Night Of Nights Night Of Knights

2007Music remix / MAD video source materialclassic

Also known as: Knight of Knights · ナイト・オブ・ナイツ (Naito obu Naitsu)

Night of Nights is a 2007 Touhou arrangement by BeatMARIO based on Sakuya Izayoi's theme that exploded into thousands of MAD videos and remixes on Nico Nico Douga and YouTube.

"Night of Nights" (ナイト・オブ・ナイツ) is a high-energy Touhou Project fan arrangement that became one of the most remixed and covered songs in Japanese internet culture. Created by BeatMARIO of the doujin circle COOL&CREATE and released in May 2007, the track is based on Sakuya Izayoi's theme "Flowering Night" from the bullet hell shooter Touhou: Phantasmagoria of Flower View. After hitting Nico Nico Douga in mid-2008, it exploded into thousands of MAD videos, YouTube Poop Music Videos, and musical covers, making it a gateway track for Touhou fandom worldwide.

touhou memesnico nico douga memesvideo game music memesjapanese internet memessong remix memes

Overview

"Night of Nights" is a frenetic, piano-driven remix of "Flowering Night," the stage theme for maid character Sakuya Izayoi from Touhou Project's ninth installment3. The arrangement cranks up the tempo and layers rapid-fire piano runs over the original melody, creating a track that sounds like someone trying to speedrun a classical recital. Its breakneck pace and infectious energy made it perfect raw material for the Japanese MAD video scene, where creators chop, remix, and synchronize songs with animation and other media.

The song is often confused under two names. "Night of Nights" is the official title of BeatMARIO's arrangement, while "Night of Knights" and "Knight of Knights" are common misspellings and alternate romanizations that stuck through years of fan uploads3.

The original source material is "Flowering Night" (フラワリングナイト), composed by series creator ZUN for Sakuya Izayoi's appearance as a boss character in Touhou: Phantasmagoria of Flower View2. In his composer notes, ZUN described the piece as an attempt to show Sakuya's more human side, contrasting with her harder themes from Embodiment of Scarlet Devil. He noted the melody had a strange quality to it: "If you think it's going to be an Asian piece, it sounds like it, but treat it as Western and it sounds like that too"2.

BeatMARIO, a member of the popular doujin music group COOL&CREATE, arranged the remix and included it in a three-disc compilation album titled "花詠束 – hanataba –" (Bouquet)1. The album was released at Reitaisai 4, a major Touhou-specific convention in Japan, on May 20, 2007, under the collective Unionest.NET3.

Origin & Background

Platform
Reitaisai 4 convention (album release), Nico Nico Douga (viral spread)
Key People
BeatMARIO of COOL&CREATE, ZUN
Date
2007

The original source material is "Flowering Night" (フラワリングナイト), composed by series creator ZUN for Sakuya Izayoi's appearance as a boss character in Touhou: Phantasmagoria of Flower View. In his composer notes, ZUN described the piece as an attempt to show Sakuya's more human side, contrasting with her harder themes from Embodiment of Scarlet Devil. He noted the melody had a strange quality to it: "If you think it's going to be an Asian piece, it sounds like it, but treat it as Western and it sounds like that too".

BeatMARIO, a member of the popular doujin music group COOL&CREATE, arranged the remix and included it in a three-disc compilation album titled "花詠束 – hanataba –" (Bouquet). The album was released at Reitaisai 4, a major Touhou-specific convention in Japan, on May 20, 2007, under the collective Unionest.NET.

How It Spread

The song sat relatively quiet for over a year before hitting Nico Nico Douga on July 20, 2008. That first upload pulled in over 518,000 views. A second upload roughly two months later became the dominant version, racking up more than 2 million views by July 2013.

Following the path blazed by earlier Touhou viral hits like "U.N. Owen was Her?," Night of Nights quickly became a go-to resource for MAD remixers. The first known mashup was a derivative of the Futae no Kiwami series, uploaded to NND on August 7, 2008. But the video that really kicked off the remix wave landed on August 16, 2008, as a branch of the Enemy Controller MAD series. That clip pulled over 1 million views before getting hit with a copyright claim and taken down.

By July 2013, more than 3,100 videos using the song had been uploaded to Nico Nico Douga alone, spanning MAD videos to full musical covers. The song also crossed over to YouTube as NND content got reposted, catching on with the YouTube Poop Music Video (YTPMV) community. Over 58,000 YouTube videos related to the song existed by the same date.

How to Use This Meme

Night of Nights works as remix fodder more than a traditional meme template. Common uses include:

- MAD videos: Sync clips from anime, games, or other media to the song's rapid piano runs, cutting on every beat - Musical covers: Perform the song on piano, guitar, recorder, or increasingly absurd instruments. The high difficulty of the piano part makes it a popular flex for musicians - YTPMV remixes: Chop voice clips and sound effects to recreate the melody, turning dialogue into music - Raging X animations: Draw characters frantically dancing to the track in a hand-animated style (see Derivatives) - Background music: Drop it into gameplay clips, speedruns, or chaotic moments to signal intensity

The song typically gets paired with fast, overwhelming, or absurdly intense visual content. The tempo does most of the comedic heavy lifting.

Cultural Impact

Night of Nights played a significant role in spreading Touhou Project's popularity outside Japan. As NND videos got mirrored to YouTube in the late 2000s, the song introduced Western audiences to both the Touhou franchise and the Japanese MAD video tradition. It sat alongside "U.N. Owen was Her?" and "Bad Apple!!" as one of the Touhou tracks most likely to pull non-fans into the fandom.

The song's popularity on rhythm game simulators and fan-made rhythm game charts also helped it circulate in gaming communities. Piano covers became their own mini-genre on YouTube, with players treating the piece as a technical challenge.

Fun Facts

ZUN, the original composer of "Flowering Night," admitted that Sakuya's theme had a strange duality: it sounds both Eastern and Western, both childlike and mature, depending on the listener's expectations.

The album "花詠束 – hanataba –" that contained the original track spanned three discs with a total runtime of 3 hours, 8 minutes, and 39 seconds.

The "Night of Knights" misspelling is so widespread that many fans don't know which version of the name is correct.

BeatMARIO's COOL&CREATE is one of the longest-running and most prolific Touhou doujin music circles, active since the early days of the fandom.

Derivatives & Variations

Raging X / "X on drugs" series:

Hand-drawn animations of characters frantically dancing to Night of Nights. The original, "Crazy Raging Reimu" (みだれあばれいむ), was uploaded to NND on January 24, 2009, featuring Touhou protagonist Reimu Hakurei[3]. This spawned over 100 derivative animations on NND with characters from other series, often interacting with boxes and other objects. On YouTube, these typically circulate under titles like "X on drugs"[3].

Enemy Controller MAD branch:

The August 16, 2008 video that kicked off widespread remixing was itself a spinoff of the Enemy Controller MAD series, blending the song with Yu-Gi-Oh! content[3].

Futae no Kiwami mashup:

The earliest known derivative, uploaded August 7, 2008, combined Night of Nights with the Futae no Kiwami meme series from Rurouni Kenshin fandom[3].

Frequently Asked Questions

Night Of Nights Night Of Knights

2007Music remix / MAD video source materialclassic

Also known as: Knight of Knights · ナイト・オブ・ナイツ (Naito obu Naitsu)

Night of Nights is a 2007 Touhou arrangement by BeatMARIO based on Sakuya Izayoi's theme that exploded into thousands of MAD videos and remixes on Nico Nico Douga and YouTube.

"Night of Nights" (ナイト・オブ・ナイツ) is a high-energy Touhou Project fan arrangement that became one of the most remixed and covered songs in Japanese internet culture. Created by BeatMARIO of the doujin circle COOL&CREATE and released in May 2007, the track is based on Sakuya Izayoi's theme "Flowering Night" from the bullet hell shooter Touhou: Phantasmagoria of Flower View. After hitting Nico Nico Douga in mid-2008, it exploded into thousands of MAD videos, YouTube Poop Music Videos, and musical covers, making it a gateway track for Touhou fandom worldwide.

touhou memes nico nico douga memes video game music memes japanese internet memes song remix memes

Overview

"Night of Nights" is a frenetic, piano-driven remix of "Flowering Night," the stage theme for maid character Sakuya Izayoi from Touhou Project's ninth installment. The arrangement cranks up the tempo and layers rapid-fire piano runs over the original melody, creating a track that sounds like someone trying to speedrun a classical recital. Its breakneck pace and infectious energy made it perfect raw material for the Japanese MAD video scene, where creators chop, remix, and synchronize songs with animation and other media.

The song is often confused under two names. "Night of Nights" is the official title of BeatMARIO's arrangement, while "Night of Knights" and "Knight of Knights" are common misspellings and alternate romanizations that stuck through years of fan uploads.

The original source material is "Flowering Night" (フラワリングナイト), composed by series creator ZUN for Sakuya Izayoi's appearance as a boss character in Touhou: Phantasmagoria of Flower View. In his composer notes, ZUN described the piece as an attempt to show Sakuya's more human side, contrasting with her harder themes from Embodiment of Scarlet Devil. He noted the melody had a strange quality to it: "If you think it's going to be an Asian piece, it sounds like it, but treat it as Western and it sounds like that too".

BeatMARIO, a member of the popular doujin music group COOL&CREATE, arranged the remix and included it in a three-disc compilation album titled "花詠束 – hanataba –" (Bouquet). The album was released at Reitaisai 4, a major Touhou-specific convention in Japan, on May 20, 2007, under the collective Unionest.NET.

Origin & Background

Platform
Reitaisai 4 convention (album release), Nico Nico Douga (viral spread)
Key People
BeatMARIO of COOL&CREATE, ZUN
Date
2007

The original source material is "Flowering Night" (フラワリングナイト), composed by series creator ZUN for Sakuya Izayoi's appearance as a boss character in Touhou: Phantasmagoria of Flower View. In his composer notes, ZUN described the piece as an attempt to show Sakuya's more human side, contrasting with her harder themes from Embodiment of Scarlet Devil. He noted the melody had a strange quality to it: "If you think it's going to be an Asian piece, it sounds like it, but treat it as Western and it sounds like that too".

BeatMARIO, a member of the popular doujin music group COOL&CREATE, arranged the remix and included it in a three-disc compilation album titled "花詠束 – hanataba –" (Bouquet). The album was released at Reitaisai 4, a major Touhou-specific convention in Japan, on May 20, 2007, under the collective Unionest.NET.

How It Spread

The song sat relatively quiet for over a year before hitting Nico Nico Douga on July 20, 2008. That first upload pulled in over 518,000 views. A second upload roughly two months later became the dominant version, racking up more than 2 million views by July 2013.

Following the path blazed by earlier Touhou viral hits like "U.N. Owen was Her?," Night of Nights quickly became a go-to resource for MAD remixers. The first known mashup was a derivative of the Futae no Kiwami series, uploaded to NND on August 7, 2008. But the video that really kicked off the remix wave landed on August 16, 2008, as a branch of the Enemy Controller MAD series. That clip pulled over 1 million views before getting hit with a copyright claim and taken down.

By July 2013, more than 3,100 videos using the song had been uploaded to Nico Nico Douga alone, spanning MAD videos to full musical covers. The song also crossed over to YouTube as NND content got reposted, catching on with the YouTube Poop Music Video (YTPMV) community. Over 58,000 YouTube videos related to the song existed by the same date.

How to Use This Meme

Night of Nights works as remix fodder more than a traditional meme template. Common uses include:

- MAD videos: Sync clips from anime, games, or other media to the song's rapid piano runs, cutting on every beat - Musical covers: Perform the song on piano, guitar, recorder, or increasingly absurd instruments. The high difficulty of the piano part makes it a popular flex for musicians - YTPMV remixes: Chop voice clips and sound effects to recreate the melody, turning dialogue into music - Raging X animations: Draw characters frantically dancing to the track in a hand-animated style (see Derivatives) - Background music: Drop it into gameplay clips, speedruns, or chaotic moments to signal intensity

The song typically gets paired with fast, overwhelming, or absurdly intense visual content. The tempo does most of the comedic heavy lifting.

Cultural Impact

Night of Nights played a significant role in spreading Touhou Project's popularity outside Japan. As NND videos got mirrored to YouTube in the late 2000s, the song introduced Western audiences to both the Touhou franchise and the Japanese MAD video tradition. It sat alongside "U.N. Owen was Her?" and "Bad Apple!!" as one of the Touhou tracks most likely to pull non-fans into the fandom.

The song's popularity on rhythm game simulators and fan-made rhythm game charts also helped it circulate in gaming communities. Piano covers became their own mini-genre on YouTube, with players treating the piece as a technical challenge.

Fun Facts

ZUN, the original composer of "Flowering Night," admitted that Sakuya's theme had a strange duality: it sounds both Eastern and Western, both childlike and mature, depending on the listener's expectations.

The album "花詠束 – hanataba –" that contained the original track spanned three discs with a total runtime of 3 hours, 8 minutes, and 39 seconds.

The "Night of Knights" misspelling is so widespread that many fans don't know which version of the name is correct.

BeatMARIO's COOL&CREATE is one of the longest-running and most prolific Touhou doujin music circles, active since the early days of the fandom.

Derivatives & Variations

Raging X / "X on drugs" series:

Hand-drawn animations of characters frantically dancing to Night of Nights. The original, "Crazy Raging Reimu" (みだれあばれいむ), was uploaded to NND on January 24, 2009, featuring Touhou protagonist Reimu Hakurei[3]. This spawned over 100 derivative animations on NND with characters from other series, often interacting with boxes and other objects. On YouTube, these typically circulate under titles like "X on drugs"[3].

Enemy Controller MAD branch:

The August 16, 2008 video that kicked off widespread remixing was itself a spinoff of the Enemy Controller MAD series, blending the song with Yu-Gi-Oh! content[3].

Futae no Kiwami mashup:

The earliest known derivative, uploaded August 7, 2008, combined Night of Nights with the Futae no Kiwami meme series from Rurouni Kenshin fandom[3].

Frequently Asked Questions