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Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Behind the Drums: Atsuhito Oosawa @ Oosawa/atsu

osawa@ランク177

In activity for the Taiko Team since April 2011, Atsuhito Oosawa (大澤淳人) has mainly been involved in the visual department of the 3rd-generation arcade department, from the physical cardboard decorations of the many arcade firmwares to the menu interfaces between song selection folders and the sub-modes. He's also made a name for himself by being one of the key figures behind the coordination aspects of Taiko no Tatsujin collaborations with other companies/games; as such, his notecharting activity (stated by Oosawa himself to be one song per month) often revolves around said collaborative efforts.

Other roles filled by this Taiko Team member include the direction and supervision of some of the portable entries for the series, with his directing role for Don to Katsu no Jikuu Daibouken leaning to the General Asia spectrum of series promotion; Oosawa, in fact, has been featured in one of Nintendo of Korea's advertisement videos, promoting the Korean port of said Taiko game (link)! He's mostly known among the Taiko Team members under a different way to spell his surname (オオサワ), but he's more often publicly referred to with the romanized atsu spelling.

Saturday, February 25, 2017

Song of the Week! 25 February 2017


*checks calendar* Yup, we should be on point if we keep this up. Onwards, readers, with our Yellow ver. prelude of "Road to Song Genres", part three! So what are we whipping up for the next two versions in line: Kimidori and Murasaki?

Friday, February 24, 2017

[RANDOM] - Only-for-the-latest-firmware, Yellow Version Edition


Today's topic focuses on one of the less-documented aspects from official sources spread by Bandai Namco over the Internet about the transition to a new Taiko no Tatsujin firmware for the ongoing HD arcade line.

By this point, we are already used to hear about song removals that are affecting all the involved Taiko updates, as this is the only course of action that is promptly addressed by the Taiko Team online through blog updates or other Internet means of communication (for the latest round of removals, click here). There is, however, another batch of songs that gets deleted from all the previously-released HD firmware versions of the current arcade line, meaning that the only way to play those tracks in a game center is to find the most recent Taiko arcade version. While this underground song removal is often speculated to be a way to push vendors into the next firmware release (as some of the most recent/popular songs usually get involved on this course of action), to find data for this aspect is often a daunting task, as it usually comes out only from in-store notices from the arcade rooms that are not updating to the next firmware (or eventually delaying its release).

After the jump is the list of formerly-released tracks that will only be playable in the latest Taiko firmware after the launch of the next version, updated to the upcoming Yellow Version release. Credit to the users of Japanese Taiko wiki wikihouse for the find!

Thursday, February 23, 2017

Namco Taiko Blog (23 February 2017) - March 2017's Taiko Team Livestream, the Schedule

太鼓チーム公式生放送

A new arcade version is upon us, and with that is also a new livestream session with the Taiko Team talking about all you need to know about its Day 1 schedule! The full schedule of the broadcast awaits after the jump.

3DS3 Update: Zap Goes the Donders: March 3DS3 DLC


In which we stop pandering to the normies crowd with a selection celebrating the core Taiko no Tatsujin fans. Coming March 2.

DLC: March Free Download
 Extreme MGG★★★  (+ Ura)(~2017/04/05)
   「ミュージックガンガン!2」よりMusic GunGun! 2

DLC: Donder Pack 1 (500 yen +tax)
 Surf Zapping NEW!
   t+pazolite / 「シンクロニカ」より Synchronica
ミュージック・リボルバー Music Revolver (+ Ura)
   「ミュージックガンガン!2」よりMusic GunGun! 2
てんびん座急行 夜を行く Tenbinza Kyuukou Yoru o Iku Console debut
ヌムジカac.10 Numujika ac.10 
Princess of Donder Console debut
   MOES feat.海保えりか Erika Kaiho

Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Diver Lyrics



Composition, Arrangement, Lyrics: Kawagen
Vocal: Kako Kurose (黒瀬佳子)

Japanese lyrics sourced from Namco Taiko Blog dated June 9 2016

Tuesday, February 21, 2017

Twitter Snippets (21 February 2017) - Happy 16th Taiko Anniversary!


We come back to the Twitter spectrum of posts as Takemoto is here to celebrate the 16th birthday of the franchise! February 21st has been the release day of the very first arcade, so Takemoto's celebratory message is coupled with selected Taiko Team members like Etou and Sasaoka attaching both celebratory messages and drawings to the tweet.

Here's to 16 more years of drumming goodness!

Twitter Snippets (21 February 2017) - 3rd Taiko x iM@S Cinderella Girls, the Aftermath Content


The final round of announcements for the latest Taiko x Cinderella Girls collaboration event, ironically enough, is about a slew of Taiko-related content that is about to approach the Cinderella Girls mobile game once that the event itself has ended!

The first of these after-collab additions is the possibility to purchase a Taiko cabinet which plays Angel Dream every time that is being activated.


The two leftover elements are introduced in a subsequent tweet, with the first of these being the inclusion of a promo card of LiPPS idol Mika Jougasaki, featuring the same illustration of the collaboration art that was launched with the related website. Last but not least, the Cinderella Girls app will receive a permanent minigame that goes under the title of "Dondoko Paradise", which -judging by the 'Presented by Taiko no Tatsujin' label- is most likely to be a Taiko-themed rhythm minigame.

Both the collaboration website and the one of the Cinderella Girl app will be updated with these elements in the next few days.

Monday, February 20, 2017

Taiko Plus/STH: Early February GTH Additions


We're here once again to tell you that yes, we missed yet another timely coverage of newly-added Gakkyoku Tori Houdai songs for the Taiko + games and yes, we would like a more straightforward method from the Team for us to get informed better and in advance...

Gakkyoku Tori Houdai Adds: February 1

 Zen Zen Zense (前前前世)
 Ajia no Junshin (アジアの純真)
 EXCITE
 Flight of the Bumblebee (熊蜂の飛行)
 Asagao (アサガオ)

Namco Taiko Blog (20 February 2017) - Pre-Update Donder Hiroba Features Discontinuations


As usual for every pre-firmware update, some of the Donder Hiroba services are going to be temporarily suspended until the new firmware is fully operative. For Yellow Version's preparation, players won't be able to either create or accept tournament challenges or friend requests from February 24th.

Link to original post

Sunday, February 19, 2017

Behind the Drums: Suga Shodai @ Kan

カーン

Born December 23, 1988, Suga Shodai (菅翔大) is a notecharter that has been in activity since the release of the final Wii game (Chogouka-ban), under the nickname of Kan (カーン). His charting motto is "to spread the goodness of technical notation", as it's a recurring trend to spot multiple time signatures for the cluster featured in his charts. Due to him being hired nearly at the same time as rookie notecharter Nocchi, it's not too uncommon to see the two collaborating for the creation of many chart sets.

Outside from the charting roles, his role in the Team has filled many shoes from time to time, from attending to key points in the arcade Taiko tourneys to deciding the course content/clear criteria for the arcades' Dojo Ranking mode (from Momoiro Version onward). It's been reported that his job actually keeps him working in a department that is different from the one where most of the Taiko Team members usually work in, but further details are still unknown for the time being.

Behind the Drums: Nocchi

*image pending*

Hired during the making of the final Wii game, the nick-named Nocchi (のっち) is mainly involved in the development and maintenance/update of the smartphone Taiko titles, while collaborating with Taiko Team member Kan for the creation of notecharts from time to time.

As the Notecharter Interview feature from the Taiko Team for this notecharter has been made early in his experience at the job, nothing much else is known about this member outside from the 8 songs he charted before said interview.

Saturday, February 18, 2017

Song of the Week! 18 February 2017


Our second "Road to Song Genres" towards Yellow Version's launch day is here! Have another couple of representatives for the genre colors who first got their Japanese-worded Taiko firmware.

Thursday, February 16, 2017

Namco Taiko Blog (16 February 2017) - The Blog Update Rush Menace


Here we are, served with a triple dose of blog updates from the Team in a single day yet again! Let it be known, however, that some of the newly-communicated content is less merrier than the rest...

Tuesday, February 14, 2017

Twitter Snippets (14 February 2017) - 3rd Taiko x iM@S Cinderella Girls Collab, the Final Messages


Valentine's Day is here and -as advertised in the past livestream- the announcement concerning the latest iDOLM@STER collaboration was revealed! It turns out that there will be another round of promotional videos with the LiPPS idols' dubbers coming back for a final round of messages, with one Twitter-exclusive video for today (the one linked in this post) and three more coming next Tuesday.

Much like for the previous promo videos on the campaign's website, these Twitter-exclusive clips will be removed once that the event is over (after February 28th).

Monday, February 13, 2017

Audio de Ka! Lyrics



Composers:
   Yoshihito Yano (矢野義人): Audio Deka main theme
   Junichi Nakatsuru (中鶴潤一): ad lib solo, arpeggio
   Kouji Nakagawa (中川浩二): idol song B melody
   Takafumi Sato (佐藤たかふみ): idol song B melody
Vocals:
   Hiroto Fushimi (伏見洋人) as Audie (オーディー)
   Yuuji Masubuchi (増渕裕二) as Professor Marvy (マーヴィー教授)
   ??? as Nady (ナディ) / Nody (ノディ)
   ??? as G-CHILD
   ??? as Captain Nakaney (ナカネィ大尉)

Saturday, February 11, 2017

Song of the Week! 11 February 2017


The time has come, folks! Now that we are finally aware of Yellow Version's release day, I have now the opportunity to set up a family of features I've been recently planning to post.

It's nothing that grandiose, mind you, bus as we're finally closing the color spectrum of modern arcade firmware builds for the Taiko no Tatsujin with each song genre having its color-inspired arcade version, we're building up to Yellow Version's launch with weekly song features of all genres, all aligning to the HD arcades' firmware succession.

Today we're starting with the representatives of the base firmware version and its first follow-up, Codename Katsu-Don. However, as the base set doesn't actually have a color-oriented theme just like its version successors (plus we're having the Red one still up and running to this date!), our first pick is about something a little bit different...

First Video: The Eight-fold Tokaigi Surprise


8OROCHI (read: Yamata no Orochi) REDALiCE (957? notes on ★10 Oni)
Like VICTORIA to WCS2016, the third Tenkaichi Otogesai closed with an exclusive tune at the finals (unlike VICTORIA though it was not Full-Comboed on the spot). And if KUSANAGI is part of the God Collection, why won't the monster than birthed it be too?

Other pick-ups from JAEPO and Tokaigi:
  • Now that Tenkaichi Otogesai 3 is done, DokuLO Candy♡ and Masakari Blade will be made available to all Taiko no Tatsujin Red ver. cabinets tomorrow (2017/02/12). [Japan] [Asia] (Did you know? Masakari Blade is inspired by the Kintaro myth and would be likely in the God Collection like 8OROCHI too, had it not been imported from SDVX)
  • According to Donder Hiroba, song removals at Yellow ver. release (2017/03/15):
    Family Party / Kenka Joutou / Amachan Opening Theme / Flower Song / Kaze ga Fuiteiru / Polyrhythm / TRAIN-TRAIN / S / Telecastic fake show / Ichido Dake no Koi Nara / Feed A / Wake up! / Anpanman Taisou / DoReMiFa Sorairo / Zutto Zutto Tomodachi / Wonderland / Mozaik Role / Tell Your World / Funa Funa Funassyi / Pokemon Black 2/White 2
  • Textual report: Calamari Inkantation (432 notes on ★7 Oni [x])

Friday, February 10, 2017

Twitter Snippets (10 February 2017) - Yellow Version's Release Date


While not worthy of a dedicated blog entry (for the time being), the Taiko Team has decided to unveil the launch date of the next arcade firmware, at long last! Yellow Version will be operative from March 15th, featuring both last livestream's unveiled songs and some still-unknown tracks.

As per tradition, a livestream session set to the day before its launch is also in the air! Outside from the broadcast's starting times -6 pm for the test portion/7 pm for the real run- we'll have to wait for a future blog entry in order to know its full schedule.

Sonority Scouts - Eastern Music Sharing



It's another Sonority Scouts feature where you're going to hear the same song multiple times, as 2016's 6-doujin Touhou arrange collaboration has just reached all the promised gaming series! Here's how Senshaku Zesshou no Fantasia is translated into other music game series so far.

Thursday, February 9, 2017

Namco Taiko Blog (9 February 2017) - February 2nd Livestream Recap

太鼓の達人 ハウステンボスカップ サイン色紙

We already did our own take of the latest livestream recap (see here!), so we'll only be leaving here the newly-revealed bits about some of the teasers that were left during the broadcast:
  • The Cinderella Girls-related secret announcement concerning the third Taiko collaboration will be made around Valentine's Day (February 14th);
  • There will be a pre-launch livestream on March to be airing the day before Yellow Version's debut, starring (among other things) the rewards that are carried over from Red Version's Dojo Ranking. Said DR round's final results will be instead published on a later date;
  • Each of the autographed award plates for the May Huis Ten Bosch Taiko tournament will have a custom drawing at the top (better resolution here), made by modern arcade firmwares's producer Nakajima P (中島P)... Yes, THAT Nakajima P.
Link to original post

Wednesday, February 8, 2017

Twitter Snippets (3 February 2017) - Red Version Dojo Ranking's Latest Clear Status Breakout


As expected, the Taiko Team has been eager to post higher-resolution versions of the current data about the latest Dojo Ranking round, but for once it's in tweet form rather than in a proper blog update!

The following data is updated up to January 26th, 2017 and -for the time being- this analysis only includes the data concerning the main Dojo Ranking trials (=no Gaiden data).

Monday, February 6, 2017

Behind the Drums: Kaneko Chiharu


かねこちはる❄️

The nick-named Kaneko Chiharu is a freelance music composer/singer who managed to score musical popularity through a series of winning creations for many song-making contests from both Bandai Namco and Konami's bemani division. She was formerly known by the Chiharu ver.9.1.7 (ちはる ver.9.1.7) nickname before adopting the current one.

In out-of-the music games field talk, Kaneko Chiharu has been commissioned the creation of the 8th opening theme for the Anime show Cardfight!! Vanguard (カードファイト!! ヴァンガード). His history of eccentric social media posting aside, nothing else is publicly known about Kaneko himself, outside from his song-making portfolio.

Behind the Drums: Gai Shinoda @ Harunaba



Coming from Yokohama, Japan, Harunaba is an independent musician whose career was built upon his high school experiences as part of a band of hard rock and metal music. While being the owner of his own doujin music circle (Harunaba_Home), he's often involved in other music circles from time to time, such as t+pazolite's C.H.S. Outside from his real name -which is Gai Shinoda (篠田凱)- and his birth day of January 18th, nothing else is known about his experiences before the independent music-making occupation.

Harunaba's popularity in the general Japanese music games grounds was sprung by a series of song-making contests that he managed to succeed on; while Taiko no Tastsujin players began to hear about the artist from his CreoFUGA song-winning contests for then being charged of actual commissioned songs for the series, a similar-but-bigger situation has occurred for his songs in contests made for bemani games, claiming some of his early winning tracks for the pop'n music and SOUND VOLTEX series to be the perfect representation of his music-composing style between rock and fantasy elements. Harunaba is also renowned on social media for being a huge fan of Konami's HinaBitter♪ project.

Sunday, February 5, 2017

Little Red Biting Drum (2/2/17)


At last, here's our usual image-based report about the first Taiko Team livestream session of 2017! Despite its shorter length, it still holds the same magnitude of news delivery and zaniness from the hosts, so venture after the jump in order to have a better taste of it.

Saturday, February 4, 2017

Song of the Week! 4 February 2014


For the coming weeks worth of Saturday features, we were hoping for a certain information about Yellow Version to be announced in the latest Taiko Team broadcast, but due to said detail not being revealed yet, I'm forced to delay this set of features for the time being...

So, for our quick replacement... Another big worldwide mobile gaming release has taken place a few days ago, right? Let's pick a track who gained huge smartphone popularity, then.

Friday, February 3, 2017

Namco Taiko Blog (February 3 2017): Livestream Recap, JAEPO 2017 Edition

スライド2

As revealed yesterday on the livestream, the details of Taiko no Tatsujin Yellow ver. attending JAEPO 2017 next week are textually and pictorially summarized by Daifuku today.

Before all, hopefully you remember that the dates of the event (February 10-12 2017, and the 10th is business-only day) and the location (Makuhari Messe Convention Center). Most crucial of all is that the Yellow ver. cabinets are at the Bandai Namco Entertainment booth in JAEPO 2017 and not the one at Tokaigi next door!

With the basics covered, we'll meet after the jump for the actual things you can do with the exhibiting cabinets and more.

[RANDOM] - Prime-time TeleTaiko... For Reals


While we're making the usual image-based recap of the latest livestream, here's a little something that we fished out from the Web about a Japanese series that is somehow related to yesterday's Taiko Team broadcast... believe it or not!

The months-old tweet above this writing comes from the account that was made to promote the Japanese Fantasy/Comedy series Yūsha Yoshihiko to Maō no Shiro (勇者ヨシヒコと魔王の城, lit. "The Hero Yoshihiko and the Demon King's Castle"), airing on TV Tokyo since 2011 and counting 3 seasons as of today. In one of the latest one's episodes, an assembly of characters faces in the woods the most fierce of cave protectors... a Don-Chan figure. The shenanigans following the discovery are something unique, so watch the clip above for yourself as we sure don't want to spoil the fun!

That said, how is this clip related to yesterday's livestream run? You just wait and see...

Thursday, February 2, 2017

Across Japan: Dawning on the Tulip-laden Fields: February Facebook Tournament

Looking at the imminent Yellow ver. hype in the Japan front, this Facebook tournament may be the last for Asia's Red ver., but that is no reason not to work hard for this circuit to the fullest!

Facebook Tournament: February 4~12 2017
曙光 ~Dawn~ Shokou ~Dawn~ (Regular Oni ★7)
Tulip (Muzukashii ★5)
   「アイドルマスター シンデレラガールズ」より The Idolm@ster Cinderella Girls

Link to original post

Quick Takeaways: February 2nd, 2017 Livestream

This post might be removed when the full coverage is ready. Meanwhile, feel free to contribute screenshots and information to help out!

AC0 Red ver.
  • 3rd iDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls collaboration teasing new content
  • Red Version Dojo Ranking stats

AC0 Yellow ver.
  • First newcomer song reveal, all available at launch day:
前前前世 Zen Zen Zense Arcade debut
   映画「君の名は。」より Your Name. 
全力バタンキュー Zenryoku Batankyu NEW!
   「おそ松さん」より Mr. Osomatsu
シオカラ節 Shiokara-bushi NEW!
   「スプラトゥーン」より Splatoon
Ratings - 4/6/6/7
竜と黒炎の姫君 Ryuu to Kokuen no Himegimi Arcade debut
   AJURIKA
   坂本英三 × 高濱祐輔 Eizo Sakamoto × Yuusuke Takahama
Ratings - 5/7/8/10
さよならワーリャ Sayonara Varya NEW!
   未来古代楽団 feat. 霜月はるか Mirai Kodai Gakudan feat. Haruka Shimotsuki
Ratings - 4/5/7/9
  • Splatoon-themed outfit to be unlockable by Banapassport players by playing Shiokara-bushi.
  • Rewards Shop revamp description; the first rotation (Spring) is up to include two head and two body Kigurumi outfit parts (500 Don Medals each), together with the 5 new Namco Originals described above (1500 Don Medals for Ryuu to Kokuen no Himegimi and UNDEAD HEART (Ikari no Warriors), 100 Don Medals the others).
Taiko @ JAEPO 2017
Future Talk / Others
  • Taiko no Tatsujin LINE stickers reminder (coming with sounds!)
  • Huis Ten Bosch's Taiko 3D Projection ride to have new content and a tournament in May
  • Niconico Chokaigi 2017 to feature new Taiko x Touhou Project merchandise; 4 phone strap designs revealed

First Video: Inscrutable Battle (Bumped: Donko Ura 2P)


Remember when we put NEW? for Inscrutable Battle in our February 3DS3 DLC post? We were just reserving the possibility that this is a newly resampled tune, perhaps resulting in one similar to the 2-minute like in pop'n music.

But no, the Variety pick for the new 3DS3 DLC pack is just further cutting down on Daikaizou! Gekiteki Before/After Medley by simply removing the "TAKUMI" part, down to 48 seconds in play length. That is already after Wii5 having a shorter version of the medley since AC13.

Although currently reigning for the lowest notecount for ☆9s over Grip!, this incarnation actually has the highest average note density among the three.

Bumped Addendum (2017/02/02): Picking up from the First Video post earlier this week, Donko's First Date Ura Oni also has a 715/715-note 2P notechart in its official release outside of Ranking Dojo. The difference happens at the two chorus parts where the two players' parts split, and while there are added balloons and drumrolls to thin out the notecount, the peak complexity also increases at certain points, including kkdkkkd and the final large don at 6 times scroll speed.

Namco Taiko Blog (2 February 2016) - Another Day With the Taiko Team

写真※太鼓チームの1日

Right before today's Taiko Team live is the return of the picture-based feature that premiered last year! Apparently the Team managed to drag Daifuku once again to write about the going-ons of today's topic, too.