"Create" (Japanese: 創造, Hepburn: Sōzō) is a song by Japanese singer-songwriter and musician Gen Hoshino. The theme song to the 35th anniversary of the Nintendo video game Super Mario Bros. (1985), the song first appeared in a June 2020 commercial before Speedstar Records released it as a digital single on February 17, 2021; a physical double A-sided CD with "Fushigi" was released on June 23, 2021. Inspired by Nintendo's creative philosophy, Hoshino wrote and produced the track, and co-arranged it with Mabanua. A J-pop, soul, and chiptune song, the lyrics sees Hoshino encouraging listeners to create. It features several references to Nintendo, such as the start-up jingle to their GameCube console, sound effects from Super Mario, and homages to the company's history.
Yoshiyuki Okuyama [ja] directed the music video for "Create" using camera methods that included an iPhone and 8mm film. The video sees Hoshino singing and moving around; its editing and Hoshino's movements interact with the references to Nintendo in the song's lyrics and composition. He performed the song during his online concert Enkai in March 2021, which was recorded and released on a DVD/Blu-ray with a limited edition of "Fushigi" / "Create".
From his time with the instrumental band Sakerock (2005–15), Japanese singer-songwriter and musician Gen Hoshino composed all of his songs using the guitar and, by his own admission, only knew how to play piano with his pointer finger. However, exclusively using guitar made it difficult for Hoshino to create music inspired by the jazz his parents listened to when he was young; he also believed it created habits that made his songs less distinguishable from each other.[1][2] When most of his plans for 2020 were postponed or canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he found time in self-quarantining to practice using digital audio workstations (DAWs) and keyboard,[3] aided by producer and drummer Mabanua, who gave him a lecture on digital music composition over a phone call.[4] Using DAWs, Hoshino produced and recorded from his home the entirety of the song "Halfway", which was released as a single on June 19, 2020.[5]
A double A-sided single containing "Create", Hoshino's next song "Fushigi", and two B-sides, was released to physical formats on June 23, 2021. Limited editions, titled Kansha (感謝, lit.'Gratitude') and Enkai (宴会, lit.'Party'), came with Blu-ray/DVDs of Hoshino's online concerts of the same names.[11] As part of both "Create" and the double A-side's promotion, Victor held give-away raffles for stickers based on their respective cover art.[12][13] Alongside the physical edition of "Fushigi" / "Create", users who downloaded the single on Line Music were awarded stamps for use in Line Messenger depicting Hoshino and his alter ego character Akira Nise, illustrated by manga artist Bkub Okawa.[13]
"Create" was inspired by the creative philosophy of Nintendo(headquarters pictured, 2014).
"Create" was written and produced by Hoshino, who arranged and programmed it with Mabanua.[14] The version that appeared in the anniversary commercial had been completed by February 2020, prior to Hoshino learning DAWs. After finishing "Halfway", he worked on a remix of "Good in Bed" for Dua Lipa's Club Future Nostalgia (2020), and then began to rearrange "Create" using keyboards. Due to the lack of live performances in his schedule as a result of the pandemic, Hoshino felt able to focus his energy on writing and meticulously crafting the song.[15][16]
"Create" was imagined by Hoshino as a high-tension track that would shock listeners and serve as a challenge to his keyboard skills. As the theme to the Super Mario Bros. anniversary, he wrote it about his own perspective on creativity, influenced by that of Nintendo.[16][17] He penned lyrics about the importance of messing around, which he considered as essential to humanity as eating and sleeping.[15] Originally, Hoshino intended to title the song "Dokusō" (独創, lit.'Originality')—a motto used and plastered in offices by Nintendo founder Fusajiro Yamauchi—but opted for the broader "Create" (創造, Sōzō) to avoid classification as a shaka [ja] (song used by a company to boost worker morale).[18]
Hoshino used analog synthesizers to theme the music on "Create" around the 8-bit world of the 1985 Super Mario Bros., which was the first video game he played.[17] He scheduled a day as "Mario session" to jam melodies, songs, and sound effects from Super Mario and other Nintendo games, since he felt these sounds would need to be formally incorporated into the song's instrumentation and not sampled. Among the sounds practiced was the start-up jingle to the GameCube console and the World 1-1 theme from Super Mario Land (1989), which Hoshino told Cinra in an interview were the most fun to rearrange.[17]
A J-pop song, "Create" was described by a reviewer as fast-paced soul mixed with chiptune. The track incorporates various references to Nintendo, such as a vibraphone arrangement of the start-up jingle to the GameCube(included in sample).
"Create" runs for 3 minutes and 56 seconds.[19] Its instrumentation includes analog synthesizers (played by Hoshino and Mabanua), piano (Hirotaka Sakurada), digital piano (Hoshino, Mabanua, Sakurada), electric guitar (Ryosuke Nagaoka), drums (Tom Tamada), electric clavichord (Sakurada), vibraphone (Hoshino), contrabass (Wataru Iga), and cowbell (Mabanua). Noriyasu Kawamura plays the surigane [ja]—a Japanese bell instrument—and Hoshino additionally provided handclapping and stomping sounds, the former alongside Mabanua. The song was recorded by Shojiro Watanabe and Shigeharu Nakauchi at Onkio Haus and Victor Studio, mixed by Watanabe, and mastered by Takahiro Uchida at Flair Mastering Works.[14]
"Create" opens with a lyrical section in English,[20] translated from Japanese by music producer Sunny Boy.[14] Upbeat,[21] it is a programmed J-pop song that progresses with breakbeat-esque drumming.[22][23]Rockin'On Japan's Tomohiro Ogawa described the track as high-tempo soul, like a broken metronome, mixed with 8-bit music, that sounds like three minutes of Mario "flashing and B-dashing with a Super Star".[21] In the lyrics, Hoshino calls for listeners to create something that defies common sense. He encourages them to play around and continue learning, despite the "dull" world.[20]
Both musically and lyrically, "Create" incorporates several references to Super Mario and Nintendo. These include a vibraphone arrangement of the GameCube start-up melody,[23] the power-up sound that plays when Mario obtains a Super Mushroom,[21] the stage music from Super Mario Land, and the sound of shooting a fireball using a Fire Flower; according to Hoshino, the lattermost is used as a percussion.[18] With the word directly, he references a pose used by late Nintendo president Satoru Iwata during Nintendo Directs.[18] Hoshino hints towards Nintendo's time as a hanafuda manufacturer in the line "Hold the flowers and cards I've been dealt / And I'll change destiny itself",[23] and uses the phrase "yellow magic" as a dual reference to both the yellow game cartridges of the Famicom and the electronic music band Yellow Magic Orchestra.[24][note 2] Other parts of the lyrics touch on Hoshino's diagnosis with a subarachnoid hemorrhage in 2012; he compares his eventual recovery to the life system from Super Mario Bros. in the lines "I was reborn / My billionth fresh restart" and "I returned from the brink of death / The meaning of life is to play with life itself".[20]
One critic highlighted the song's vibraphone arrangement of the GameCube start-up jingle (console pictured).
Critics thought that "Create" showed Hoshino's respect for Nintendo;[20] Azuki Ogiwara at Real Sound thought that the references in the song conveyed his deep resonation with the company's creative philosophy.[23] Game journalist Shirokawa, writing for the video game magazine Famitsu, noted that Hoshino had previously incorporated melodies from the manga franchise Doraemon in its namesake song "Doraemon" (2018), and concluded that "Create" similarly comes across with his feelings for Super Mario and Nintendo.[18]
Composition-wise, Rockin'On Japan's Emi Sugiura viewed "Create" as a return to fundamental J-pop music and wrote that its lyrics on creativity proved Hoshino as a pop scene frontrunner.[26] Ogiwara found the musical development to be "hectic"; she praised the lyrics for including varied ideas and described the multi-instrumental composition as "illuminating".[23] She highlighted the vibraphone performance of the GameCube jingle, which she wrote had an "unexpressable, otherworldy feel".[23] The lyrics on "Create" were interpreted by some critics as both a personal anecdote from Hoshino and encouraging to listeners.[21] Ryūtarō Amano, for the web magazine Mikiki, found the song's message on creativity uplifting and the references to his hemorrhage as representative of Hoshino as an artist.[20]
A first-time collaborator with Hoshino, Yoshiyuki Okuyama [ja] directed the music video to "Create" using various camera methods, including an iPhone and 8mm film. In the video, Hoshino sings and performs various expressions and movements on top of post-production effects.[33][34] The video interacts with the references to Nintendo in the music and lyrics; when the GameCube jingle is played, the screen is divided into several panels as a nod to the console's start-up visual, and Hoshino performs Satoru Iwata's pose in conjuction with the lyrics that use directly.[18] Premiered to YouTube alongside the song's release on February 17, 2021, Musicman and Billboard Japan reported that it surpassed one million views within a day and five million views within a month.[33][35] Behind-the-scenes clips were uploaded on March 4, 2021.[33]
Hoshino performed a calmed version of "Create" during his online concert Yellow Pass Live Streaming: Enkai on March 6, 2021, which was filmed and released on the Enkai edition of the "Fushigi" / "Create" single. Before the performance, he joked to his bandmates that the song might be difficult due to its "tricky" progression, and afterwards exclaimed: "We did it! Wonderful!".[11][36] On December 16, 2024, Hoshino performed a Christmas rendition of the song alongside a "Snow" version of his 2023 single "Why" for an episode of the music program CDTV Live! Live!.[37]
^Yellow Magic Orchestra member Haruomi Hosono has had significant influence on Hoshino's career. He was a key inspiration in the forming of Sakerock and the reason for Hoshino learning the marimba. After they were acquainted at a 2007 music festival, Hosono assisted in launching Hoshino's solo career.[25]
^Japanese CD sales for "Fushigi" / "Create" as of January 2024, compiled by Oricon from the single's chart history.[41]
^Hoshino, Gen (2022). "Liberation and Restriction". Yellow Magazine: 2021–2022 (Interview) (in Japanese). No. 6. Interviewed by Takahashi, Yoshiaki. pp. 128–132.
^Hoshino, Gen (February 17, 2021). 星野源「生まれ変われるのは生きてる間だけ」 病で倒れた経験から想う"生かされた意味" ["We Are Only Reborn While We Are Alive" — Gen Hoshino on the Meaning of Living After Collapsing to Hemorrhage] (Interview) (in Japanese). Interviewed by Okamura, Momoe. Oricon. Retrieved January 19, 2025.
^Hoshino, Gen (September 8, 2023). Takimoto, Daisuke (ed.). 星野源が語る"対話からの創造"と、Netflix「LIGHTHOUSE」で挑んだ新たな曲づくりのかたち [Gen Hoshino Talks "Creating from Conversation" and New Writing Style Tackled on Netflix's Lighthouse]. Wired Japan (Interview) (in Japanese). Interviewed by Hasegawa, Tomoko. Archived from the original on September 25, 2023. Retrieved January 19, 2025.
^Ogiwara, Azusa (June 26, 2020). 星野源、「折り合い」という言葉と音楽に表れた'今'に対するリアルな思い ソロデビュー10周年SP『ANN』を受けて [Gen Hoshino's Real Thoughts on the Word Called 'Compromise' and the 'Present' Within Music — Response to the Solo Debut 10th Anniversary Special on ANN]. Real Sound [ja]. Retrieved January 19, 2025.
^星野源、コロナ禍で生まれたラブソング「折り合い」配信&MV公開 [Gen Hoshino Releases New Song and Music Video "Halfway", Out for Streaming: A Love Song Born in the Corona Pandemic]. Billboard Japan (in Japanese). June 19, 2020. Retrieved January 19, 2025.
^星野源が「スーパーマリオブラザーズ」CMで新曲「創造」演奏 [Gen Hoshino Performs New Song "Create" in Super Mario Bros. Commercial]. Natalie.mu (in Japanese). June 4, 2020. Archived from the original on February 12, 2021. Retrieved January 19, 2025.
^星野源、ものづくりへの思い込めた「マリオ」35周年テーマソング配信「ヤバいものが出来ました」 [Gen Hoshino to Digitally Release Mario 35th Anniversary Theme Song: "I've Created Something Wild"]. Natalie.mu (in Japanese). February 12, 2021. Archived from the original on January 26, 2025. Retrieved January 19, 2025.
^ ab星野源「ヤバいものが出来ました」 『スーパーマリオ』35周年テーマ曲2・17配信リリース [Gen Hoshino: "I've Created Something Wild", Announces Super Mario Bros. 35th Anniversary Theme for February 17 Release] (in Japanese). Oricon. February 12, 2021. Retrieved January 19, 2025.
^ ab星野源が「不思議/創造」発売、シングルのフィジカルリリースは3年4カ月ぶり [Gen Hoshino to Release "Fushigi" / "Create", First Physical Record in Three Years and Four Months]. Natalie.mu (in Japanese). May 11, 2021. Archived from the original on January 25, 2025. Retrieved January 20, 2025.
^ ab星野源『不思議/創造』各種キャンペーン開始、LINEスタンプのプレゼントも [Gen Hoshino Introduces Several Promotional Campaigns for "Fushigi" / "Create", Including Line Stamps]. Billboard Japan (in Japanese). June 23, 2021. Retrieved January 20, 2025.
^ abHoshino, Gen (February 17, 2021). 星野源が明かす、「創造」の背景にある創作へのスタンス「自分と他者との間に流れる川に橋をかける行為」 [Gen Hoshino Reveals His Stance on Creativity Behind "Create": "Like a Bridge Across a River That Connects Me to Others"]. Real Sound (Interview) (in Japanese). Interviewed by Ogiwara, Azuki. Archived from the original on January 14, 2025. Retrieved January 24, 2025.
^ abHoshino, Gen (February 17, 2021). 星野源「創造」インタビュー — 駆け抜けた10年の先で [Gen Hoshino "Creative" Interview — Ahead of These 10 Years...]. Natalie.mu (Interview) (in Japanese). Interviewed by Usuki, Shigeaki. p. 2. Archived from the original on April 16, 2023. Retrieved January 24, 2025.
^ abcHoshino, Gen (February 19, 2021). Yamamoto, Shōichi (ed.). 星野源が語る、創作の原点 「ものづくり」を通じて他者と向き合う [Gen Hoshino Talks Communicating with Others Using Creativity]. Cinra (Interview) (in Japanese). Interviewed by Amano, Fumiaki. Archived from the original on May 19, 2024. Retrieved January 24, 2025.
^ abcdeShirokawa (February 17, 2021). 星野源、新曲『創造』に込めた任天堂への無数のオマージュ。「"直接"は、絶対に歌詞に入れたかった」 [The Numerous Homages to Nintendo on Gen Hoshino's "Create": "I Absolutely Wanted to Include 'Directly' in the Lyrics"]. Famitsu (in Japanese). Archived from the original on December 20, 2024. Retrieved January 19, 2025.
^ abcdeAmano, Ryūtarō (February 17, 2021). 星野源 "創造" 暗闇が覆う世界、それでも星野源は遊ぼうぜ、何か創り出そうぜと歌う [Gen Hoshino's "Create" — Even in This Dark World, Gen Hoshino Sings for You to Create and Play]. Mikiki (in Japanese). Archived from the original on July 21, 2024. Retrieved January 28, 2025.
^ abcdOgawa, Tomohiro (February 27, 2021). 何か創り出そうぜ [Let's Create Something]. Rockin'On Japan (in Japanese). Retrieved January 28, 2025.
^星野 源の新曲「創造」は3人のドラマーが関わった必聴ナンバー [Gen Hoshino's Newest Song "Create" Is a Must-Listen Featuring Three Drummers]. Rhythm & Drums Magazine (in Japanese). February 18, 2021. Archived from the original on August 11, 2024. Retrieved January 28, 2025.
^Hoshino, Gen; Kajita, Ryūki (February 27, 2021). 星野源×マフィア梶田――孤独なオタクが「創造」に至るまでをひもとく,非常識な対談 [(Gen Hoshino × Mafia Kajita) A Non-Sensical Conversation Between Two Solidarity Otakus About the Writing of "Create"]. 4Gamer.net (Interview) (in Japanese). Archived from the original on January 14, 2025. Retrieved January 28, 2025.
^星野源「創造」DLソング初登場1位、NiziU/あいみょん/からあげ姉妹がトップ10入り [Gen Hoshino's "Create" Debuts at Download Songs Number One; NiziU, Aimyon, and Karage Shimai Enter Top 10]. Billboard Japan (in Japanese). February 24, 2021. Archived from the original on April 28, 2022. Retrieved January 31, 2025.
^ ab"合算シングル週間50 — 2021年03月01日付" [Weekly Combined Singles Top 50 — March 1, 2021] (in Japanese). Oricon. March 1, 2021. Archived from the original on February 24, 2021. Retrieved February 2, 2025.
^ abc星野源、「創造」MVメイキング映像を公開 [Gen Hoshino Releases Behind-the-Scenes to "Create" Video]. Billboard Japan (in Japanese). March 4, 2021. Archived from the original on January 25, 2025. Retrieved February 1, 2025.
^星野源、「創造」MVで奥山由之と初タッグ [Gen Hoshino Marks First Collaboration with Yoshiyuki Okuyama on "Create" Music Video]. Barks (in Japanese). February 15, 2021. Archived from the original on June 14, 2021. Retrieved February 1, 2025.
^Billboard JAPAN【先ヨミ・デジタル】星野源「創造」DLソング現在1位 [Billboard Japan (Midweek Read): Gen Hoshino's "Create" Currently Number One on Download Songs Chart]. Musicman (in Japanese). February 22, 2021. Archived from the original on April 18, 2021. Retrieved February 2, 2025.
^星野源が実験に満ちた初の"宴会"生配信、ファンと同じ時間を共有し笑顔に [Gen Hoshino Shares Laughter With Fans in Experimental Enkai Livestream]. Natalie.mu (in Japanese). March 8, 2021. Archived from the original on December 11, 2024. Retrieved February 1, 2025.
^星野源がCDTVライブライブ で「創造(クリスマス風味)」と「光の跡(雪)」を披露! [Gen Hoshino Performs "Create" (Christmas Styled) and "Why" (Snow) for CDTV Live Live!]. Sports Bull (in Japanese). December 17, 2024. Archived from the original on December 17, 2024. Retrieved February 1, 2025.
^不思議/創造 — 星野源 (ランキングデータ) ["Fushigi" / "Create" — Gen Hoshino (Ranking Data)] (in Japanese). Oricon. n.d. Retrieved January 16, 2025 – via the You Taiju service.