Luna Chee gives a cheesy salute to Luna Sea.
Let’s take a trip back to July of 1994. Early in the month, a narrow-focus mail-order company called Amazon started selling books on the Internet. About two weeks later, Brazil won the FIFA World Cup in a 0-0, decided-on-penalty-kicks match of the sort that had sports fans across the United States scratching their heads over soccer’s worldwide popularity. And then, on the 21st of the month, Japanese rock band Luna Sea released “Rosier.”
Luna Sea was one of the first visual kei bands to achieve major stardom in Japan, combining the niche genre’s aesthetic flare with a memorable, powerful sound. “Rosier” was the latest in a string of hits for the band, and as proof of its enduring popularity, the song’s music video has more than 17 million views on Luna Sea’s YouTube channel.
However, it might still come as a surprise to hear that there’s an officially approved, professionally produced cover of “Rosier,” with its own music video, that’s just been released. This year is the song’s 21st anniversary, after all, which isn’t exactly the sort of round-number milestone that usually sparks tribute projects.
However, there is a timely reason this release by Luna Chee, as the cover band is called. See if you can spot it.
Yep, the “Chee chee chee chee chee!” lyrics aren’t just the song’s main hook. They’re a shout-out to the marque ingredients in McDonald’s Japan’s CheeChee DabuChee and CheeChee Teriyaki sandwiches, or, to use their English renderings, the Cheese Cheese Double Cheeseburger and Cheese Cheese Teriyaki McBurger. These are, respectively, enhanced versions of McDonald’s Japan’s regular double cheeseburger and teriyaki burger, but with additional slices of white cheddar to go along with the regular double cheeseburger’s standard cheddar cheese, and slices of both regular and white cheddar for the teriyaki burger.
Despite the silly premise and punny name for the band, it has the official approval of Luna Sea, and Luna Chee’s performers and video creative staff are all completely committed to the bit. Actor Seishiro Kato (whose recent roles include Light in the Death Note: The Musical live-action stage play) goes all out on the vocals, and the graphic effects include on-screen declarations that “Cheese is the trigger,” “By the time I knew, I’ve eaten the CheeChee Teriyaki,” and “Cheese bless you,” delivered with the gothic angst indicative of visual kei.
The CheeChee DabuChee and CheeChee Teriyaki aren’t regular menu fixtures, and were previously only offered as limited-time items at a limited-number of McDonald’s branches. As of August 20, though, they’re being offered at all McDonald’s Japan locations for the first time, and we made sure to grab one of each as soon as we could.
▼ The 550 yen (US$3.70) Cheese Cheese Double Cheeseburger
▼ The 520-yen Cheese Cheese Teriyaki McBurger
Our Japanese-language reporter Seiji Nakazawa (who knows a thing or two about edgy music himself), dubs both burgers delicious, delivering decadently moist and juicy mouthfuls of cheesy and saucy beef.
However, while the CheeChee DabuChee and CheeChee Teriyaki are no longer limited-location items, they’re still limited-time, and will only be available until September 2. We think we’ll have Luna Chee’s song stuck in our head for much longer than that, though.
Reference: McDonald’s Japan
Video screenshots: YouTube/マクドナルド公式（McDonald’s）
Burger photos ©SoraNews24
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