Header Menu

Saturday, September 9, 2017

Song of the Week! ⑨ September 2017


... okay, you got me.

For what concerns our short-term song schedule for our Saturday features, I know that the Touhou Project lore has been invading these lines quite a lot recently, but there's one more song we need to talk about on this very day...

...I mean, it's not like September 9th is falling on a Saturday again anytime soon, right?!?

 Cirno's Perfect Math Class ⑨ Anniversary Edition (チルノのパーフェクトさんすう教室 ⑨周年バージョン) Touhou Project Arrange - IOSYS and Funny ⑨ Anniversary Friends
Version
Allx3 (128)x4 (229)x5 (350)x9 (751)
 Taiko 0 Y
 1~350
 none
 ???


If you try ask to any random Touhou fan about what day is today, chances are that he/she will answer with 'Cirno Day', due to the '⑨. Idiot' running gag that is going wild since the distribution of the competitive danmaku game Phantasmagoria of Flower View and its manual. Today also marks the official release of this song's official PV animation on Youtube by IOSYS, so why don't we take a closer look at its foundation, while we're at it? (if you see a different upload date though, remember that timezones are still a thing...)

This 9th anniversary version of Cirno's Perfect Math Class is here to commemorate, again, this meme-y occurrence, while also celebrating almost a decade since the creation of the original song, back in 2006. For this choice occasion, more doujin talents have gathered together to bring an alternate set of vocals to life with a more expansive cast to support miko's Cirno voice portrayal: Beat Mario (from COOL&CREATE), senya (from Yuuhei Satellite), Koshida Rute Takahito & Aki (from A-One), Ranko (from Butaotome) and annyyy (from TaNaBaTa).

All doujin groups that are included in the subtitle-dubbed 'Funny ⑨ Anniversary Friends' unit already have their own 'solo unit' songs in Taiko for us to be more extensively talked about under these lines... except for one of 'em, of which we're briefly talking about right here! Founded on August 12th, 2008, the TaNaBaTa doujin unit is specialized on rock-styled Touhou Project arrangements, with the nick-named annyyy (あにー; Twitter) being the sole member of the act and performing as a guitarist/vocalist/synth player for his songs. The act is named after the eponymous Japanese Star Festival celebrations that are occurring on July 7th every year; for the same reason, TaNaBaTa is also used to this point to host a yearly concert on the same date as well. Some of annyyy's former works can also be found in rhythm gaming alongside some collaboration-related pieces that were made specifically for rhythm gaming, including console jubeat games' Hollow Dance (ホロウダンス), CHUNITHM's Lylysia (リリーシア) and Groove Coaster's beyond the star line.

Back to the collaboration song, the ⑨ Anniversary Edition was first made playable during this year's edition of the Hakurei Shrine Reitasai convention back in May, where it was also possible to play it with some special custom note markers replacing the regular Don/Kat faces, a first in official arcade Taiko gaming! As referenced by our previous tweet-based reportage of the event (link), the faces of Reimu Hakurei and Cirno were replacing the Taiko siblings for this choice occasion. Alongside the now-live public outing for the Taiko no Tatsujin series, the song was also announced to be released on a number of other music game series later this year, including Synchronica, Groove Coaster, maimai, CHUNITHM and SOUND VOLTEX.

As expected from the alternate version of a song featuring a different lyrics set, the average-speed rhythms are interpreted for Taiko chart means with almost the same cluster-mapping approach. That, however, didn't stop its charter to add some unique flairs to the song, such as its average BPM value being doubled for almost the entire song and the scrolling speed being halved to give out a similar impression to its actual tempo a-la FLOWER, topped off with an almost-complete speed zero-ing at the very end!

  Cirno's Perfect Math Class ⑨ Anniversary Edition (チルノのパーフェクトさんすう教室 ⑨周年バージョン) Touhou Project Arrange - IOSYS and Funny ⑨ Anniversary Friends
Version
All---x10 (909)
 Taiko 0 Y
 1~350
 none
 ???


Indeed, this is another once-limited track that grew out an extra difficulty layer for its public debut! Once again, a similar stamina-draining approach to the original Cirno's Perfect Math Class Ura charts has been taken for this mode (up to inheriting entire note-to-note stanza formations!), but some surprises are sprinkled in along the way like for its regular Oni counterpart, such as the already-discussed perceived-speed tinkering and an unbreakable 909-hit hit-balloon that is placed right before the very last Go-Go Time section's beginning.

Top it off with a 909 max notecount and the memes are preserved twice in this extra chart!