Mamoru Samuragoch (#2812)

[zierts]

So, yeah, he's back (as per Kotaku's warning, don't watch these videos if you're epileptic as they contain flashing images):


https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRE...HitBpYQ/videos
https://kotaku.com/japans-fraudulent...new-1846728880
https://news.mynavi.jp/article/20210419-samuragochi/


Per the MyNavi article, Samuragochi allegedly contributed music to the Japanese music story Mallevs Maleficarvm (think Peter and the Wolf or Merregnon).

While I'm all for redemption, it seems like history is repeating itself. The MyNavi article says that the pieces were not attributed to Samuragochi at first but then there was gushing praise in YouTube comments such as "One could say in all truth that this established a new Japanese style never heard before" and "It makes me cry, it makes me cry as though it had peeked into the very depths of my soul. This piece is a vision performed by a genius." While I was able to verify the existence of these comments under this video, they were made by anonymous accounts (registered years ago, but still).

I'm not giving him the benefit of the doubt reading that the project's producer Yasuyuki Harie, an idol critic named Akio Nakamori who is befriended with Samuragochi and some of his acquaintances and friends encouraged him to release new pieces under his real name after the praise the compositions got. Then, after his name was revealed in February 2021, there were rave reviews such as "Although Onimusha (composed by Mr. Samuragochi) is usually called a <divine piece of music>, Mallevs Maleficarvm is even more than that, so I can't find the words to praise it." (this one I couldn't verify).

I really don't feel like buying into this narrative of Samuragochi being an unsung genius after all. Especially if his comeback is another publicised affair painting him as god's gift to humanity.