Baka Mitai began as a karaoke song in Sega's Yakuza series, where different protagonists perform it in bars between story missions. The Dame Da Ne chorus later broke out on TikTok and YouTube, where creators paired its earnest, sorrowful delivery with unrelated clips, turning a sincere in-game performance into a widely recognised meme format. Akiyama's version stands out for its smoother, more polished vocal style compared with Kiryu's rougher take, and it continues to circulate in edits that lean into both genuine emotion and deadpan humour.
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Shun Akiyama's karaoke version of Baka Mitai from the Yakuza games, featuring the viral Dame Da Ne hook, used in emotional, dramatic and ironic meme videos.
This 29-second clip captures Shun Akiyama singing Baka Mitai, the melancholic karaoke ballad from the Yakuza series, in a smooth, earnest vocal performance backed by gentle piano and soft pop instrumentation. It opens on the instantly recognisable Dame Da Ne refrain, delivered with a wistful, almost resigned tone that makes the sadness feel sincere rather than played for laughs. As the melody swells, the performance feels both dramatic and oddly comforting, which is why it lands so well over slow-motion fails, bittersweet goodbyes and ironic montages where the emotion is real even when the situation is not.
