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Saturday, July 19, 2014

Song of the Week! 19 July 2014


In a rather unusual trend, the introduction on newer Namco Original songs for the arcades heavilly gravitates around female singers. Today we're featuring two of these Day 1 female-inspired songs!

 Tokyo Tokkyo Kyo Kyokakyoku Kyokucho!! (東京特許キョ許可局局長!!)
Version
Allx3 (181)x4 (271)x6 (653)x8 (840)
 Taiko 0 M, Taiko Wii U, CD March 2014
 165
 none
 tokkyo


Momoiro Version's debut saw the return of two composers from a previous CreoFUGA contest, whose new songs were made playable for everyone since the firmware was launched. This is the luckier of the two compositions, as it got featured in both a console game and a Bandai Namco-licensed soundtrack CD!

The title is a real tongue-twister (translatable as 'Tokyo Patent-ent Grant Bureau Chief!!') and is the second contribution to Taiko by composer MOES, whose real name is Takuya Nishiyama (西山拓哉), as the March '14 mini-album reports. As the name implies, it's about the random ramblings of the Grand Bureau Chief of the Tokyo Patenting Agency, going through a breakdown about his routine-based, yet frenzied job.

The song was performed by six people, featuring Namiko Hatakeyama (畠山 奈美子) as the lyricist and Erika Kaiho (海保えりか) as the singer. The singer is a well-known voice actress, most notably for being the voice of Aoi Hinomoto in nearly all visual novel/anime entries for the Da Capo III (〜ダ・カーポ III〜 ) series, save for the X-Rated productions.

Composer/charter Kawagen Collagen is the notecharter for Tokyo Tokkyo Kyo Kyokakyoku Kyokucho. The chart highlights how much Taiko's difficulty has progressed since a few years ago, as in this 8* is a series of complex patterns and a rhythm that is initially tough to follow especially in the chorus, which has many notes placed in backbeats. It's also quite long, spanning 2 and a half minutes. With the ending being slightly tougher than the rest of the song, focus and concentration is important to achieve an FC here.

 Purupuru Simple (ぷるぷるしんぷる) Her Ghost Friend
Version
Allx4 (155)x5 (220)x6 (390)x8 (652)
 Taiko 0 K, Taiko 3DS 2, CD Girls Pop Mania
 240
 none
 prprs


The title of the song was first seen as a default song on Taiko no Tatsujin: Don to Katsu no Jikuu Daibouken for the Nintendo 3DS, and the title sounds bouncy, like a piece of jelly. The song is every bit as bouncy as the title suggests, and the lyrics every bit as simple as the title suggests; it is made up of many simple Japanese words and phrases like 'up, down, left, right', names of various body parts, emotions and actions. While they make no coherent sense, it's an extremely charming piece of work.

The artist is credited as 'Her Ghost Friend' in the subtitle, and the composer and lyricist is Isobe Yuusuke (磯部祐介). It was one of four songs in the 'Girls Pop Mania' CD, made up of four independent artists each contributing one song. Two of them got their debut in Taiko 3DS2 (the other being 'super star shooter' by blue marble), while the other two (Denshi-Drum no Tatsujin and Caramel Time) joins these two songs in Taiko 0 Kimidori, completing the entire album.

While the song and lyrics are simple, the Oni chart is simple by no means; it scrolls at a very high speed on account of its insane BPM (quite possibly the fastest 8* Oni ever) and is one of the only charts of its kind to not have a single 1/16 cluster, and is instead filled with less dense 1/8s and 1/12s. The tricky bit sets in the ending section of the song, where the 1/8 and 1/12 portions interlace with one another, making this a surprisingly tough 8* to full combo.

Two large Don notes in the beginning also scroll slower in contrast to the fast-scrolling small notes all around them. These notes punctuates a certain, very interesting phrase in the lyrics, and (because the lyrics are so easy) anyone familiar with even a tiny bit of Japanese can pick out what is being sung.