電波/denpa

published: 2025.03.02
tagged: music
by mana

Today I want to write about a subject near and dear to my heart for some time - 電波ソング (denpa song) aka denpa music.

Denpa is one of those genres that could really only exist in niche otaku communities, but thanks to the internet spreading ideas far and wide outside of their original creators and appreciators, it could be that you’ve already heard of it! But, in case you haven’t, fear not! I will explain!

There’s an intersection of otaku subjects & interests that occurs and manifests itself as denpa - a word which, on its own, references electromagnetism and EM waves.

If you’re coming from the world of visual novels, you may be familiar with this word in the context of “poisonous radio waves” (毒電波) that can alter people’s mental state & behavior. It’s a common enough trope in horror & mystery VNs (see: Higurashi When They Cry/ひぐらしのなく頃に and Chaos;Head), but this meaning bears little import in the context of denpa music.

Instead, denpa used in this context refers to how the songs are written to get stuck inside your head (like the aforementioned radio waves), but more as an earworm, rather than for any nefarious reason.

Denpa music frequently employs otaku fascination with moe and cuteness, the catchiness of advertising jingles or shop melodies, and the ubiquity of anime & visual novel songs place in Akiba culture.

This is not to imply that denpa songs are all sugar-sweet moe songs about innocuous topics (though these do happen to be my favorite type ). Frequently, lyrics focus on topics otaku may relate to, such as loneliness, depression, feeling outcast from society, mental illness, preferring one’s own delusions or daydreams to reality, as that’s who these songs are by and made for.

If any of this sounds interesting to you, then congratulations! There is a wide world of denpa songs out there waiting to be explored, running the gamut from moe songs about sweets & maid cafes to hardstyle trance & gabber songs about struggling to function in society!

I suppose that brings us to the part of this entry where I talk about some of my favorite denpa-kei (電波系) artists!

As a huge fan of idols myself, I’d be automatically remiss if I did not mention the somewhat recently-defunct dempagumi.inc, an idol group originally formed from workers at Akihabara’s DearStage bar & venue, which specializes in underground idols (地下アイドル).

Recommended songs are Future Diver and Den Den Passion, though they have an extensive and wonderful catalogue! I highly recommend checking out their youtube channel if you’re interested!

Another favorite has to be UNDER17, the band that Momoi Halco was the vocalist of before going solo. You may know her as a voice actress, having played such roles as Feyris NyanNyan in Steins;Gate, but she was also the lead vocalist of this band and is also a DJ & composer in her own right!

Some of my favorites from her time in UNDER17 are: Popotan Batake de Tsukamaete, Tenbatsu! Angel Rabi, and SHE KNOW BE ~Koi no Himitsu~.

Speaking of bands, there is also MOSAIC.WAV, who produced such great denpa songs as Gacha Gacha Cute Figyu@ and Kimi wa Nan Terabyte?, and the doujin (indie/self-produced) circle IOSYS, famous for songs such as Marisa Stole the Precious Thing, Cirno’s Perfect Math Class, and one of my favorite denpa albums of all time, Wao! Hyper Denpa-chan! (favorites are Hysteric Soda & Yurete Hajikete Afurechau☆Miwaku no Penguin Musume, but the entire album is a no-skip imo).

There’s also quite a few voice actresses (mostly from eroge, admittedly) that perform denpa songs, same goes for utaite (indie cover singers). One of my favorite acts of all time has to be team dmp☆, which consists of utaite mmbk and voice actress Aihara Kaori. If I’m honest, their song kamu to funyannyan was the first denpa song I ever heard, and it’s actually a cover of a song from the Lotte Fit’s gum CM (commercial).

Speaking of commercial songs, anything is really fair bait to become a denpa song, as long as the beat is catchy enough and has that earworm quality to it. Anything from the family mart BGM, the hammer theme from the Donkey Kong NES game, songs from rhythm games (this one is from pop’n music), the possibilities really are endless!

I’ll close this out with some links to some more favorite denpa songs & artists!

• Miko Miko Nurse
• Nameko Song
• Hyadain’s JoJo Yuujou (which served as the Nichijou anime’s second season OP theme)
• WE ARE JAPANESE GOBLIN
• Maid no Hoshi kara SOS
• nanahira’s Bakuhatsu! Love Panic!
• toromi’s Model no Kioku
• twinkle (kururun twinkle, can’t sleep thinking of you, and mai mai kagura are favorites!)
• necomimi*spacenoid (usagi no mimi, the supermarket for handicapped androids, and cinnamon roll, Earl Grey tea on 3 o’clock are favorites!)
• dmp@mix by nEko3X7Qzg
• nekomimi mode (Tsukuyomi -Moon Phase- OP theme)

If you want to know more about denpa, I recommend denpa.omaera.org, they go much more in-depth than I did here and talk about lyrical content, have many more recommended artists, and talk a bit about denpa-kei subculture. There used to be a blog called denpa no sekai that I would’ve recommended, but looking closer it seems they haven’t updated since 2019… but here’s a link anyway in case you’d like to read over their older posts: denpa no sekai blog

Finally, I made a youtube playlist for the songs mentioned here if you ever feel like listening to some denpa songs while you work.