To be honest, while Number Girl were a great band, I don't think they were very original. The way I see it what they did was to take what was happening in 90s indie rock in the UK and US and bring it to Japanese kids... every time I listen to them I keep thinking "I've heard this part before". So Mukai is good at "reusing" melodies to write new songs... The importance of NG and Ling Tosite Sigure was not originating, but in bringing to Japanese kids the cutting edge of indie rock, thus inspiring a new generation of young bands, who built on top of that (while in the West, indie rock bands have been recycling what happened in the 90s).