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Saturday, April 18, 2015

Song of the Week! 18 April 2015


With a new Taiko game revealed a few days ago, let's get towards the end of this week with a song feature from the latest Sony-released Taiko game!

I know this is kind of a predictable choice but hey, the new PS Vita game's reveal demands so.

 No buts! Toaru Majutsu no Index II
Version
Allx3 (118)x3 (147)x4 (232)x7 (466)
 Taiko PSP DX
 183
 none
 nobuts


We had a lot of song features coming from the third and final Taiko videogame for the Playstation Portable in the past, but very few of these were Anime tunes. Why, you ask? Portable DX had only 4 Anime songs sans DLC, with only 2 of these making their debut with said game! One of the two is exclusive to Taiko DX and also the song on our spotlight today, since another song from the same Anime universe is approaching fast on the PS Vita title. No buts! (with only one 't') is the first theme song from the second season of the Anime adaptation of the light novel series Toaru Majutsu no Index (とある魔術の禁書目録; lit. 'A Certain Magical Index'), written by Kazuma Kamachi (鎌池和馬) and illustrated by Kiyotaka Haimura (灰村キヨタカ).

In the series' original run, between 2004 and 2010, 24 volumes have been written to narrate the stories in a fictional world where supernatural powers are a concrete reality. These powers are either inherited from birth by selected individuals that use science to re-awaken them or learned from scratch by mastering the use of magic and mystical artifacts, dividing the talented people in two factions Espers and Magicianswho endlessly struggle for ages in order to establish which institution shall rule the world between science and religion. Toaru Majitsu no Index's plot revolves around the life of Academy City student Toma Kamijo, an everyday boy with the ability to negate any superpower (at the price of negating his own luck), as he draws near the secrets between the science and magic-based factions of the world after a fateful encounter with the mysterious nun Index.

During and after Toaru Majutsu no Index's original run, the light novel series got warm receptions from both critic and public, ultimately becoming the fifth best-selling series for the genre and outranking other light novel staples like Full Metal Panic! and the Haruhi Suzumiya series. The series was later re-adapted and expanded in two (still running) manga series, a 2 season Anime show from 2008 to 2011, the 2013 movie Endyumion no Kiseki and two videogames on the Nintendo DS and PSP portable systems. Aside from a light novel continuation of the main Toaru Majutsu no Index series (the 'New Testament' saga) which is still running since 2013, two increasingly-popular spin-off manga series were released under the names of Toaru Kagaku no Railgun (lit. A Certain Scientific Railgun) and Toaru Kagaku no Accelerator (lit. 'A Certain Scientific Accelerator'), more focused on the Espers' world.

For both seasons of the Toaru Majutsu no Index animated series, the Japanese pop singer Mami Kawada (川田まみ) from anime/eroge games soundtracks act I've Sound was in charge of the creation of the show's four opening themes, with No buts! being the third of these themes (and fifth song made by Mami Kawada for the show). Tomoyuki Nakazawa (中沢伴行) is behind the song's composition and arrangement, together with Takeshi Ozaki (尾崎武士)

Being one of the last 7* Oni Anime songs, this one exploits the high base BPM value for a stamina-focused challenge, with some drumrolls and mono-color clusters along the way.