I Wanna Be Your Ghost

"I Wanna Be Your Ghost" (異世界混合大舞踏会) is a song by Japanese singer-songwriter and musician Gen Hoshino. Written and produced by Hoshino as the main theme to the 2022 live-action film Yokaipedia, the song was released as a digital-exclusive single through Speedstar Records on July 18, 2022.

Background and composition
"I Wanna Be Your Ghost" was written and produced by Gen Hoshino as the main theme to the film Yokaipedia (2022), a live-action adaptation of a children's books series published by Kodansha. 3 minutes and 45 seconds-long, "I Wanna Be Your Ghost" is an alternative rock song that opens with a poppy melody and lyrically expresses an overlap in the worlds of humans and ghosts. In the chorus, the song uses the word うらめしや (urameshiya), a Japanese word used to signify the appearance of ghosts. Backing Hoshino's vocals, it features electric instrumentation such as a variety of branded synthesizers, electric guitar and bass, theremin, Rhodes piano, and Clavinet.

Approached by the film team for a theme to "illustrate the [fantasy] world that kids play in" and appeal to a wide audience, Hoshino wanted to create a song to "break barriers of different worlds" and allow humans and ghosts to dance together. He co-arranged and programmed the track with musician Mabanua, and sang on the background vocals with guitarist Ryosuke Nagaoka and Yokaipedia voice actors Rie Kugimiya (Book Boy), Hiro Shimono (Ittan-momen), and Tomokazu Sugita (Yamabiko); the voice actors were added to the chorus after they visited Hoshino during production, and are credited under their character names. Recording was headed by Mabanua, Shojiro Watanabe, and Shu Saida, with Watanabe also named for mixing and Takahiro Uchida credited with mastering.

Promotion and release
On May 25, 2022, it was announced that Hoshino had written the main theme song for Yokaipedia, titled "I Wanna Be Your Ghost". The announcement was accompanied by a "main theme trailer", showcasing the song over snippets from the film. On July 13, the song was announced for release as a digital single alongside a teaser to the song's music video, featuring an animated ghost dancing. Cover art and visuals were unveiled two days later, showing illustrations mixed into real pictures. Yokaipedia would mark the first shared appearance by Hoshino with his wife Yui Aragaki since their marriage in 2021.

The "I Wanna Be Your Ghost" single was released by the Victor Entertainment label Speedstar Records on July 18, 2022, five days before the film's premiere on July 22. The music video was announced for live premiere the same day at 0:00 JST. The video was produced by the then-newly opened animation studio Outline, led by director Yūki Igarashi. The video features a boy dancing with ghosts, 2D animated with "simple lines and colors", according to industry publication Animation Business. On July 22, Hoshino announced that Rie Kugimiya, Hiro Shimono, Tomokazu Sugita – the film voice actors featured in the song's background vocals – would guest appear on his radio program on All Night Nippon. Hoshino gave a debut performance of "I Wanna Be Your Ghost" in August 2022, appearing as a featured artist on Spotify's Go Stream video series. In December, Hoshino revealed that he would sing the song alongside "Comedy" (2022) during his timeslot at the 2022 Count Down TV Christmas special.

Commercial performance
The song peaked at No. 26 on the Oricon Combined Singles Chart and took No. 6 on Billboard Japan Hot 100.

Personnel
Credits adapted from Hoshino's website.


 * Gen Hoshino – songwriting, arrangement, vocals, background vocals, synthesizer, theremin, music easel, programming, producer
 * Mabanua – co-arrangement, electric bass, Rhodes piano, synthesizer, Clavinet, theremin, programming, recording
 * Ryosuke Nagaoka – electric guitar, background vocals, background vocals arrangement
 * Tadataka Unno – "Two Voice", synthesizer
 * Rie Kugimiya (as Book Boy) – background vocals
 * Hiro Shimono (as Ittan-momen) – background vocals
 * Tomokazu Sugita (as Yamabiko) – background vocals
 * Shojiro Watanabe – recording, mixing
 * Shu Saida – recording
 * Takahiro Uchida – mastering
 * Satoshi Goto – assistance
 * Hiroshi Manabe – assistance