Bad Apple!! feat. Nomico

The song traces back to "Bad Apple!!," a melody ZUN wrote as the stage 3 field theme of the classic Touhou Gensoukyou (Lotus Land Story, 1998). The doujin circle Alstroemeria Records reworked it into electropop: Masayoshi Minoshima handled the arrangement, Haruka wrote the lyrics, and nomico provided the vocals. This version first appeared on the album Lovelight, released on May 20, 2007 at Reitaisai 4, with a runtime of about five minutes and seventeen seconds. The title plays on the English proverb about one bad apple spoiling the barrel, an idea the lyrics carry into a wistful, almost existential mood.

What turned the song into a legend was a black-and-white silhouette PV uploaded to Niconico on October 27, 2009. It grew into the single most-viewed video in the platform's history, topping the annual ranking two years running and becoming the first to pass 10 million plays; it later cleared 20 and then 30 million. Its one-bit aesthetic fueled the running joke that "if it has a display, you can play Bad Apple on it," and the clip has been recreated on countless pieces of hardware and software. ZUN himself reportedly did not watch it until 2013.

Bad Apple!! joined the series in the PHOENIX era. Its appeal lies not in a single boss song but in a wide ladder of levels that serves nearly every kind of player: the Single charts span S1 through S19, with stops at S5, S9, S13, S15, and S17, alongside Double charts (D11, D18, D20), a Co-op chart, and introductory Basic options. That breadth makes the track a friendly entry point for newcomers while still offering a solid challenge as players climb in difficulty.