is a dōjin

Dojin music

, also called in Japan, is a sub-category of dōjin activity. Dōjin are basically non-official self-published Japanese works which can be based on official products or completely original creations...

 song and Internet meme

Internet meme

The term Internet meme is used to describe a concept that spreads via the Internet. The term is a reference to the concept of memes, although the latter concept refers to a much broader category of cultural information.-Description:...

 from Japan. The song itself describes a player trying to defeat the boss character Air Man (and later in the song Wood Man) in Mega Man 2

Mega Man 2

Mega Man 2, known in Japan as , is a platform game developed and published by Capcom for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It is the second installment in the original Mega Man series. The game was released in Japan in 1988, and in North America and PAL regions the following years. Mega Man 2...

. Unlike the earlier song "Omoide wa Okkusenman!

Omoide wa Okkusenman!

is a song that has become an Internet meme in Japan. The original song was composed by Capcom composer Manami Matsumae as the background music for Doctor Wily's Stage in Mega Man 2 titled "Wily's Castle ", but was eventually rearranged by an individual solely known as...

" which uses a song originally composed for Mega Man 2 as its melody, "Air Man ga Taosenai" is an original composition by an individual only known as .

History

The song was first posted on Nico Nico Douga

Nico Nico Douga

is a popular video sharing website in Japan managed by Niwango, a subsidiary of Dwango. Its nickname is "Niconico" or "Nico-dō", where "nikoniko" is the Japanese ideophone for smiling. Nico Nico Douga is the thirteenth most visited website in Japan...

 on May 26, 2007. A vocal version performed by dōjin music group was later posted to their website and YouTube

YouTube

YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....

 on June 1, 2007, and later to Nico Nico Douga on July 1. This version was a collaboration with fellow dōjin musicians SoundCYCLONE and Scinicade. An English version titled "Can't Beat Air Man" was originally posted to both Nico Nico Douga and YouTube on December 24, 2007, but are no longer available. "Air Man ga Taosenai" was incorporated into the second of the Kumikyoku Nico Nico Douga

Kumikyoku Nico Nico Douga

is the name of a series of video medleys, and is also the title of one of the videos in the series. The original video was created by Shimo , a user of the popular video sharing site Nico Nico Douga.-Overview:...

 videos and has been included in all but one of the subsequent mashups.

Commercial release

Team.Nekokan's version of "Air Man ga Taosenai" was distributed at Comiket

Comiket

, otherwise known as the , is the world's largest self-published comic book fair, held twice a year in Tokyo, Japan. The first Comiket was held on December 21, 1975, with only about 32 participating circles and an estimated 600 attendees. Attendance has since swelled to over a half million people....

 on a CD along with an acoustic version of this song. Team.Nekokan's original version and its instrumental are available through the iTunes Store

ITunes Store

The iTunes Store is a software-based online digital media store operated by Apple. Opening as the iTunes Music Store on April 28, 2003, with over 200,000 items to purchase, it is, as of April 2008, the number-one music vendor in the United States...

. It is also included on the Nico Nico Douga album released July 9, 2008. A cover version arranged by Ryu*

Ryutaro Nakahara

, known by his stage name Ryu, is a musician and DJ working for Konami. In 2000, Ryu, along with kors k won a contest started by Konami, in which composers are to make music such that the winners would get their songs in the next beatmania IIDX installment...

and sung by zaki was released on the CD on April 1, 2009.