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Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Variety Showcase: Piramekino Songs

Now here's a Japanese variety show not many people will have heard of. Piramekino is a kids' show, aired on TV Tokyo. The show hosts, Hanya (はんにゃ) and Fruit Punch (フルーツポンチ) are from the General Performing Arts School of Yoshimoto. Think of this as Sesame Street for Japan and you can see the resemblance. Its target audience is also roughly the same as well. The wide success of Piramekino among Japanese kids since made the program quite popular still nowadays, with a 2nd broadcasting season and several TV specials grouped into Piramekino [G] (where G is for Gold).

In the Taiko songs you'll probably have noticed a few weird cartoon characters from the Piramekino cast, the one standing out being the red and blue-dotted panda with the lightbulb on its head. The characters are used in the anime shorts of the show to tell their stories. The panda is appropriately named the Pirameki Panda, and is one of the main mascots of the show.

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-Piramekino series-




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 Pirameki Taisou Taiko no Tatsujin Version (ピラメキたいそう 太鼓の達人バージョン)
Version
Allx3 (88)x4 (130)x5 (244,233)x7 (362,354)
 Taiko 13, 14
 119~120
 none
 pirame


This song first appeared on Taiko 13 seven months after Piramekino first aired. Pirameki Taisou starts with an averagely difficult sequence of note clusters, changing between red and blue fairly often (but with no unpredictable handswitch), and nearly follows the singing voice word for word. There's a long drumroll following a pause in the middle of the song, and at a little over 9 seconds long, is the longest drumroll in any Taiko song ever made. It is actually possible to hit this drumroll at least 300 times, or more! Before, within and after this drumroll, the singer talks to himself, justifying the need for hitting the drumroll as much as possible through the lyrics, apparently to help him gain courage.

After the drumroll the chart splits into either Master or Normal notes (there is no Advanced notes) based on how much you hit the drumroll. Generally you'd need at least 115 hits to get into Master. This long drumroll is also on the lower difficulties.

Pirameki Taisou was sung on the Piramekino TV show in the episode 'Battle of the Inhumane Toy' (仁義なきおもちゃの戦い), an episode aired in 4 January 2010. It is not known who sung the song exactly, and rumored to be Hanya and Fruit Punch, but not confirmed.

 Onara Hazukashikunai Yo (Onaraはずかしくないよ)
Version
Allx2 (64)x4 (108)x5 (220)x7 (439)
 Taiko 14
 173
 none
 onara


First performed in October 2nd, 2010 by Onna Lovely (オンナラブリー), Onara Hazuka Shikunai Yo is one of the intro themes of the show. The rhythm is catchy and the BPM quick for a 7* Oni, with regular and simple beat patterns, but the highlight of the chart is at the very beginning. A very long Yam note is present at the very beginning on all difficulties, and on Oni it requires 99 hits to finish, in 11 seconds. Not very hard, but very striking. 'Onara' means 'fart', meaning compulsory use of a yam note somewhere in the song, as it is always said that eating Japanese sweet potatoes will make you fart. A lot.

 Pirameki Taisou: Taiko de Metabo Yattsukero! no Maki (ピラメキたいそう 太鼓でメタボやっつけろ!の巻)
Version
Allx3 (88)x4 (130) x5 (244,233)x8 (362,354)
 Taiko Wii 3
 119~120
 none
 piram2


Don't be fooled by the different title (which is Pirameki Taisou- Improve your Metabolism with Taiko!), this is the EXACT same song as the first Pirameki Taisou on Taiko 13 with the exact same notes for both Master and Normal. Strangely however, even with the identical notechart, the Wii 3 version is 8*, one more than in the arcade.

The difference? The custom dancers, which feature the Pirameki Panda with the Taiko cast, and a few others on the front. And, the monologue at the long drumroll is also completely different. Instead of 'drumming up courage', you're hitting the drumroll to 'work up a sweat' and improve your metabolism instead. At the end of the drumroll, the singer will say that you've lost 10 kilograms of weight.

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