Christmas Comeback Crisis storyline in particular - compared to most other lore on the channel, the form it takes is one that any average viewer is well able to dissect and watch on their own without much added context needed. I adore the series and wish to celebrate it - particularly its later endeavours - with my whole heart, but if I did I feel as if I'd inevitably be writing up to pages in the triple digits. Yet even if you're not all too familiar with the Christmas Comeback Crisis, be it as a newer fan or just plainly someone uninterested in the lore, it's pretty immediately noticeable that The Life and Times of Wade L.D. has a far different feel to it than other endeavors in the series. For one, the story told doesn't follow a character like Wood Man or Smol Nozomi or Haltmann, but an entirely new character - one who is created and (seemingly) ceases to exist entirely within this storyline. It is in some ways a standalone story - one that, perhaps more noticeably, is presented in an incredibly unique fashion - through an chronological archive of various recordings, emails, receipts, logs and photographs all centered around the titular Wade L.D. character. A character who, for the first time in the Christmas Comeback Crisis story, depicts the life of the everyman in Grandiose City - those who are not heroes nor villains, but are simply trying to exist within this strife-filled world that The Voice Inside Your Head unleashed at the series' beginning. Three years deep into this storyline, and it's officially become so much more than just the fun Kirby: Planet Robobot spoof that Patched Plains Fusion Collab, Mother's・Caption (We Paused The Channel For HOW Long?! Mix), The Noble Haltmann and so many more rips were all themed around. With Season 3 in particular, we'd gotten so many deeper insights into how this universe's world and operations were undergoing, small little peeks behind the curtain - it only makes it all the more befitting for the season to end with a full-on investigation of the truth. "Trust Nobody. Doubt Everything."

I believe its fair to say that The Life and Times of Wade L.D. was one of the most ambitious individual videos the team had made at the point of its release. Throughout its entire, gargantuan 30-minute runtime, we're spoiled with quality in so many different areas, from the fantastic artwork that maintains the story's mysterious atmosphere perfectly, to Smoky's remarkable writing being able to effortlessly ping-pong between seriousness and sly comedic jabs and references, to the soundtrack done entirely by the CCC series' sound director and certified GOAT, dante. Before the King for Another Day Tournament had the world floored, it was The Life and Times of Wade L.D. that kept impressing me with every turn - the commitment the team still had to this story, despite the clear signs to move on from it that they would eventually take in the years to come, was awe inspiring.

All of this is punctuated by what perhaps sets the story apart the most from other CCC productions - the full voice acting of all spoken and/or recorded dialogue. Season 3 was still a time where the voice acting the channel would have was typically in jest, either through sentence-mixing, text-to-speech, or through jokey rips altogether such as Haltmanna feat. Rob Thomas of Matchbox 20. Before Season 4 Episode 1 and onward would bring proper voice-acted performances for characters like John NotWoodman, DJ Professor K, and Joke-Explainer 7000, we had this. And perhaps unsurprisingly, it is that titular character, Wade L.D. himself, voiced by ripper CaptainComedy, who through my every rewatch still impresses me most in his performance. At once, CaptainComedy's performance feels tired, fed up, exhausted, yet also like someone no more different than you or I - a true everyman, a cog in the machine, yet one with pent-up anger and frustration building up inside of him, anger that comes out as events unfold.

Its hard to not get excited, as a big lorehead, to have the narrative in question focus so much on loose ends set up by prior CCC events and Haltmann's Archives videos. The presence of 2B from Nier Automata as a prominent character, the direct callbacks to the first-ever side story in Waluigi's Tacostand and establishing its bizarrely critical plot importance, the building drama between Haltmann and The Voice, the investigation onto SiIvaGunner's empty house and the traces of Woodman's presence there from the very start of Season 2...there is such an overarching feeling of satisfaction throughout all of The Life and Times of Wade L.D., as if I'm being genuinely rewarded for having paid attention to all of the channel's workings ever so extensively. All capped off by a genuinely touching narrative about the gradual collapse of a man's life.

Yet more than that satisfaction, what I love most about The Life and Times of Wade L.D. - above the music, the story, the artwork, the lore, or whatever else - is how much it still truly feels like a SiIvaGunner production. CaptainComedy's performance is incredible, yes - but right alongside him, you have channel founder Chaze the Chat playing a literal self-insert of himself, dubbed by only the most modest amount of investment into the role, althewhile making references to Maroon 5 and Kara's Flowers. There's references and nods to prior CCC episodes, an ongoing bait-and-switch joke that sees "Dr. P", set up to be a reference to the Dr. Piccolo meme, actually turn out to be referencing Dr. Pavel of Baneposting (Maskettaman - Dr. Pavel's Fly-So-Good) fame. There's just this subtle cheekiness to it all - never any sign that the episode and the storyline aren't being sincere, yet with countless signs to remind you of just how much fun the team are having in producing this story. A beating heart. A passion.

There are so many readings one could make of the storyline, that I don't know where to - or even if I should - begin. In our real world, the SiIvaGunner channel is a passion project driven entirely by voluntary contributors, a group of people contributing to a greater whole as a hobby out of love for the channel, their craft, and one another. It stands in stark contrast to the version of SiIvaGunner that The Voice Inside Your Head seeks to create, a symbol of the whiniest of fans of the channel's early days, and it stands in even starker contrast to what Haltmann further wishes for it to be - to produce rips as content, as products, as a job to attend just like Wade L.D. himself does. Wade's journey is one of excessive overwork, of burnout - perhaps not of making rips, yet with work pertaining to SiIvaGunner itself althesame. The environment Haltmann has created necessitates that Wade finds escapes from his job in order to feel relieved from it, that his work offers him no relief or fun - that the act of contributing to SiIvaGunner's growth is, at this stage, no longer something done out of passion. The Christmas Comeback Crisis, as meme-filled as it and the entire channel its hosted on is, is a form of a dystopia, if a subtle one, and the insight we get into Wade's life shows just how dire a project like SiIvaGunner could, in a far-worse world, be.

I could, really, as I said before, go on forever about this, about any Christmas Comeback Crisis episode. The series means the world to me, the CHANNEL of SiIvaGunner of course means the world to me as well - but it was, as I've said many a time before, through Season 2 that I unabashedly fell in love with the project. The Life and Times of Wade L.D. was everything I could have ever wanted a side story of the Christmas Comeback Crisis to be, and it warms my heart to see so many people from the team still cherish it. Be it dante reminiscing on how important of a project it was for him as a composer, or indeed this post's requestee, Jiko Music, arranging the episode's main theme for RIP^2 just last year with the beautiful LD. Its clear that it's so much more than just another piece to the SiIvaGunner lore - as perhaps SiIvaGunner's best Season finale second only to the one Season 7 just provided us, The Life and Times of Wade L.D. is downright incredible.

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jikomusic · 1 month

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#siivagunner #siivagunner christmas comeback crisis #christmas comeback crisis #the life and times of wade ld

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jikomusic · 1 month

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Kase and Yamada

#kase san #kase san and morning glories #asagao to kase san #yuri

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jikomusic · 2 months

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oops I accidentally came up with an AU

#siivagunner #gurren lagann #tengen toppa gurren lagann #smol nozomi #takane shijou

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jikomusic · 2 months

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I had a dream where there was a song in Brawl that I was obsessed with called "Butter Up!". It was a Smash original in the key of A min, and sounded a lot like the MK8 remix of Big Blue. It would play in certain side-modes like Home-Run Contest.

#super smash bros brawl

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jikomusic · 2 months

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Todays rip: 02/03/2024

One-Winged DJ

Season 7 Featured on: The Year of Grand Dad Sound Selection [Side A]

Ripped by duuzu, digboye, COCONABE, l4ureleye, Netyasha Roozi, Jiko Music Performed by Chase Beck

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You may have noticed that I try to keep an air of suspense when doing posts on the King for Another Day tournament such as Thank You, Everybody!. That is, of course, to not spoil the victor of Season 4 Episode 1's year-defining event - but at this point, it's a bit of a fruitless endeavor to try and uphold. Because DJ Professor K's victory celebrations haven't just been contained to his awarded day-long takeover during Season 4 Episode 2 - the takeover that gave us incredible rips like AIN'T NOTHIN' LIKE A CHUNKY BEAT, 88811, Ska Cha Cha (Rotten Mix) at an absolute breakneck pace during the SiIvaSummer All-Star Festival. Because during that takeover, a new flame was kindled - a flame by the name of Jet Set Radio Evolution.

Hideki Naganuma's style of sample-filled funk music is DJ Professor K's headlining ripping source, the one most closely associated with the game that the character originates from. Yet its a style that can be expressed in so many ways, not needing to be derivative of any prior existing songs from the two Jet Set Radio games - September, for instance, is able to sound authentically Naganuma-esque whilst being built off of a song as far away from his style as possible. Jet Set Radio Evolution, then, is an entirely made-up game - its name and logo deriving from a declined proof-of-concept, but its "soundtrack" completely made up by the SiIvaGunner team. This is far from the first fake game on the channel, and not the first one to be done without much of a shred of irony (Kirby Rip Attack is due for coverage on here) - but, notably, its a fake game born specifically to keep DJ Professor K's impact on the channel alive in the Seasons past his takeover. And, well, it took a few Seasons, but during Season 7, the team started going truly ham in utilizing its true potential.

There are a number of these Jet Set Radio Evolution rips I want to cover on here, both ones from DJ Professor K's takeover and from its revitalized usage during Season 7 - but to me, it was One-Winged DJ that really showed just how much flexibility rippers have with Naganuma's style of music. One-Winged Angel has long been seen as a sort of legendary track to rip due just how extensive of a song it is, a song that has a distinctly menacing feel to it that I can't imagine is easy to translate into a rip. Rips like One Winged PSYcho - V.S. Sepsyrop feel like absolutely herculean endeavors, and during Season 7 in particular we saw an absolute tidal wave of rips using it, as if it were just any other meme source in the channel's backlog and not this legendary 7-minute long work of art. Hen'yoku no Piraman was the first of these I covered, and while One-Winged DJ is likely far from the last, it still manages to feel like it sticks out from the crowd in just how dense of a sound it has - likely a result of how many people contributed to its creation.

There's the obvious highlight, of course: Chase Beck, the voice of DJ Professor K himself, returns to the role with new lines to supplement the original choir in latin of the original song, and it immediately gives the rip a charm to it, especially all these years after the original event and after Chase Beck's last "needed" performance as the character had long since passed. Before that even gets to kick in, though, its hard not to notice just how many different parts of Jet Set Radio's soundtracks are utilized right from the beginning: a bassline and voicelines echoing That's Enough, samples and pacing from Sneakman, the interlude's melody broken by the noise and chaos of The Concept of Love, and all throughout using small little sound effects and one-second samples from all over the games' soundscapes.

This is the kind of rip I could sit here and dissect for pages on end, yet I believe the point has been made abundantly clear already. In a Season already FILLED with celebration of every part of SiIvaGunner's life, One-Winged DJ is an absolute flex of a celebration, reminding us all of why DJ Professor K truly earned his win whilst showing just how much there is to still be done within the ever-appealing Naganuma style. I'm beyond proud of the rippers involved in how this rip turned out, and hope that the Jet Set Radio Evolution rips continue to impress into Season 8.

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