One thing about Perfume’s team, they are going to secure those Samantha Thavasa’s and make sure a Perfume single has a tie-in. Whilst it seemed like “The Light” was just thrown out (which it was), it now has a tie-in with the mobile car racing game, Racing Master. Racing Master is a driving game which is co-developed between NetEase and Codemasters. Codemasters has a LONG history of making racing games, and are responsible for series’ such as Micro Machines, TOCA, Colin McRae Rally and F1. I used to TEAR up on Colin McRae Rally and would always pick the Subaru Impreza WRC in any game that had that car, all because McRae drove it. RIP to McRae, who tragically passed in 2007. I remember when news of his death was made public. I assumed it was a result of a collision during one of his rallies, but it was a helicopter accident.

HENNYWAY.

So, I guess this tie-in explains the car visuals during Perfume’s live performances of “The Light”. Maybe the team behind Racing Masters are the ones responsible for them. The good visuals. Not those raggedy AI ones.

Perfume sure do like a car related tie-in. “Next Stage with You” with Mercedes. “Time Warp” with Peugeot. The “Polygon Wave” music video, which I’m sure saw them receive Rimowa suitcases full of money from Tesla. And now this.

I ain’t mad at it. GET MONEY BITCH.

As part of this tie-in, “The Light” will feature as a piece of background music in the game, along with Perfume themed stickers and signature Perfume poses for avatars.

This tie-in doesn’t seem as random to me as it probably should. I’ve been a J-pop fan for long enough to know that tie-ins are always random as hell, and are very seldom propositioned from a place of ‘Does this product make sense for the celebrity?’. Japanese celebs will be the face of any and everything. Bitch. Beers. Banks. Housing. The beef bowl spot down the street. But a Perfume song in a racing video game makes sense to me, because of the style of Yasutaka Nakata’s production and how the music in these types of racing games from Japanese developers used to sound. Nowadays its all trash. But back in the days of Ridge Racer Type 4, it was fire. And I could easily have imagined Nakata helming a Ridge Racer soundtrack. In fact, I still could. Also, a handful Nakata’s songs over the past three years have been pretty car-centric. Kyary Pamyu Pamyu’s “Candy Racer”. The music videos for Capsule’s “Hikari no Disco” and “Future Wave” featuring cars. Capsule’s “Give Me a Ride”. “Drive’n the Rain” on Perfume’s Plasma album in 2022. So a Perfume song in 2024 featuring in a racing game, it makes sense.

There’s still no word on whether “The Light” will receive a music video, but I hope that it does. Perfume’s music videos have not been particularly great post LEVEL3. But that doesn’t mean I want them to stop bothering with them. And with the Japanese music industry slowly changing and shifting and Perfume being so flexible, spontaneous and unafraid to try new things with their release strategies—I think it would be cool to see them casually shoot music videos after songs have been released. It’s not like they’ve not done it before. They did it with “Polygon Wave”.