J-pop act Mrs. Green Apple spikes ‘Columbus’ video after viewer backlash - One of the most successful bands in Japan, Green Apple, deleted due to a huge backlash a music video "Columbus" where they depicting themselves as explorers/conquerors and the native people they meet along the way as monkeys

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Mrs. Green Apple has posted an apology on its official website after backlash over a music video that portrayed explorer Christopher Columbus in a charming way. | SCREEN GRAB TAKEN FROM MRSGREENAPPLE.COM

Popular Japanese rock-pop band Mrs. Green Apple removed the music video for its new song, “Columbus,” from YouTube on Thursday, following claims of racism and ignorance leveled at the clip from users of social media. The video was online for less than a day.

“Columbus” found the three members of the group dressing up as famous individuals from throughout history, including the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus, encountering characters resembling apes. Mrs. Green Apple then educates and seemingly controls the ape-like men, having them pull the trio around in carts and saluting them.

“Columbus” the song came out at midnight on Wednesday, with the video arriving later that night. Criticism came quickly. Users sounded off in the clip’s comments section and on social platform X, decrying the video as ignorant and bordering on racist.

The main problem appeared to be how this portrayal of Columbus, traditionally viewed as the navigator who discovered North America but who also brutalized indigenous communities of the continent, was grossly inaccurate. Others noted how the treatment of the apemen resembled colonization, and played into racist stereotypes.

Others went further, questioning whether the apemen characters were meant to be the “primitive” communities of other lands.

Around 3 p.m. on Thursday, Mrs. Green Apple removed the clip for “Columbus” from YouTube. The band posted a statement on its official website shortly after, apologizing for the video and explaining that its original intent was to present historical figures having a “fun house party.”

The planning director for the “Columbus” video was Mrs. Green Apple vocalist Motoki Ohmori. The song and video were part of The Coca-Cola Co.’s “Coke Studio” music initiative, which finds famous artists creating original songs and videos, often featuring Coke products in prime spots.

Mrs. Green Apple formed in 2013 and in recent years has become one of the biggest J-pop acts around. The trio consists of Ohmori, guitarist Hiroto Wakai and keyboardist Ryoka Fujisawa. They have sold out stadiums nationwide and appeared on NHK’s year-end “Kohaku Uta Gassen” music extravaganza, and the group has provided the theme songs to multiple popular anime series. The group’s song “Lilac” is currently the No. 1 song on Japanese streaming charts.

Mrs. Green Apple has expressed interest in taking its music overseas, and to that end the band established a company called Project-MGA in conjunction with Universal Music Group with the intent of expanding its activities to the rest of the world.

 

[Brett DeLawyer]

This is exactly as hilarious as I want my jap music videos to be and only makes me like them more. They shouldn’t have taken it down.

 

[raspberry mocha]

Conquistadors are always cool, though.

 

[BLT outlet]

Can Japanese speakers weigh in?

As a japanese, People here says "is this some sort of thing shown in south park or something?"
Many are very confused why no one stopped it since it was for coca-cola ad and can cause damage to artist's reputation from western audience sperging.
Notably, leftist and right is having a same reaction of "what the fuck" because we usually don't want to cause any shitstorm regardless of ideology and that was exactly shitstorm-maker.

 

[Spaceman Spud]

If the natives didn't want to be depicted as monkeys maybe they should have advanced past the stone age.
It's not a difficult tech tree.

 

[oh no its pipkun]

did the nips complain or was it the faggots? articles doesn't make it clear. because who gives a shit about the faggots?

 

[Kirtto]

I hope they just repost their music video and ignore the Westerns seething. They must not be intimidated

 

[Fartificial Insmelligence]

I ain’t offended by this, but I am surprised no one at any point during filming or editing thought it might be construed negatively? I know, different cultures and all, but we’re all interconnected now, and surely the Japs know of Burgers’ and Bongs’ proclivities for flying off the handle?

 

[Premium Gonzo]

Pretty good song, might go and buy their albums when i'm over there soon.

Fucking clip was hilarious though.

 

[Heather Mason 2]

I woke up to a random faggot's tweet saying something like "So wholesome that even the most racist fucks alive can agree that the Japanese music video was too heckin racist and stupid!" Now I find out it's just Columbus playing with some monkeys? I'm sorely disappointed I thought I was about to see some Japs recreating their historical warcrimes

 

[ZipDisk]

I do not like this chingchong remix of mmbop.

 

[Prokhor Zakharov]

Do people have no fucking sense of humor any longer?

It's quite clear that it was the music video version of a shitpost. Not a single thing in that entire video was meant to be taken seriously.

I thought it was fucking hilarious, from the native monkeys to the japs playing at being white historical figures of importance.

If anything we need more of this kind of content.

 

[augment]

I had to click on this thread because I could not believe that people still listen to J-pop. I thought that was an early 2000s fad alongside Bob Sapp, Hard Gay and takeshi's castle reruns.

 

[Town Drunk]

American progressives will scream about micro transactions and how showing up on time is a white stereotype. How we live in such a terrible racist society. Meanwhile the rest of the world is openly racist, and doesn't care.

And God bless them.

 

[Thiletonomics]

did the nips complain or was it the faggots? articles doesn't make it clear. because who gives a shit about the faggots?

There's a chance the Koreans may have complained about it, since Koreans still love to whine and bitch about anything related to Japan, because they still hold grudges against them for colonialism. Or maybe it's the Chinese, because of the same thing, and because of Unit 731.

Do people have no fucking sense of humor any longer?

It's quite clear that it was the music video version of a shitpost. Not a single thing in that entire video was meant to be taken seriously.

I thought it was fucking hilarious, from the native monkeys to the japs playing at being white historical figures of importance.

If anything we need more of this kind of content.

When the World has people like Neil Druckmann, who genuinely said the "We don't use the word 'fun'" quote, and World Leaders are trying their hardest to make life for the common people even more shitty, it wouldn't be surprising if they started going after humor in general, CCP-Style.

 

[Kari Kamiya]

I don't get why people are throwing a fit when there's both black and yellow monkeys having a gay old time with explorers and Beethoven. Were the Asians whining about it Koreans?

The music video is kinda reminiscent of those '80s DTV children's programs, feels wholesome.

 

[Overly Serious]

Just going to leave this here...

 

[TheRaptorJesus]

I always thought it was Mr. not Mrs....

 

[Lithuophile]

Come on, Japan never discovered or explored anything

They discovered the most optimal way to suck Chinese dick for 2000 years, British dick for 45, and American dick for 80

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

Sounds based lmao. Too bad they cucked.

 

[Bloom Worm Cross Field]

Notwithstanding the whole monkey thing, everything in this music video presents itself as more of a celebration of Western culture than any piece of art produced in the west in years. Many, many such cases.