In 2017, a YouTuber uploaded a seven minute long remix of an obscure 1984 Japanese pop song entitled “Plastic Love” by Mariya Takeuchi.

A funky little number, “Plastic Love” is an ode to trying to forget a former lover. Takeuchi was and is a well-known pop musician in Japan, with a career dating from the 1970s to today. However, she never found success outside of Japan, and as stated in a recent interview, she never even tried:

“It never occurred to me to try to (release) work in the West,” Takeuchi says, thinking back to when “Plastic Love” was recorded. “Considering that it was mostly performed in Japanese, we figured it would be impossible to go abroad. However, looking at YouTube’s comments section for ‘Plastic Love’ now, many viewers don’t really seem to care what language it’s in.”

At the time of it’s release in 1984, “Plastic Love” was a relatively minor hit. However, the remix uploaded to YouTube and, perhaps most importantly, the video’s thumbnail of a smiling Takeuchi wearing suspenders and a bowtie (a cropped cover of a different single) proved viral in the last years of the ’10s. “Plastic Love” began appearing on everyone’s YouTube suggestions panel, and countless remixes, covers, and fanarts of “Plastic Love” followed:

Fan art by Matias Begara

Cosplay by Lisa Lee Mei Xin

Sometimes the internet’s an okay place.